The Premier League season ends on Sunday, and we are off to the Emirates as Arsenal play host to Everton.
Gunners Versus Toffees
After leading the Premier League for so long, Arsenal now have to call on a favour for them to be crowned champions at the end of the 2023/24 season.
Keeping Everything Crossed
With all eyes on the white half of North London just a few days ago, Tuesday’s clash between Tottenham and Manchester City has delivered seismic change in the red half of the capital and with Erling Haaland’s double securing victory in N17, it is now all change at the top of the table.
There was a sense that City were always coming for the Gunners but until they actually surpassed the Emirates outfit, it was Mikel Arteta’s men who were confident in being able to rule the roost at the end of this season’s final Sunday.
Now though, it is the Gunners who have been overpowered in the race for top tier supremacy and with them being two points behind the defending champions and perhaps more importantly, the champions elect, they know that nothing less than a win against Everton will be enough.
Should Arsenal get the better of the Toffees, it will be enough to give them a chance of winning a first Premier League title in 20 years. However, if Manchester City match that outcome at the Etihad, that chance will disappear in an instant.
With that said, there is the slightest glimmer of hope for the team that now sits second in the table. A glimmer that comes with having a better goal difference than the team they are doing their best to overtake at the end of the week.
A draw for City and a win for the likes of Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, would mean Arsenal win the title on goal difference. In a sense, that better goal difference is the equivalent of an extra point, but only if the points of the top two are exactly the same come full time in London and Manchester.
Although Arsenal would have wished for an extra couple of points after their trip to the Etihad recently, it may have ended 0-0 between the two title heavyweights but the visitors that afternoon celebrated it as if it were a win. Maybe, just maybe, Arteta should have gone for the jugular.
No maybes anymore, just the necessity of beating Everton and with Sean Dyche’s men in rather fine fettle of late, they make the long journey north in a mood which will be of relative celebration when you consider their financial woes of the last few months.
Those woes are yet to be truly solved, but Dyche has certainly managed to finally get a tune of this current Everton crop and with 13 points from the last 15 on offer, the Toffees are now starting to hit the high notes just before this season comes to an end.
But now it is time for the first of my two tips and with Arsenal needing a win, even Everton’s form of late will not be enough to get in their way. Not a great deal of value on offer for that outcome but a 1-0 lead at the break does at least offer those who back the hosts odds of 12/5.
In addition to this, I think Arsenal will then go up through the gears after the break and record a 3-0 win to at least answer their part of the title equation. Whether it is enough, who knows? However, odds of 15/2 for a comfortable home win is enough for me and hopefully you as well.
