Can Mikel finally get over the line? Table of Doom update Arsenal Now 70 Max. 88 Manchester City Now 64 Max. 85 Fixtures Arsenal: Man City A Man City: Arsenal H Villa A Aston Villa: Liverpool H Man City A Man Utd: Chelsea A Liverpool H Chelsea: Man Utd H Liverpool A Liverpool: Man Utd A Chelsea H Villa A Even defeat leaves it in our hands And so it is nearly over. Only Arsenal and City can get to 75 points which was my final minimum for being in the Table of Doom. Surely both will get in excess of that? If Arsenal beat City this weekend then the target is 83 which is ten points from five matches meaning 3 wins, a draw and a loss. It would steady the hearts of of us nervous Gooners and yes, the players and the management. A draw means we need 84 points which is 11 from 5 so we need 3 wins and 2 draws again much easier on the heart than if we lose. I won’t bother talking too much about if we lose but we still have a chance with goal difference in that scenario. Can this young kid do it? The main thing is it is still in our hands even if we lose. It just means we have to beat their goalscoring record over the last matches allowing for both sides to win all. City do have a tough looking away match to a Villa side desperate to get Champions League football. Gooners, we are still in a strong position. 3 managers to save them all In my time, 3 managers have won the league for the first time, Bertie Mee, George Graham and Arsene Wenger. Before I go to check, my memory says that all three had late wobbles before finally making us delirious, although I am not so certain about Wenger. So now I will check. Nice double for a bottler Yes, Bertie Mee drew with West Brom, well down the table in the 4th last match and then lost to Leeds who ended up second. That left us home to mid-table Stoke and away to the Spuds who finished 3rd. Because we had finished 11th the previous year we were happy to be up there but deflated that we had thrown it away at the last. The point being that we lost the critical decider against Leeds with 2 matches to go and still won the title. And the double! The bottler Graham George Graham, well I guess even you young un’s know that the decider was played on the last day and we not only had to win but to beat them at least 2-0. Liverpool were the colossus of the day and that seemed like a miracle. To be honest, beating City this weekend would be nowhere near the shock to me that beating Liverpool was that day. In our last fifteen games that season we drew five and lost three. Graham had bottled it. A mere 26 points out of a possible 45. The young manager, whose only previous experience had been at Millwall, was not able for the pressure of winning the league. I don’t remember much Graham out protests but we had finished 6th the year before, a distant 66 points (42 games) to Liverpool’s 90. We were punching above our weight. And the double as we had beaten Manchester United in the final of the once off Centenary Cup to celebrate 100 years of the football league! The Centenary Cup and the miracle against Liverpool - not bad for a bottler! Wenger was useless And Wenger’s miraculous double in 1998? In fairness we had a strong finish but we had a disastrous November and December, including back to back home losses and we were sixth on week 20! Wenger was no improvement on Bruce Rioch and Arsene who? was certainly not getting the love from the fans. Negative media coverage of how useless foreign managers were didn’t help and Alex Ferguson was not bothered by a Frenchman who didn’t understand English football. By week 32 we had, on the back of a great finish, climbed to the top and stayed there. That was the start of the hatred Ferguson had for the uppity Frenchman as Wenger didn’t understand he should have stayed sixth and instead led us to the title, the end of Manchester United’s dominance, and, did I mention the double? Two trophies for bottler Wenger So don’t despair, fellow Gooners. Our last three first timers had a difficult time getting over the line before finding a way to do it. All three scored doubles. Can Mikel do it? If I could give him any advice it would be to stop the micro management from the sidelines and set the players free while on the pitch. Let them play their game and leave the instructions to off pitch. They are too nervous, and that is all that is wrong with them in my opinion. Their ability is not in question just their confidence. The defence went out feeling they could stop anyone, but now? Belief is what they need not constant sniping from the side. This could be the greatest season ever still. C’mon the Arse!