Another Almost Season

 Oh yeah, a sixth straight win, 2-1 over Everton, but City won 9 straight to close us out.  They're so good that they operated without de Bruyne and other important players for a lot of games and still won the league.  Arsenal had injuries this season, but not like last year.  Zinchenko, Partey, Jesus, and Martinelli were out for much of the season, and of course Timber missed the whole thing with an ACL tear.  Saliba played every minute of every game and still looked great out there.  We barely had a game without Odegaard, and we had Saka most of the time.  Rice was ever-present, as were Big Gabi and Ben White.  Havertz was always available.  So we can't say we were hit hard by injury.  We were the third youngest team in the league, so the future looks bright.  

No silverware this season, again.  That will be the goal in 24-25.

Crystal Palace 5 Aston Villa 0

  Six wins and a draw in their last seven games.  Mateta joins Eze and Olise to produce a potent offence.  Palace finishes in the middle of the table, after seemingly being dead in the water after 31 matches.  What a turnaround.  Even Bayern Munich is trying to grab Glasner.  

OTOH, even the 30 points they had after 31 matches would have kept them from relegation.   The bar was very low this year, but who knew it after 31 matches?  

Can Palace hold on to these players and Glasner?  

For the moment, I'm satisfied to end the season on such an upbeat note.  

Juventus Wins Coppa Italia, and Celtic Win the SPL

 I have secondary favorites in other leagues, and two of them won silverware this week.  Congratulations to them.

Tottenham tried to beat City, but they just don't have it in them this year.  Unless West Ham does the unthinkable at the Etihad, the club with 115 violations of financial rules will win again.

MNU 0-1 ARS: Not Pretty, But Good Enough

 On recent form, Arsenal was expected to blow Man U out of Old Trafford, but that's not how it played out.  We were good enough to win, but just barely.  United had a lot of starters out injured and we were healthy, but our offense never got going with the exception of the goal, which Casemiro made possible by walking forward and allowing Havertz to stay onside.  He then turned Jonny Evans inside out and made a great pass to Trossard, who made an excellent run into the box for the finish.  All in all, not a good game, from all accounts.

So it'll go to the last day, whatever happens at the Toilet Bowl between City and Spuds.  Recent results have shaved our goal difference advantage to just three, so City could retain the title after a draw at Spuds if they beat West Ham by three goals more than we beat Everton.  It could happen, you know, and what a finish that would be, with both teams trying as hard as they can to run up the score.

CP 4 MU 0

 Palace is ending this season on an upbeat mode, having played well since the win over Liverpool, which is a hopeful sign for next season.  

ARS 3-0 BOU: Not as Close a Game as the Score Indicates

 Bournemouth is a team in form, and they played well.  It seemed as though their coach Iraola set them up to keep it close in the first half, which they did, but that's risky.  Havertz won a soft penalty late in the half which Saka scored, but it should probably have been 3-0 by then, but for some wayward finishing and last ditch defending.  The Cherries came out swinging in the second half and presented some threat.  (For the game, Arsenal had an expected goals of over 3 and Bournemouth had an xG of about .37.)  Eventually, the Gunners' high press wore the Cherries out and Trossard got a second Arsenal goal off nice work from Rice.  Rice got the last goal deep into stoppage time.  Bournemouth had the ball in the net after our second, but Raya had been pushed out from under a ball he'd have caught otherwise, so it was disallowed.  The refereeing was not great.  Saka's thigh was bloodied by a late studs-first challenge and no card was issued, for instance.  Fouls were given for infractions that at other times were ignored.  We got the big decisions, and I think we were lucky to get both of them.  They seemed close to me.

City did us one better in the goal difference contest, beating Wolves 5-1.  Our GD is now six better than City's.  GD will only come into play if City draw one of their three remaining games (and the rest are won by us and them), so let's assume they do that.  For them to make up the six goal difference, they'd have to get a GD at least + 8 in those two wins.  (Because we'd be at least +1 in each win, natch.)  It's possible, but unlikely, and if we can pad our GD in our two games it may be out of City's reach.  But they have to drop points for us to have a chance.  We shall see.

TOT 2-3 ARS: A Proper NLD

 We rode our luck, especially with referee decisions, but got the three points we absolutely needed.  We were flattered by the 0-3 halftime score.  An own goal on a corner, a breakaway after a missed penalty call for Spuds, and another goal off a corner gave us what should have been a platform for an easy 45-50 minutes after the break.  but when we were cruising comfortably, Raya presented a gift to them and suddenly they were in it.  As the minutes ticked down I got complacent again, but then Rice kicked one of their men in the area and Son blasted an unstoppable PK into the net and it's a one goal game with 5 minutes plus stoppage time (6 minutes as it turned out) to get through.  There were scares, but the men in white weren't able to push that tying goal into the net.  Massive relief.

I thought Tottenham played really well.  They outshot us and had more of the ball (not unusual when one team gets ahead early).  Some of our guys weren't up to their usual standards.  We got robbed of possession numerous times.  But the defending was excellent.  My view is that Havertz was exceptional for us, Saka very good, but Odegaard and Trossard not as impressive as they have been previously.  Partey was fine but did lose the ball a few times.  Rice had a good game (despite that pen).  Tomiyasu once again is not the slick passer that was required for us to keep moves down the left going.  Raya's error was a real howler.  He did claim pretty much every cross Tottenham floated in.  I'm hoping the Spuds play this well against City--better if possible.  They'll give them a game if they do.

April 28 is St. Totteringham's Day this year.