Third place is up for grabs this weekend and it is something that I think became out of our reach following Charlton’s relegation last night. Liverpool were in pole position for it anyway with a home fixture but had Charlton been fighting for survival then the past weekend had shown that some curious results were possible. Now however, with only their pride at stake, I doubt that they will be much of a match for a Liverpool team playing for their places in the Champions League Final. Whilst I accept they may play with less inhibition and want to sign off in a blaze of glory, the fact is that they will probably be rtsmouth on the other hand, need three points to qualify for the UEFA Cup which just goes to show how costly the inability to finish off Chelsea was, heaping the pressure on Liverpool if they are bothered about third place anymore. Leaving aside the obvious lack of trophies this season, for me third is important as a means of proving to doubters that a tangible improvement has been made on last season, albeit on a piece of paper. There is no comparison between the Cup runs this season and last. At that point, most of us would agree that there have been far better Arsenal teams which have failed to deliver in Europe than the one that reached Paris. That night proved that there is a certain lottery element in any Cup competition as well as the ability to close out teams, the lessons of which seemed to have been forgotten this season. Back to the Premiership though and there is a certain irony in needing to better Liverpool’s result by two goals, bringing back memories of a balmy May evening nearly twenty years ago. God, I feel old.

One of the reasons for my pessimism is the lack of goals; I’ll be impressed if we score twice away from home. Cesc has been speaking about the absence of goals from the midfield quartet this season,

We have played fantastic football, but the most important thing is goals…I am not going to use the excuse we have been missing such a key player like Thierry Henry, or Robin van Persie, who were both in great form, because that is football. You have to find other solutions. We had them and it is not just about the strikers. The only midfielder who scored the goals he should have is Gilberto, because he scored 10. That is good, but we should have scored more goals from midfield as well. Hopefully we can improve on that next season

Nothing to argue with there. Much the same as with what Kolo Toure had to say about being jealous of Chelsea’s success,

It is frustrating watching these other teams in the Champions League and fighting for the Premiership. We need to be winning trophies every season, and we are sad we have not managed that. Why has it happened? We didn’t play well at the start. After three games we were seven points behind Chelsea and that made it difficult. We have not won games we should have done.

All of which are fine words. Now Gentlemen, let’s have the actions to back them up please, starting this weekend at Fratton Park.

Le Boss has admitted that we have lacked a natural wide player on the left this season and seems intent on doing something about it this summer, much to the relief of a large portion of the support. Speaking about the future of Jose Antonio Reyes, AW commented that he was a natural winger and that he had been missed. Part of me thinks that Wenger has not yet given up hope of persuading the Spaniard to return to London but somehow, even if he did want to come back, I cannot see it happening, the player having backed himself into a corner with comments that were echoed by Baptista, about the climate and an inability to find a social life. All of which is poor reflection on both players considering the efforts that others make to create a new life for themselves in foreign lands.

The Catalan Press continue to perpetuate the story of Thierry Henry to Barcelona, this time it is for a paltry €20m. In many respects, this is of no surprise but I have sympathy with Henry for having told everyone that he has no intention of leaving, the departure of his ‘close personal friend’ DD from the Boardroom has reignited the fire, along with fears in the Catalan Capital that everyone bar Messi is going to be missing from their forward line with Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Gudjohnsen all supposedly doing some househunting in other parts of Europe once the season closes. Starting to resemble Patrick Vieira to Madrid this one.

It seems that Arthur Boruc has accepted that the Polish ‘keeper between the sticks at The Emirates next season won’t be him. Having been pushed as a potential replacement for the Mad Monk at the start of the season, it all went very quiet on that front from Christmas onwards. The final nail in his coffin was the evidence that he takes no interest in Arsenal as proven by his flag waving exercise at the weekend. He should surely have known that we don’t have flags at The Emirates any more?

Finally, congratulations to the Ladies for their win over Charlton yesterday. One quadruple that is achievable in football apparently.