The top 4 paradox


Unless you've been living under a rock, you will be well aware that Arsenal currently sit fourth in the league, four points clear of Sp*rs, and with the opportunity on Thursday to seal qualification for the Champions League for the first time since the 2016/17 season if we are able to overcome win one of the most high-stakes North London Derbies in years.


Being back at Europe's top table would be an exciting prospect, you might think. Slightly terrifying considering our current squad, but it's what we have been striving for for the last five years, so the potential to achieve that goal with this threadbare squad of also-rans and comparative kids would be a hell of an accomplishment, and one that many, many of us will celebrate with great enthusiasm.

But yet there are still murmurs that this isn't a good thing. A scroll through my twitter feed on any given day over the last month or so when this goal became a tangible reality will show all manner of varying, contradictory opinions. I've seen people saying that "well Arsenal spent £150m in the summer. Of course they should be there", followed by "Arsenal's squad is terrible, if they get Champions League they will embarrass the Premier League".


So, hang on. We should definitely be there because we spent so much (I have many thoughts on that also, but that is for another time), but we shouldn't be there because our squad is so bad? Come on guys, make your minds up. You can pick one here but not the other. You can't tell us that our squad isn't good enough to be there and it should definitely be there. That just doesn't make any sense.

I've seen people saying that "If Arsenal get Champions League, it's only because everyone else has been so bad", followed by countless match predictions by "experts" of Arsenal losing every big game, and combined 11s (one of the worst things in football, by the way), with very few Arsenal players making the team.


So you're trying to tell me that we'll only get top 4 if you're bad, but your players are still better than us and you will beat us, so should technically be higher in the league? I'm just not sure the logic follows there.

Now, to be fair, the majority of these nonsense opinions are from rival fans and, unfortunately, the sort of Arsenal fan who has been begging for Arteta to fail to justify their rants on their YouTube channels which have long since been proven wrong. They are begging for the chance to jump up and down shouting "I TOLD YOU SO" in the hope that they might get a few more clicks and a few more quid.

My own personal opinion? If we qualify for the Champions League, we would have got there on merit. It's often said that the league table never lies, that the 38 game season is the true test of a team's ability, and that is something I firmly believe. We are going in to the last 3 games with a shot at top 4, potentially top 3(!), and after our start, having given Thursdays rivals a 9 point head start after the first 3 games? We would have earned our place competing on Tuesday and Wednesday nights with Europe's elite. 

A part of me does think that Europa league would carry its own benefit, giving us the opportunity to play some of the fringe and up and coming U23 players (Hutchinson, Patino etc.) in regular competitive fixtures. But then you realize what Champions League qualification can do for the club in terms of revenue, attracting the players we need to take us to the next level and, more importantly, the experience our young squad will get from it? That is what I want. 

As the league table stands only Man City and Liverpool, two very handy teams by the way, have more wins than we do. I saw a mental stat earlier on today that should we manage to win our last 3 games, we finish the season with the same number of victories as the invincibles, and that is genuinely insane when you think about it. I am in no way comparing the two sides, but for a team that has for the last month featured the likes of Rob Holding, Mo Elneny, Eddie Nketiah and Cedric, underpinned by the youth of Saka, Smith Rowe, Odegaard and Martinelli, to reach that level of consistency is absolutely mental.


Yet here we are, approaching the Derby with that group of players, looking to reach a competition we haven't played in since the Wenger years. That the majority of the squad have not been near. That no one gave us a sniff at before the season started, even less so after we lost our first 3 games with not so much as a goal to show for it. This is a team that has forged a bond with the fans that hasn't been seen for many a year, creating an atmosphere at the Emirates that I have never experienced there before. Hopefully they will have us taking that all over Europe's top stadiums next season. COYG

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