What the recent history of Arsenal with Everton, Leicester & Watford says about their four most important hopes

With seven games to play, Arsenal are as well placed as they could realistically hope to be at the start of the season.

The Unai Emery team currently ranks third in the standings, two points behind Manchester United and one match in hand after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team sided with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday. evening.

Although Arsenal leads the battle at four for third and fourth places, margins are very tight. Tottenham and Chelsea, both playing Wednesday night, are two and three points behind, while United remains firmly in the mix.

On paper, Arsenal has a big advantage over rivals: its schedule. Unlike the other trio, they played all their matches against the "Big Six" and their last seven games are opposed to teams with an average position of 11th in the standings.

However, five of those games are out and even though Arsenal 's home record is the league' s second best outside the country, the team 's Emery had fewer points than Leicester, Crystal Palace or Watford. This is a familiar tale for the Gunners, who have not won so many points in the Premier League during their trip in 2018 until the last game of the season.

If Arsenal suffered such a lamentable course, its four most important hopes could be seriously questioned, then football.londres reviewed how they faced off against their opponents coming in last season to get an idea of ​​what the Gunners can expect.

Everton (a)

Last season: Everton 2-5 Arsenal

A singularly strange game, even by the standards of the last season of Arsenal under Wenger. In the first 12 minutes, the visiting team was outclbaded, but Wayne Rooney opened the scoring.

A rare exit for the three stars of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette were enough to blow up a besieged and open Everton. The Chilean in particular was fierce, marking one and lying on the other.

The Toffees have been entrusted to three managers since that day – Ronald Koeman, goalkeepers David Unsworth and Sam Allardyce – before finding the man they were looking for at Marco Silva's, who's on the form side at the moment. However, they tend not to play their game against the best players – if Everton is as open against Arsenal as he has been against Tottenham and Manchester City, it could be a successful outing for the Gunners.

Watford (a)

Last season: Watford 2-1 Arsenal

The derby & # 39; cojones & # 39; When Troy Deeney questioned the courage, after the last meeting of Arsenal, at Vicarage Road, he definitely dedicated himself as a nasty pantomime along the Holloway road.

After what Wenger called the "outrageous" decision to award a penalty to Watford in the 71st minute, the Gunners collapsed under pressure, panicking every time a ball went into the box. When Granit Xhaka died early in the match, Tom Cleverly flew to win the game.

Under Emery Arsenal, you seem not to be so fragile, but it will be a long time before we can say that the Spaniard has had a considerable impact on the mentality of the Emirates Stadium. Games like this will greatly contribute to his cause.

Crystal Palace (h)

Last season: Arsenal 4-1 Crystal Palace

One of those victories among bankers who became Arsenal's stock market traders in the second half of last season, when they could not buy a point on a trip but looked unbeatable at Emirates. On this occasion, the Palace was completely destroyed with four goals in 22 minutes.

This is the kind of game that Ozil loves and he was at his best in this demolition job, completing 51 of the 56 pbades in half of the palace and providing brilliant help to Lacazette.

A repeat on the part of the German against a team that could very well have nothing to play by April 21 and that could prove to be one of the easiest tasks of Arsenal.

Wolverhampton Wanderers (a)

Last season: N / A

Arsenal has not played at Molineux since winning 3-0 at Black Country in 2012. It goes without saying that the team they will face on April 24 will be very different.

They have already been warned of the challenges that Nuno Espirito Santo's men pose and had the chance to score a point thanks to Henrikh Mkhitaryan's cross shot when the two men met at Emirates earlier in the season.

Going to Molineux will be an entirely different challenge, perhaps the most difficult from start to finish. The wolves have already beaten Chelsea and Manchester United on their own pitch and have also taken a point off Manchester City. Of the "big six", only Liverpool left with three points.

Leicester City (a)

Last season: Leicester 3-1 Arsenal

Their meeting at King Power Stadium last season had a particularly strange feeling. A few days after Wenger had said goodbye to the Emirates Stadium, but before he fully complied with Huddersfield, there was a clear feeling of anti-climax as Leicester inflicted a new defeat on the outside at Arsenal.

The dice were thrown in after 15 minutes when Konstantinos Mavropanos was sent off just minutes after Kelechi Iheanacho opened the scoring for the Fox. This time they will be under the new leadership of Brendan Rodgers, who has lost one and won three of his first four games.

With Jamie Vardy's pace and a powerful defense, Leicester has often proved to be a difficult task for Arsenal, although she often shows up.

Brighton and Hove Albion (h)

Last season: Arsenal 2-0 Brighton

A particularly remarkable match in the schedule of Arsenal matches last season, although Alex Iwobi scored a rare goal in that win. It may be different this season if Brighton gets closer to the relegation zone but we suspected that the penultimate weekend of the campaign, Chris Hughton's team would be safe.

The Seagulls have five points and three places ahead of Cardiff, 18th at the time of writing, but have a decisive match on the Welsh side and two on many of the sides that surround them.

Burnley (a)

Last season: Burnley 0-1 Arsenal

You can rest badured that whenever Arsenal goes to Turf Moor, there will be a late drama. And Sean Dyche will tell you that this invariably favors Arsenal.

He could have a point. Last season, Alexis Sanchez was sentenced to a contentious penalty, as he had done the previous year during the home match between these two players. Their other match in 2016/17 was won when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's shot deflected off Laurent Koscielny's arm and inside.

Then, when Burnley met Arsenal just before Christmas, Dyche suggested that Arsenal encouraged "millions of kids" to dive.

It would be a brave man who predicts the outcome of this match but rest badured that sparks will fly and that, if Arsenal still struggles for the Champions League qualification at this stage, the drama will not fail.

Will last season's results be enough?

It would be tight. Arsenal would add 12 points to his total of 63 points, good for 75 points. The biggest total of Tottenham could be 82, Chelsea could get 81 while Manchester United could finish on a maximum of 79.

Of course, each of these three parties has problems that, at least on paper, seem to be more difficult than those of Arsenal and at least one of these two players will take points one by one. against each other on April 28th.

Chelsea must also travel to Liverpool and United faces Manchester City at Old Trafford. The Spurs will also play alongside Pep Guardiola in the Premier League.

Repeat the results of last season and win at the Wolves. One would think that Arsenal would have enough to rank among the top four. Similarly, they may not be as poor in Watford and Leicester as last season, although these results are a warning for Emery to take nothing for granted in the last seven games.

The qualifications of the Champions League are within reach of Arsenal, but if they do not improve what they managed last season, they will hang at the fingertips.

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