What a game yesterday, it had it all – controversial decisions, red cards, and last gasp winners – and fortunately the winner was for Arsenal.

Leicester were fantastic yesterday, there’s no way to get around it. They’ve been brilliant all season and even as an Arsenal fan, I’ve found myself cheering them on this season. Yesterday however it was strange because watching the game, I found myself hating them.

And that’s all credit to Leicester City. They’ve worked extremely hard, both on the pitch and behind the scenes, recruited well and shown that you don’t need to spend stupid money to put out a winning team on the pitch. And the fact that I ended up “hating” them yesterday is testament to how much of a threat they have become – they’ve played some excellent football this season and rattled more than a few cages.

So to the first talking point which was the Jamie Vardy penalty. Wes Morgan fouled Mesut Özil but played on, then Koscielny tried to spear Kante and the referee still played on. Then Jamie Vardy found himself one on one with Monreal, nicked the ball passed him and clattered himself into the Spaniard. In real time it looked like a penalty so in all fairness, the referee didn’t have a choice.

Obviously the replays showed that Vardy “won” the penalty, leaving his leg in and making a meal of it, but the decision had been made and Leicester found themselves leading at half time.

It set up a fascinating narrative – could Arsenal comeback? Or is this were Arsenal’s title challenge would end?

Early into the second half Danny Simpson was dismissed, with two bookable offences. They were both yellow cards and Simpson was stupid to commit those fouls, which were both miles away from the penalty area and were completely needless. If Leicester fail to win the Premier League, they may point to that 5 minute period as the time they lost it – because in all honesty up to that point they were comfortable.

After that Leicester sat deep and we came forward with wave after wave of attack. The problem was because Leicester were so compact we could only push the ball out wide and even though our crosses found Arsenal men, our finishing was woeful. Ramsey, Giroud, Walcott and Sanchez all shanked very presentable chances well wide. It looked like it wasn’t going to be our day.

Then on 70 minutes Giroud did well to our muscle Robert Huth and Wes Morgan to beautifully lay the ball off to Theo Walcott. Theo was quick of mind as well as body to latch on to the ball and coolly finish from 7 yards out – Arsenal’s first shot on target!

After that we went for it and the biggest chance came to Olivier Giroud with 4 minutes remaining. He controlled the ball well inside the penalty area and lashed a powerful shot towards goal – with Kasper Schmeichel making an unreal save with his right hand.

It looked like Arsenal’s chance to get back into he title race had gone until 94 minutes. Nacho Monreal was poleaxed by Simpson’s replacement Wasilewski (who looks like an utter beast of a man!) to give Arsenal one last chance. Mesut Özil who was on the periphery all game floated in an excellent cross for Danny Welbeck to head home, topping off his return to Arsenal in the biggest way possible.

The scenes were amazing and Arsenal had pulled of a win over Leicester they badly needed.

So as it stands Arsenal and Tottenham are 2 points behind league leaders Leicester with 12 games remaining.

We are in an excellent position now but it must be noted that Leicester are still firm favourites. They are still the team in form (despite losing yesterday) and they have no FA Cup or Champions League to focus on. They only have the Premier League to prepare for and for me, that is a massive advantage. I think they have 12 days before their next league game and if you look at their run in, they have all very winnable games:

• Norwich City (H)
• West Bromich Albion (H)
• Watford (A)
• Newcastle United (H)
• Crystal Palace (A)
• Southampton (H)
• Sunderland (A)
• West Ham United (H)
• Swansea City (H)
• Manchester United (A)
• Everton (H)
• Chelsea (A)

Arsenal on the other hand, have some tricky fixtures:

• Hull City (H) FA Cup
• Barcelona (H) Champions League (1st Leg)
• Manchester United (A)
• Swansea City (H)
• Tottenham Hotspur (A)
• West Bromich Albion (H)
• Barcelona (A) Champions League (2nd Leg)
• Everton (A)
• Watford (H)
• West Ham United (A)
• Crystal Palace (H)
• Sunderland (A)
• Norwich City (H)
• Manchester City (A)
• Aston Villa (H)

Plus we’ll have additional FA Cup fixtures if we beat Hull City, and if we progress against Barcelona in the Champions League (Haha! Okay…).

So who do you think will win the Premier League from this stage of the season? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

For the first time this season, Leicester City are now then favourites to win the Premier League with the bookies. After their impressive wins against Liverpool and Manchester City and managing to sit 5 points clear at the top of the league, the bookmakers have slashed Leicester’s odds to around 7/4 to be crowned champions.

Arsenal and Manchester City are second, with odds at around 9/4.

So are Leicester City now favourites?

As I’ve said they are already 5 points clear and their run in seems to be relatively straight forward. Their remaining fixtures are Arsenal, Norwich, West Brom, Watford, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Sunderland, West Ham, Swansea, Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea.

Out of those games, you could really only say that the final 3 games are difficult – but then again Leicester have already turned over United, Everton and Chelsea this season so they could easily sweep them aside anyway.

Meanwhile, Arsenal have Leicester, Hull (FA Cup), Barcelona (CL), Manchester United, Swansea, Tottenham, West Brom, Barcelona again (CL), Everton, Watford, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Sunderland, Norwich, Manchester City and Aston Villa. Added to that, if we progress against Hull and Barcelona (ha!) in the FA Cup and Champions League respectively, that gives us a lot more games to contend with in the title run in.

So looking at it objectively, the Leicester City game on Sunday is must win for Arsenal – but even then you’d still consider Leicester as title favourites as they only have the Premier League to concentrate on.

So do you think Arsenal can still do it? Or has our poor run of late blown our title challenge?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

So we’re 25 games into the Premier League season, and the Top 5 positions look like this:

[Credit: Google]

Leicester City are in phenomenal form, recently brushing aside Liverpool and Manchester City in the space of a few days with really fantastic performances. They say that football fans who don’t support Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester City and Manchester United are cheering them on, but I have to say I’ve been hugely impressed with Leicester and hope they do well.

Their excellent performances in this campaign have been rewarded with a 5 point lead at the top of the Premier League table and the Foxes show no signs of wavering yet. Arsenal have had a very dodgy January but a professional performance against Bournemouth yesterday puts us “back in the race”.

So how is this topsy-turvy season going to end?

You would be stupid to write off Leicester because they have shown so far this season they have the desire, motivation and energy levels to go right to the very end. They fight for each other and say whatever you want about ability, price tags and reputations, nothing trumps sheer desire and the will to win. Leicester could win the league this season and a main component would be that the players and staff of the “bigger clubs” – Arsenal included – were too complacent.

This season has showed that no team has gone on a really consistent run and if Arsenal fail to win the Premier League this season, then every Arsenal supporter and his dog will know that it would have been a massive opportunity missed.

So who will win the Premier League this season?

Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

Leicester City deservedly won at Manchester City yesterday, taking all 3 points and comfortably winning 3-1. A surprising result perhaps, but one that puts Leicester City firmly in the driving seat.

The result puts them an amazing 8 points clear of Arsenal, who sit in 4th place behind Leicester City, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. A win against Bournemouth (which is by no means a given) would put us 5 points behind the league leaders, joint on 48 points with Manchester City.

But where will Arsenal finish this season?

Our form of late (essentially in 2016) has been a shambles with draws against Southampton, Stoke and Liverpool alongside a defeat to Chelsea – which has given us 3 points from a possible 12. Dropping 9 points at this stage of the season is just indicative of a team which has basically bottled it.

Arsenal are in a slump and need to snap out of it as soon as possible. Losing further ground to a side which is full of confidence, goals and ability is something we can’t really contemplate if we actually want to compete for the Premier League title, as opposed to just finishing 4th like we usually do.

Do you think we can get our act together and mount a real challenge with only 14 games remaining? Or have we dropped to many points to challenge the teams above us?

Vote in the poll below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, Arsenal sent out an e-mail to Gold Season Ticket Members basically charging them an additional surcharge of between £17 and £30 (depending on which seat the member is in) for the Barcelona game. The charge will be added to next seasons season ticket.

Unsurprisingly, the fans are outraged and rightly so. Arsenal have by far the most expensive tickets in the league and the charges are unjustified. Look, I’m not naive and it’s obvious football clubs need to make money to pay for overheads, players wages, transfer fees, maintenance, etc. but the problem is Arsenal can’t really justify their prices.

Arsenal are charging top money but aren’t a top club. If we were winning trophies like Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Chelsea, then the prices “could” be justified. But in the last 10 seasons we’ve won 2 FA Cups!

Don’t get me wrong, the prices fans currently pay are obscene and it would be a slightly lesser blow if we won big titles like the Premier League or even progressed well in the Champions League. But we’ve consistently not challenged for the title and usually finished 4th in the league, and we’re usually out of Europe at the first knockout stage.

The irony (is it irony?) is that this extra charge for the Barcelona game will most likely end up with a humiliating defeat, compounding the anger for this extra charge. Messi, Suarez and Neymar are in unbelievable form and if we get battered at The Emirates then expect a hostile response from the fans.

Arsenal have “graciously” offered fans the option to opt out of this surcharge, on the condition that they give up their Barcelona ticket. Who in the right mind would do that? Arsenal have the fans by the short and curlies and they know it!

With Arsenal’s season going down the pan and with the team dropping points at an alarming rate, this really is a PR disaster for the club.