Things can look a little daunting if you look at the table. Both Spurs and Manchester United have two games in hand on us and if they were to both win those matches, Spurs would be three points ahead of us and Manchester United six points behind us, with six games to go.
The thing is, even though things look daunting, I'd rather have the points than the games in hand and if we look at points per game this season, Spurs are getting 1.9 while Manchester United are getting 1.6. If we, for fun, assume they get these points with the two games in hand, then Spurs will end up one point ahead of us and Manchester United, nine points behind us.
What I'm trying to write is that it's still too close to call and we are still very much in this race for top four, even if things don't look great at the moment. And with Spurs and Manchester United both playing today, it will look a little clearer by this evening.
Remaining fixtures
Aston Villa |
Spurs |
Manchester United |
| Arsenal (a) | Nottingham Forest (h) | Liverpool (h) |
| Bournemouth (h) | Newcastle (a) | Bournemouth (a) |
| Chelsea (h) | Arsenal (h) | Sheffield United (h) |
| Brighton (a) | Chelsea (a) | Burnley (h) |
| Liverpool (h) | Liverpool (a) | Crystal Palace (a) |
| Crystal Palace (a) | Burnley (h) | Arsenal (h) |
| Sheffield United (a) | Brighton (a) | |
| Manchester City (h) | Newcastle (h) |
Dropping points against Brentford
And yesterday was a bit of a shambles but Ollie Watkins summed it up best when he said "we lacked that big-team mentality where they kill games off which is really disappointing."
But one thing we've seen with this manager is he knows how to change things and we also know he'll be working on what needs to be worked on to make sure that the chances of that happening again are slim.
The results today will go some way to painting a picture, but the season isn't over and there are plenty of chances for us. And sure, there is a chance we look back to yesterday as when we lost fourth place, but I have a feeling this manager has a trick up his sleeve and we haven't seen the end to this season.