Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur: The only thing that matters still matters

Arsenal had higher aspirations than what they’re on pace to achieve this year, but one thing still exists to fight for, and yes, it matters.

This year at Arsenal has been the most tumultuous in decades. Three managers came, two went, and we’re left with Mikel Arteta trying to build the future for the club that we’ve been dying to find since Arsene Wenger left.

It leaves us mired midtable, sticking in 8th place when they might have been sixth if only they could have pulled out the result they deserved against Leicester City.

Now eight points behind Manchester United with just four matches left to play, it looks less and less likely that the Gunners are going to be sneaking into a European Cup place. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world. I always reference Liverpool and their drop before their subsequent rise, which we are witnessing right this very moment.

There isn’t much left to fight for this year, other than pride. But as long as pride is still at stake, then the fight is absolutely worth it. Especially with Liverpool still looming after Tottenham.

While Liverpool’s threat to the Invincibles has already been disrupted—by Watford, of all teams—sticking another nail in that failed bit would be a boost to our building (and maybe still easily wounded) pride.

Speaking of pride—with Tottenham coming up later today, it has to be said that while we aspire to much bigger things than just finishing above Spurs, it’s still pretty important that we do, in fact, finish above Spurs. I know we make fun of Spurs fans for aspiring only to finish above us, while we shouldn’t even stop to think about such petty goals, but this all ties into the pride element. With the Mikel Arteta era still in the foundling stages, every bit of pride goes a long way.

So while we definitely discount focusing on finishing above Spurs, it’s still crucial that we do. Especially because they seem to be playing in a great void of pride, unable to muster results in yet another failing era of Jose Mourinho.

Stuffing that team in a sack and incinerating the sack is one more notch on the quest to salvage pride from this season. We’ve already done a great job of planting a fertile farm of pride, but every boost we can get our hands on is absolutely worth it.