You Bet | Gunners look down barrel of disaster
Cross-town journey to Tottenham could spell the end of Arsene Wenger's Europe aspirations
Two weeks ago Arsenal lost their most realistic chance of a first trophy in eight years when Championship outfit Blackburn knocked them out of the FA Cup and three days later they were all but dumped out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
Tomorrow brings another potential disaster when Arsene Wenger's shell-shocked team make the short journey to Tottenham for a north London derby that promises to be a pivotal contest in the battle for next season's Champions League places.
If they lose, Arsenal will trail Tottenham by seven points with 10 games to play and Wenger's optimistic view that his team can still finish second will look even more far-fetched. Even fourth place looks a big ask from their current position, which is two points worse than at the same stage of last season.
The Gunners just sneaked into fourth place at the end of last season, by a point from Tottenham, but to do so again probably will require them to go close to their best run-in of the past five seasons. That came four seasons ago when they won eight of 11 from this stage of the season to finish fourth on 72 points.
If Arsenal do the same again, they will finish on 73 points. It's unlikely they will need quite that many points to finish fourth - 69 will probably be enough - but a repeat of any of their other run-ins from the past five seasons would leave them struggling.
Second place has required at least 80 points in seven of the past eight seasons and it is difficult to see how Wenger can believe that is within Arsenal's reach. Even a perfect 11 wins from now would take Arsenal to only a final total of 80.