Good evening.
We welcome Sunderland to the Boleyn Ground this weekend for a game which needs to act as a launchpad for our finishing straight this season.
Everyone at the Club – the Board, manager and players – is determined to ensure our campaign does not fade away after making that fantastic start to the season.
We’ve just come off an incredibly tough run of fixtures, and six of our last seven games have been against teams occupying top-seven places in the division, so perhaps it is understandable that wins have been a little harder to come by recently.
That’s not to say we’re intimidated by taking on those sides and I think anyone who witnessed our performances against Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton would agree.
We were extremely unfortunate not to take more than we did from those games, but that is in the past now and our focus is on taking as many points as we can before the end of May and pushing back up the league table. A European place is still not out of the equation and that must remain our ultimate target now.
Injuries haven’t helped us – at Arsenal we were left with just one fit striker and one centre back due to a couple of freak incidents – but with a bit of luck the manager will have a few more options on Saturday. Whichever way, we know we will be able to put out a team more than capable of ending our seven-game wait for a win.
Sunderland will be under the management of Dick Advocaat for the first time and after slipping to just one point clear of the relegation zone, we know their players will be fired up for this one.
The contest is just as important for us and with the fixture list appearing, on paper at least, to offer a favourable run-in, it would be great to kick that off with a return to winning ways on Saturday.
Come on you Irons.
David Sullivan