With the FA Cup final taking place later in the day the Premier League serves up an interesting appetiser in the form of Arsenal against Norwich at 12:45pm. For the Gunners it is a must-win game given recent results as they look to hold onto third. Could a care free Norwich throw a spanner in the works though?
The Gunners fans might have expected their team to have wrapped up third by this point, with two matches to go, given they were well clear off the chasing pack at one point. However, with Arsenal having failed to win any of their last three they have been reeled in by the likes of Newcastle and Tottenham, with both teams just a point behind.
Arsenal must now win their last two games against Norwich and West Brom to make sure of a place in next season’s Champions League, with fourth not guaranteeing anything this year due to Chelsea’s participation in the final against Bayern Munich.
Arsenal won seven home games on the bounce in all competitions before the shock defeat to Wigan and will need to rediscover that golden touch to find a way past Norwich. While the Canaries have lost their last three they have shown on a couple of occasions they can hang with the Premier League’s big boys, winning on their last trip to north London when they beat Tottenham.
If you fancy Norwich to complete a north London double you can back them at 14/1 in the match betting, with Arsenal 2/9 and the draw 5/1. Given that they have secured their place in the top flight for next season you might imagine the Norwich players are already ‘on the beach’. However, Paul Lambert will be keen to get a good performance out of his team following defeats to Manchester City, Blackburn and Liverpool.
Norwich have won five games away from home this season, four of which have come in 2012 as they took three points away from QPR, West Brom, Swansea and Tottenham. However, keeping a clean sheet on the road has been a big problem for Norwich and they have yet to manage it away from Carrow Road.
With that in mind between three and five goals at 4/6 could be worth a punt, especially with Robin van Persie having ended his mini drought last week.
The Football Writers’ Player of the Year has had a fantastic season and his equaliser against Stoke was his 38th goal of the season in all competitions and he can be backed at 2/1 to score two or more against the leaky Canaries.
Van Persie will lead the line again for Arsenal as Wenger gets set to name an unchanged line-up from the one that drew with Stoke last week. The Frenchman has just one new injury to contend with after Abou Diaby was ruled out for the rest of the season.
As far as Norwich are concerned Lambert might decide to make changes to his starting XI after their disappointing display against Liverpool last weekend, with Grant Holt pushing for a recall.
The Gunners should be comfortable winners if they can rediscover a bit of the form which saw them catapult themselves into third and can be backed at 8/13 to beat the Canaries with a minus one handicap if you are looking for a bit more value.
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