The biggest game in Arsenal's season

The biggest game in Arsenal's season was not against Manchester United, Chelsea or Barcelona. It wasn't Liverpool, or Porto.

The biggest game in Arsenal's season is Manchester City vs. Tottenham, this Wednesday night, because it's the game that will shape who our main competitors are next season.

If Manchester City win, and go on to claim the fourth Champions League spot, they will catapult above Arsenal to become the major competitors to Chelsea and Manchester United. With massive buying power, and a core squad that is sensibly constructed on durable top class pros like Gareth Barry and Carlos Tevez, they have a platform to go on and buy big this summer. They have less deep-rooted problems to fix than we do, and they have a balanced blend of youth (Adam Johnson, Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong) and experience (Barry, Vieira, Tevez) and can bring in players no matter the price tag. They're set to go on to be real competitors for the highest honours – and we the fans would need to spend another off-season worrying that we might be slipping further away than ever from the biggest prizes.

If Tottenham win, it's less of a problem. Tottenham have a strong squad, and a group of excellent players – Modric and Lennon are two I would put above Nasri, Rosicky and Walcott for consistent performance at least. But I don't fear Tottenham because their qualifying wouldn't change anything – they're a squad built from achieving high-value sales (Robbie Keane will be one this summer) and then spending significant amounts on, generally, players already based in the Premier League. Their stadium is limited and no real prize backers have come in for them.

So I want Tottenham to win. It would give us what we need most: another season to prepare for the inevitable point at which City's financial muscle does catapult them into the top four. And another season to try and put the players in place who can keep us competitive against their threat.

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