Arsenal can begin title party at West Ham and put celebration police on alert

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Considering the significance of the match at the London Stadium, all weekend leave for the celebration police has probably been cancelled. Given their final two Premier League fixtures, an Arsenal win against West Ham should all but guarantee the Gunners the title, even though Manchester City reapplied pressure with the win over Brentford.

Pundits are fond of saying the beauty of the Premier League is that anyone can beat anyone. Only they can’t, really.

Burnley have won four Premier League games all season. They have not beaten anyone who currently sits in the top half of the table. They will be cannon fodder at the Emirates on May 18.

And on the final day of the domestic season, Oliver Glasner will surely field a second string side as he prepares for the UEFA Conference League final in Leipzig three days later. I’ve seen Crystal Palace’s second string side this season. And they were beaten by Macclesfield.

No, if Arsenal win, their Premier League party can begin. After the flak they took for revelling in a Champions League semi-final victory, they will probably rein it in though. But the reality is that at this stage of the season, every win feels like a cup final win.

Because a team that is challenging for the Premier League and for the Champions League is having a battle against its own fatigue, week in, week out. When Arsenal walk into the London Stadium, it will be for their 60th game of the season.

No team in Europe’s top leagues has played as many. On Friday, Bruno Fernandes was announced as the Football Writers Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year. And he is a very worthy winner.

Declan Rice was second in the voting. But check out their respective workloads. Rice has played 4,156 minutes of club football this season. That is over TWENTY HOURS more than Fernandes has had to play.

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Martin Zubimendi, in his first season in the Premier League, has played only 17 minutes less than Rice has played. It becomes attritional, which is why Rice’s performance in the second leg of the semi-final against Atletico Madrid was remarkable.

Arsenal also have the added pressure of a widespread suspicion that they will falter on all fronts. Don’t let them tell you that the chatter does not play on their minds. But Mikel Arteta has handled it perfectly. He has not just pretended to embrace it, he has embraced it.

So, when he sees his team book a place in the Champions League final, he should be allowed to celebrate as wildly as he wants.

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And if he sees his team beat West Ham today, he should be allowed to celebrate as wildly as he wants - if only because he can then give his players a few days off. They can rest up, recharge, maybe go for a pint or two. Then, it’s back to the season-defining climax.

And if Arsenal win only one of the two titles they are gunning for, it will have been a great season. Arteta has barely put a foot wrong and whenever he decides to do it, he should be allowed to celebrate in whatever way he fancies.

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