LONDON — Stopping Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has proved beyond most Premier League defences this season, so there’s little hope Arsenal’s suspect back four will be up to the job in tomorrow’s crucial north London derby. Reuters
By scoring eight goals in his past six matches, Bale is inviting comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi as he almost single-handedly looks to lead third-place Tottenham into the Champions League next season.
Next in his sights is Arsenal, which is currently just outside the top four and facing a real fight to qualify for Europe’s top competition for the 16th straight season.
Fans, opposing managers and even teammates have been left in awe of Bale, who is the favourite to be named the 2013 Player of the Year by his Premier League peers later this year.
Arsenal have managed to stay in contention for the Champions League positions despite being in the midst of one of their worst seasons in manager Arsene Wenger’s 17-year reign. Provided the team fails to turn around a 3-1 first-leg deficit in its Champions League last-16 match at Bayern Munich, Arsenal will have gone eight years without a piece of silverware.
Their creaky defence has been under particular scrutiny, with captain Thomas Vermaelen’s form having dipped and fellow centre-backs Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny failing to impress.
With France right-back Bacary Sagna ruled out by Wenger on Thursday because of a knee injury, Bale has a great chance at White Hart Lane to improve on his 19 goals already this season — 15 of which have come in the league.
With Manchester United having surged into a 12-point lead and Manchester City five points clear of the chasing pack in second and showing improved form, the fight for the remaining two Champions League spots behind them is gathering more and more interest.
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Chelsea are currently splitting the north London clubs in fourth place and they will particularly focus on their home match against West Bromwich Albion in the wake of coach Rafa Benitez’s outburst at the club’s fans and board, following the FA Cup win at Middlesbrough on Wednesday.
Benitez is likely to face a backlash from supporters at Stamford Bridge after accusing a section of them of damaging the image of Chelsea with their constant criticism of him.
United are at home to Norwich today and manager Alex Ferguson must decide whether to play top scorer Robin van Persie, who hurt his hip in the 2-0 win over Queens Park Rangers last weekend.
The Netherlands striker could be one of the players rested ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League match against Real Madrid, which is level at 1-1 after the first leg. Man City look to be back to their best form after impressive home wins over Leeds in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the league and travel on Monday to an Aston Villa side that are third from bottom.
Last-place QPR, who are seven points adrift of safety, are away to Southampton and next-to-last Wigan are at home to Liverpool. Also today, it’s: Everton v Reading; Stoke v West Ham; Sunderland v Fulham; and Swansea v Newcastle.
