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It's late April, which of course means Arsenal are fighting for their Champions League lives again instead of fighting for something more important. They welcome a Norwich City team who are, in fact, fighting for something more important - the right to drink from next year's widened firehose marked "PREMIER LEAGUE TV MONEY". They are currently in 18th, level on points with Sunderland, so they will be desperate to get a win today.
Arsenal are desperate to quiet the critics, a number of which will be bringing signs to the Emirates today to register their displeasure with the way things have gone this and the last few seasons. According to Arsene, that displeasure has made the Emirates a tough place to play in recent times, but I'm not sure that's true; what's made it a tough place to play is that Arsenal haven't played well there, and that's not down to the fans. At all.
Anyway, three points today is, as always, the target; denying Norwich their Premier League status would just be a nice bonus or side effect, depending I guess on whether you have an opinion about Norwich or not.
.@Arsenal are unchanged for #AFCvNCFC - but a certain someone makes his return to the squad pic.twitter.com/iWXa2du011
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) April 30, 2016
TEAM: Ruddy; Pinto, Martin (c), Bassong, Olsson; Redmond, Howson, O'Neil, Brady; Hoolahan; Jerome. #ncfc
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) April 30, 2016
SUBS: Rudd (GK), Whittaker, Naismith, Mbokani, Jarvis, Dorrans, Mulumbu. #ncfc
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) April 30, 2016