Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Southampton run-ins

The sign of champions is to be able to snatch a victory when you are not at the top of your game, by any means necessary, and Cesc Fabregas' late winner at QPR in their Super Sunday clash certainly added further proof that they would be worthy Premier League winners.
Many believe the title race to be all but over with Jose Mourinho's Blues holding a seven-point lead with a game in hand at this late juncture in the season, but it certainly won't be the mere procession many expect.
Manchester United and Arsenal are up next, who have won their last six and eight league matches respectively, followed by Chelsea's game in hand - away at Leicester who will be fighting for their lives, with Liverpool, who they have beaten just twice in their last five meetings at Stamford Bridge, to play before May 24.
"We need three victories and two draws so our situation is good. Championships are pure mathematics," Mourinho said after Sunday's win. He's right you know.

Keown: Gunners can kick on

The former Gunners defender reckons Arsene Wenger's side have progressed since winning the FA Cup last season.
They are second in the Barclays Premier League, seven points behind leaders Chelsea with six games left.
And while Keown believes Jose Mourinho's side have wrapped up the title this time they will be threatened by Arsenal next season.
"Chelsea will win it now but if you ask them next season they won't fear anyone but they will be aware of Arsenal," he said.
"They will want to challenge next season and they will want to start well next year.
"They need to strengthen in one or two positions but I'm not talking about wholesale changes which some others may have to make if they want to compete."
The Gunners finished fourth last season and won their first trophy for nine years after beating Hull 3-2 in the FA Cup final.
They face Reading in the semi-final at Wembley on Saturday aiming to defend the trophy against either Aston Villa or Liverpool in the final.
They are on their best run - winning eight straight league games - since the Invincible season of 2003-04 when Keown played 15 times.
And the 48-year-old said the Gunners are a more complete side than they have been for a while.
"It has to represent progress if you're finishing two positions higher and still in the FA Cup," said the ex-England international, who made 451 appearances for the club and won the Premier League three times.
"They look more convincing as a team than they did last year. The players look together.
"The squad is better equipped now, Gabriel is putting (Per) Mertesacker under huge pressure and (Francis) Coquelin is in midfield instead of (Mikel) Arteta and (Mathieu) Flamini who are maybe coming to the end of their careers.
"They have a whole array of players who can play off the front and (Olivier) Giroud and (Danny) Welbeck are vying for the centre forward position. The competition for places creates intensity."
Keown is involved in the McDonald's Accredited Club Kit scheme and over 70,000 kits will be handed to clubs in the UK this year.
He added: "You see the look on their faces and they are very proud of their kit and we want as many clubs to benefit as possible."

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger plays down Premier League title chances

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says beating leaders Chelsea in his side's next Premier League game might not be enough to put his team back in the title race.

The Gunners' 1-0 win over Burnley on Saturday means they are just four points behind Jose Mourinho's side, who come to Emirates Stadium on 26 April.
But Wenger said: "I don't think our game against Chelsea will decide the title - they have two games in hand.
"We still need a perfect run and a non-perfect run from them."

Gunning for it - Arsenal's Premier League run-in
Chelsea (H) 26 April	Manchester Utd (A) 17 May
Hull (A) 4 May	Sunderland (H) 20 May
Swansea (H) 11 May	West Brom (H) 24 May

Chelsea play QPR on Sunday and Manchester United next weekend before taking on the Gunners.
In the meantime Arsenal head to Wembley for their FA Cup semi-final against Reading looking to keep up their impressive form.
They have now won eight league games in a row and Wenger added: "We just have to keep going. We cannot master Chelsea's results, only our own.
"We want to keep winning of course because we have to look behind us as well."
Victory at Turf Moor moved Arsenal four points clear in the fight for second place, with the two teams immediately below them - Manchester United and Manchester City - facing each other on Sunday.
With six league games to go, the Gunners look almost certain of securing a top-four finish and Champions League qualification for an 18th consecutive season.

Chelsea will allow Petr Cech to choose his next club, says Matt Law

Chelsea could be willing to let Petr Cech join rivals Arsenal this summer, Matt Law told the Sunday Supplement.

The Daily Telegraph journalist believes that after 11 years at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea would allow the goalkeeper to move wherever he chooses at the end of the season.
Cech has fallen behind Thibaut Courtois in the pecking order at Chelsea this season but, at 32, he remains one of the Premier League’s top 'keepers and has made it clear he will seek a transfer in the summer rather than spend another year as an understudy.
When asked if Arsenal are interested in the Chelsea star, Law responded: “Yes, they definitely want him. They’ve had a look at him and enquired about him last summer when they saw Thibaut Courtois was coming back.

"With the service Cech has given Chelsea over 11 years I do get the feeling that they will let him have his pick."

Matt Law, Daily Telegraph

“If they could get Petr Cech that could be a really big signing. The move would certainly suit him because he can stay in London and it gives him another shot at titles. It’s whether they can convince Chelsea to allow him to do that.
“With the service Cech has given Chelsea over 11 years I do get the feeling that they will let him have his pick.”
David Ospina has ousted Wojciech Szczesny as Arsenal’s first-choice goalkeeper recently and turned in a number of impressive displays. However, Law sees Cech as a class above the Colombian.
“It would be a really big signing because I don’t think they’ve got a top-quality goalkeeper which sides that generally win the title normally have,” he said.
“Ospina has been better than I thought he would be but I don’t think he’s a top-quality 'keeper for a whole season.
“The mentality of someone like Cech, who has won everything at club level, in the dressing room would be huge for Arsenal.”

Wenger urges focus for run-in

The Gunners head to Turf Moor in search of what would be an eighth straight league victory, following on from last weekend's 4-1 triumph over Liverpool.
Despite their superb run, which has seen confidence grow after some 15 wins in the last 17 through all competitions, the title remains Chelsea's to lose, as the leaders currently hold a seven-point advantage and also a match in hand.
While some Gunners fans may have allowed themselves a little bit of fantasy football results over the run-in, which will see Chelsea come to the Emirates Stadium on April 26 and also play both Manchester United and Liverpool, Wenger remains very much focused on the job in hand.
"I have enough experience to know that I have to live with reality and reality is points and the next game," he said.
"The dreams are for everybody - we all have dreams at night, but when I wake up in the morning I have to come here and make sure we give everything to win the next game."
Wenger continued: "Chelsea have a difficult schedule, we have a difficult schedule, but what we can only do is master our own schedule.
"What we want is to go as high as we can until the end of the season, give our best and we are also in the semi-final of the FA Cup.
"So we are at an important moment of the Premier League season and it is a period where you show your quality by focusing on the next game and maintain the quality.
"Of course we want to continue to progress and improve - we can learn from victory as well and everything was not perfect in our last game."
Arsenal's injury problems look to have finally eased, with midfielders Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby all having stepped up their rehabilitation from injury, along with full-back Mathieu Debuchy.
England international Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, though, continues to be hampered by an inflamed groin, while centre-half Laurent Koscielny will face a fitness test on his thigh problem ahead of Saturday's match.
Burnley continue to scrap at the other end of the table, currently second bottom, but only two points from safety.

Watch Wilshere and Diaby play tonight – for free!

Arsenal’s two longest serving crocks for the injury room are set to feature again tonight for the Gunners Under 21 side, and you can watch it live for free on Arsenal.com
In an interesting preview to Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-fnal at Wembley on Saturday, we will be taking on the Reading U21 side at the Emirates, and Jack Wilshere has been named as captain for the night. The rules only allow three over 21 players in the team, and joining Wilshere will be Abou Diaby, who managed 70 minutes in last weeks reserve match, and Serge Gnabry, who has also been out injured most of this season.
Also featured will be our new promising defensive midfielder Krystian Bielik, and the two exciting prospects Daniel Crowley and Alex Iwobi,who have getting rave reviews at the Academy.
The match kicks off at 7 pm UK time, and you can watch it by clicking on this link and signing up as a ember if you haven’t already done so…..
Alternatively you could go down to the Emirates and get in for just £4 for adults.

Thierry Henry: Arsenal will worry Premier League leaders Chelsea if they beat them

Thierry Henry insists Arsenal will put doubt into Jose Mourinho's side if they beat Chelsea in their next Premier League match, after reducing the gap at the top to just four points.

Arsenal's 1-0 win at Burnley was their eighth straight league success, though Chelsea have two games in hand over their London rivals, starting with QPR at Loftus Road on Super Sunday.
But Henry, who admits Arsenal must win every game from now until the end of the season to have a chance of claiming a first title since 2004, refused to rule out a comeback, and says the Gunners' star men are having to perform roles they may not like for the good of the team.

Arsène Wenger hurting but Monaco’s Jardim accuses Arsenal of disrespect

Arsène Wenger felt the turn of the knife after Arsenal had once again come up narrowly short in the Champions League as the Monaco manager, Leonardo Jardim, accused him of showing disrespect.
Arsenal won 2-0 at the Stade Louis II in the last-16 second leg but it was not enough to prevent going out on away goals after their 3-1 first-leg defeat at the Emirates Stadium three weeks ago. Following exits at the same stage to Barcelona, Milan and Bayern Munich twice in the previous four years, Wenger said that this one had hurt him the most.

Arsène Wenger says Arsenal better off dropping into Europa League

Arsène Wenger's comments were evidence of how hard Arsenal's latest last-16 Champions League exit had hit him. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA

Arsène Wenger was so distraught at the finality of Arsenal’s Champions League exit that he wondered whether it might have been better for the club to have dropped down into the Europa League and remained alive in European competition.
The manager offered the bleak and introspective comments in the wake of the last-16 second leg at Monaco, which Arsenal won 2-0 only to exit on away goals. It was the fifth season in succession that Wenger’s team had exited at this stage and, once again, the closing months of their season will be free of European football.
“Maybe it would be better not to advance from the group phase and play the Europa League than be eliminated right away in the last 16,” Wenger said. “We would have more chances to win a title.”
Wenger went on to say that if a club went “out after the group stages, you have no chances after to play again, like you do in the Europa League”.
If Arsenal had finished third, rather than second, in their Champions League group, they would have entered the Europa League and, possibly, fancied themselves to progress in the competition.

Forget about Monaco, Arsène Wenger has an excellent Arsenal team lurking in there

Arsenal’s Mesut Özil leaves the pitch in Monaco in dismay after the team’s Champions League exit - but all is not doom and gloom for the Gunners. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Midway through Tuesday night’s fluent, dominant, pointless 2-0 defeat of Monaco Arsenal’s players might just have been tempted to chuck in the odd helpful stray pass, or to offer some encouraging words during breaks in play. Come on, chaps. Buck up a bit. You’re supposed to be the kind of side that beats teams like us 3-1 at home.
Instead, for Arsenal this was the kind of performance that’s so good it makes you look bad: a 2-0 away win that could have been double that against opponents revealed on the night as game but limited middle-rankers. But who were still good enough to knock Arsenal out of the Champions League before the quarter-final stage once again. So after the same old defeat, welcome to the same old analysis. Yes, it’s deja vu all over again for Arsenal and for those who would pronounce on Arsenal, with large swathes of the footballing commentariat reduced to a version of what many critics see in Arsenal’s manager: here we are again, a nation of keyboard Arsène Wengers seeing only the same shapes, the same flaws, the same outcomes.

More Arsenal Soccer Schools in USA

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce the further expansion of Arsenal Soccer Schools USA.
In 2014, Arsenal Soccer Schools launched centres in New York, Boston, New Jersey and Connecticut. Following a successful premiere summer, the Arsenal Soccer Schools USA are expanding to three more locations including Bethesda, MD, Washington, D.C., and Palm Beach, FL.
The US Arsenal Soccer Schools give youngsters of all abilities the chance to ‘Learn to Play the Arsenal Way’, with the Gunners’ qualified coaches employing the same training philosophies as Arsène Wenger and his backroom staff. Both day and residential courses will be on offer, during June and July, for players aged between six and 16.
Arsenal Soccer Schools USA Executive Director David Evans said: “Over the past year, the response to the Arsenal Soccer Schools has been tremendous. Soccer is really gaining popularity across America, and it is great to be able to offer more young players the chance to receive the best quality training from our coaches.
“Passionate soccer players of all ages will love using the same drills and tactics as Arsenal’s professional players do in the English Premier League.”
Registration is open now for this summer’s new Arsenal Soccer Schools: The Palm Beach, FL camp, at Mirasol Park: June 8-12, 2015

Team news: Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain

Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Wednesday night's match against AS Monaco:
on the team news...
The only uncertainty I have at the moment is Jack Wilshere but everybody else is available. He was rested [at training], because he trained hard until now. No, it's not a setback but I don't think [he'll play against Monaco].

on whether Oxlade-Chamberlain has returned to full training…
Yes.