We’re just a few days removed from the conclusion of the 29th week (even though most teams were playing their 28th games) of the 2016/17 English Premier League season. We saw all 20 teams take the pitch between Saturday and Sunday, and there were 28 goals scored across all games, with our TOP ELVN players involved in 7 of them (5 goals and 2 assists).
We saw the top-team in the league go about its business (though not in the most convincing of fashions), another team let go of its vice grip on 6th position, two teams from the bottom-half of the table pick up their 3rd consecutive wins (increasing the amount of distance between themselves and the drop zone), and much more… With all of the action across the board, it can only mean that it’s time for the second installment of our new series; “11 Things”, where we’ll be going over our own favourite talking points (this time; from Match-Week 29 of the English Premier League). Now, let’s get started.
11. “Setting the Table” & “Banner Wars”:
We start by going back to The Hawthorns, for the first game of the weekend (and a double helping of talking points), where we saw West Bromwich Albion take on the visiting Arsenal. Coming into the game, Tony Pulis’ men had already established themselves as the League’s most dangerous team from set-pieces – with 17 of their 36 goals to that point, coming from dead-ball situations (mostly corner kicks) – and everyone knew that; except for the Arsenal players and Manager, apparently.
We were hardly done with the first quarter-hour of the game, when Centre-back, Craig Dawson rose up, completely unmarked to head in a Nacer Chadli corner, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead. If that wasn’t enough, the second half brought us a bit of déjà vu, with Dawson running free (again) and rising up unmarked (again) to head in an in-swinging corner kick (again, again), this time, from Chris Brunt – for his second and West Brom’s third of the afternoon. Those goals took them to a total of 14 from corner kicks, this season; 5 better than the next best team. We just hope their next opponents learn the lesson that the visiting Gunners obviously failed to. Now, to the banner wars…
Craig Dawson wasn’t the only flying object at The Hawthorns; as fans of both teams got to witness a war of planes and flying banners (which wasn’t nearly as interesting as it sounded there).
Just before kick-off, a plane was seen flying over the stadium, with a banner that boldly displayed the words; “NO CONTRACT #WENGER OUT”, but, as soon as Alexis Sanchez scored Arsenal’s first-half equalizer, another plane was spotted in the skies, this time, the banner said; “IN ARSENE WE TRUST #RESPECTAW ”. A lot of people have joked that the second banner was sponsored by the managers of the other top 5 teams (Conte, Pochettino, Guardiola, Klopp and Mourinho), an explanation which was admittedly quite funny. However; the more likely source of the spectacle is the inability of Arsenal fans to agree on the fate of their current manager and his role in the club’s future, with almost equal numbers falling on either side of the Arsene Wenger fence.
There aren’t many managers who would have a two-year contract extension on their tables, if they found themselves in similar positions, and the rumours are that Monsieur Wenger has already accepted said contract, but we’re most interested in hearing your individual opinions on the entire #WengerOut debacle. You can vote in the poll below, and leave any additional thoughts in the comments section.
(Kindly use the numbers below to navigate through the rest of the pages.)
ELVN F.C. 
Awesome article. Arsenal is most likely to miss the top 4
LikeLike