I don't get it

I try hard to avoid football content, so as not to halve my readership. Well, not that hard, truth be told. And we are in the season 2021/2022 end game from tonight onwards. Despite Wycombe Wanderers amazingly and brilliantly getting through to Wembley for the League One playoffs, my focus is on Thursday's Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal game.

Arsenal are 4 points clear of Spurs and both teams will have 2 games to go after this North London Derby. One of them will end up in 4th place in the Premier League table, earning for themselves the riches of the Champions League next season. The other will end up 5th and have to suffer the ignominy of Thursday evening Europa League consolation.

If I were a neutral, the expectation would be that Spurs win the NLD - they are in good form and at home - followed by their winning their two extremely easy games against already-relegated-and-on-their-holidays Norwich City and truly-awful Burnley. You - the neutral observer - would expect Arsenal to drop points in at least one of the remaining games against rejuvenated Newcastle and also-truly-awful Everton. All of which suggests it's all on a knife edge. A real 50/50.

Yet the bookies' odds make Arsenal 2/7 favourites to get that 4th place, with Spurs around 9/4 against. I don't get it. Nevertheless I have a dinky little £50 bet on Spurs to make it, although I only got just under 2/1 at the time. Should that happen, it would buy me a few beers to drown my sorrows.

There is also the delicious, if unlikely, prospect that both could overtake Chelsea and force the latter out of next season's Champions League. The odds of that happening are around 50/1 against. We can hope. Watch this space.

Tomorrow - Leeds v Chelsea.

Thursday - the Big One. I would be behind the sofa if I had one. I'm already a bag of nerves, two days out. Time for a drink..........