My first game back at The Emirates since I paid Ł400 to see us beat Manchester United. What a great evening! One of the reasons I took a job in the midwest to work on a new football club...
My first game back at The Emirates since I paid Ł400 to see us beat Manchester United.
What a great evening!
One of the reasons I took a job in the midwest to work on a new football club was having the chance to impact the experience of people who will grow up with football their whole life. When you return to the experience that pock-marked your upbringing with all sorts of impactful memories and moments, it’s special. You’re back where you were 8 years ago when you were season ticket holding. There is literally nothing better than being a season ticketholder at Arsenal. Nothing.
I wasn’t sure how the game would go. We boast a particularly moldy record against Brighton. They are mini-us and they seem to relish playing against their richer brethren.
Well, not last night.
It was a brutal display of JdP football from Mikel Arteta from arguably his strongest side – and can I say it? A very peak-Arsene-Wenger-frustrating-evenining. I mean that as a complement. We absolutely battered Brighton for the whole game. 26 attempts at goal, 9 hitting the target… and in the end, it felt like Brighton could have escaped with a point after a mini-flurry at the end. Very Charlton circ-2004ish.
It wasn’t to be. Eddie Nketiah came on and combined with Kai Havertz to make the difference. His slick reverse pass into his run ended with the German poking the ball under the keeper for a BIG GAME winner.
I’ll talk about our first goal now because it was weird. The easiest of the match. Not the type of Arsenal goal we seemed to want in a game where we were seeking a multi-pass masterpiece. It was a corner that found Jesus open at the back post for a diving header into an empty net. Thierry scored one of those against Liverpool once, and his celebration was a shrug of the shoulders.
‘Ugly can happen to me’
That win was even bigger considering the wider context of Manchester City dropping 2 points late against Palace and Liverpool playing a bore draw against United. That leaves Arsenal back on top of the league heading into a MAJOR Liverpool game.
We have freshness on our side with Liverpool managing a quarter-final against West Ham in the League Cup.
I’m also finding it hard to forget about how bland Liverpool was against United. The results say they could win the title, but I’m not feeling sexy about how they play in general. They look one or two injuries away from problems. A lot is going there way. But the late losing moments they are turning around come from dismal displays, not unfairness like Arsenal.
Our big players are putting on big performances. Delcan Rice was monstrous in midfield again, he covers so much ground, he always knows where to be, and some of his one-touch-line-breaking passing is delicious. He looked like the new Vieira yesterday.
Martin Odegaard has surfed the waves of criticism, but he was back on top last night. He was everywhere, even with those final ball passes we don’t see enough of at times. It’s been a slow start hampered by injury, so hopefully, we’re going to see a turning point for him.
It’d also be remiss to ignore King Kai and the major shift he put in. The man is so fast, so aggressive, and so good in that left 8 position now he’s got a bit of confidence about what he needs to be doing in our system. Ł65m players have final action output and my word is he starting to look like he could be the output machine he was at Bayer Leverkusen. The critics are VERY quiet at the moment. Just remember who couldn’t see it with Kai, because there were a lot on his back.
Oh, Gabriel Jesus. The man is the most world-class striker we’ve had since Thierry if you exclude goals. He has it all. He defends, he attacks, he picks balls out of the air without breaking a sweat. He is a nightmare machine for defenders because he plays where he wants and it is so hard to deal with his dazzling feet. Last night, he was sensational, and he scored. Can’t knock it, can you?
Final word for Eddie… the man has a great all-around game but his assist numbers are dreadful. It was brilliant to see him contribute to a game that way, because a lot of us were huffing at his inclusion.
Now I’ve done some tourist fandom, I do have to say, there were a lot of empty seats around the stadium yesterday, and the common theme when talking to people is the atmosphere ain’t the same. Instead of bottling what was working, it seems the club has broken something in the drive to clamp down on ticket touting (and driving towards fairness in how tickets are distributed). Sometimes, the best policies can have unforeseen circumstances. Making it really hard for fans to transfer tickets most certainly reduces some touts, but the bigger issue seems to be that it makes it really hard for people to fill tickets last minute. There shouldn’t be red gaps at a Brighton game when you’re chasing the Premier League title. The atmosphere shouldn’t be meh in an exciting game, but I’m afraid it was.
Ok, final, final. I don’t know why people are so keen to keep dropping rumors that Jurrien Timber will be back way early. But I have to be real with you, this feels like pipedream stuff. He’s not a superhero. Players don’t recover from injuries as serious as his one that much earlier. March should be where your head is at so you don’t get disappointed. You also have to remember it’s a long road to recovery after those sorts of injuries. You have the little niggles that can plague returns, and you also have the psychological challenges that come with learning to trust your body parts won’t explode. Gabriel Jesus came back last season and he was nowhere near the player he is now. Then he had another minor surgery to clear out issues. Now, he’s finally playing like a megastar again. Serious injuries take time, don’t buy into the fake twitter accounts telling you otherwise.
Ok, now catch The AOP.
