Goonerholics Forever

On Sunday morning Arsenal sat in 11^th place, one point below the visitors who, as Scruz reminded us, have failed to win at our place for 24 years. This felt like another must-win game because a revitalised Everton are a rival for a European spot with the added piquance of being Mikel Arteta’s former club and their new coach, Carlo Ancelotti, being some people’s favourite for our vacancy in December (not least himself). There was the further incentive of a win taking us 3 points closer to the 5^th placed Marshdwellers. Would our third game in seven days have any effect against opponents who had the luxury of fourteen days rest?

Mikel’s team selection predictably rang changes from Thursday’s selection with the return of Bellerin, Kolasinac, Ceballos, Özil and Nketiah. Kolasinac was the only change from the 11 who had started against the Magpies. Saka, though replete with the vigour of youth had earned a rest on the bench. Mikel was clearly hoping the midfield of Xhaka, Ceballos and Özil could reproduce the silkiness and dominance it displayed against the Magpies.

A fine late lunch with Bath Jnr at the usual place preceded a hopeful pilgrimage to the Clock End Upper where we sat in Row 7 directly above the goal. Unusually for us, we got there some 20 minutes before kick-off and watched the Arsenal warm up with interest as the chosen outfield plus Torreira worked with a ball in two teams of right-sided players vs left-sided players with Nketiah, Ceballos and Torreira joining whichever ‘side’ had the ball. Mustafi stood out (like a new signing) with his new silver rinse. After this, the two centre backs practiced long balls to each other while the other outfield players pinged balls around the edge of the penalty area culminating in shots on goal.

Of late, we have become accustomed to slow starts and even to becoming ‘a second-half team’ but people were still shuffling in when we found ourselves behind after 49 seconds. A very soft free kick was given for an innocuous looking challenge by Ceballos halfway inside our own half which saw Richarlison fall as if shot. The ball was launched high into our box. Luiz’s shoulder looped it goalwards and Calvert-Lewin’s overhead kick landed in the net with his boot brushing Luiz’s head.

0-1 Everton, 1 minute.

I wondered if that goal would have been disallowed for dangerous play had we scored that, especially away from home. Another factor was Kolasinac allowing himself to be pushed backwards by Mina to keep the Everton forwards onside as the free-kick was taken. Much later they unsuccessfully tried that ploy again with Ceballos who wasn’t having it.

In the Emery era, an early set back was generally followed by a spell of defensive jitters and midfield incompetence and sometimes by total collapse. No longer. The crowd were vocal as we proceeded to retain possession despite the Everton press and we probed relentlessly forward. Those slick passes around the box during warm up were coming into play leading to a Bellerin shot after 5 minutes from just inside the box but the excellent opportunity flew over. Immediately afterwards, regaining possession in our half, Ceballos put a forward ball through the Everton defence for Aubameyang to run onto but he was tackled by Sidibe as he went to square to the onrushing Nketiah.

Heads certainly hadn’t dropped and a brace of corners followed but Everton showed their new-found confidence with a rapid counter-attack ending in an Iwobi drive high and wide. The pacy Everton forwards were proving a threat as Mustafi had to make a careful challenge on Calvert-Lewin in the box after a simple ball over the top of our defence from their goalkeeper. In the main, however, our forwards’ pressing troubled the Everton defenders and our midfield screened our defence effectively while our forwards worked hard at their defensive duties when Everton had possession.

Fate played another card on 15 minutes when Kolasinac had to leave the pitch in shock, with his right arm in a sling after a mid-air collision with Sidibe. Clavicle fracture or shoulder dislocation? Time will tell. Saka left the bench to fill in at left back again. Again, heads didn’t drop. Our defence dealt with Everton’s press well, playing out generally to Ceballos who made forward balls to Özil in space or directly to a forward despite the attentions of the opposition. Özil was drifting across the field finding space and providing probing balls to the attackers yet it was largely possession without penetration until Nketiah fired over from a tight angle. Shortly afterwards at 25 minutes a move involving 10 players from our goal kick saw Pepe hit the target from 12 yards but his shot was gathered easily by Pickford.

The breakthrough came when a beautiful cross from Saka on the left touchline with Iwobi in close attendance was curled into the centre of the goal for Eddie Nketiah to steer past a statuesque Pickford. A goal that reminded me of Ian Wright and reminded True Storey of Thierry Henry. Eddie’s first PL goal at the Emirates. If Eddie can match either of those strikers long-term, we will be in clover. It was Saka’s 10^th assist of the season. Clover indeed!

1-1, 26 minutes.

Seconds later Everton were in panic mode as Özil burst into the box but the ball was cleared for a corner. A resultant Richarlison break away was well managed by the Arsenal defence. Schneiderlin was then booked for pulling Eddie back on the halfway line. We were looking the better team both with and without the ball, Ceballos playing a lynch-pin role in the centre of midfield. A pass by Luiz down the inside left channel from inside our half through Everton’s high back-line for Aubameyang to run onto mirrored the earlier one by Ceballos. This time PEA14 left the defenders for dead and curled the ball past Pickford into the far corner. Eddie was in attendance for a square ball. There was no question of that nor of it being missed. Reminiscent of TH14. Cue somersault from PEA14 and wild celebrations in the stands.

2-1 Arsenal, 32 minutes.

I felt that we would push on from here as we pinged the ball around their box and pressed them to regain possession in their half. Everton looked rattled for a while. Once they regained composure, our defence dealt competently with their forays. Aubameyang and Pepe were drawing the Everton fullbacks infield giving space for our fullbacks to drive forward and pulling the Everton wide men into defensive positions.

Richarlison seemed lucky to stay on the pitch in the first of five added minutes after he lunged through Ceballos’ standing leg and put his forehead in the face of the remonstrating Bellerin but just a yellow card was waved after VAR discussion – probably correct. A rare corner for Everton in the 4^th added minute led to an undeserved equaliser for the Brazilian bruiser. Baines’ corner was headed clear to the edge of the box to the waiting Siggurdson whose mishit shot looping back into the box was headed on by Mina and an aggressive looking lunge by Richarlison poked the ball under the hapless Leno.

HT 2-2

A sense of injustice at the half-time break was swiftly rectified. Just twenty-three seconds into the second half Aubameyang headed Pepe’s sweet curving cross from the right into the net from the penalty spot after our high press regained possession in the opposition half. PEA14’s tenth brace. Would today bring his first hat-trick?

3-2 Arsenal, 46 minutes.

Once again, I expected us to push on and seal the three points as we began again to press their defenders persistently, regain possession swiftly, stroke the ball around the pitch and probe for openings with Xhaka acting as a quarter-back pivoting the attack between right and left with some elegant long passes.  As ever we were vulnerable to breakaways and Ceballos made one of many key defensive contributions stopping Richarlison’s breakaway at speed. Coming up to the hour mark, a ball across goal from Richarlison on the left was just missed by a sliding Calvert-Lewin due to the attentions of David Luiz. Ancelotti then substituted Gomes for Schneiderlin and Bernard for Iwobi.

Saka then had a crazy five minutes showing his inexperience by losing possession on a dribble out from deep, giving Calvert-Lewin a low shot from inside our box that Leno saved well. Two minutes later Saka did exactly the same thing again that fortunately was snuffed out by Luiz. Then mid-attack, he launched a pass from wide left, well inside the Everton half to Richarlison on the halfway line on the other side. Mustafi cut out the cross to Calvert-Lewin and the attack ended with a wild shot from Sigurdsson.

Whether this lifted Everton, or their subs had an impact, or the Arsenal legs ‘hit the wall’ is hard to tell, but the match began to change from 66 minutes. Everton pressed higher and we seemed to lose momentum bar a promising breakaway that ended with Pepe offside. In the last twenty minutes it began to feel that we were hanging on. Saka added to his earlier errors by collapsing in a heap as he approached halfway with the ball, losing possession and requiring a superb point-blank save from Leno as Bernard’s cross was headed down to Calvert-Lewin for a shot from five yards, Xhaka keeping him onside. Sigurdsson was then yellow-carded for a foul on Ceballos as he drove out of defence.

One sensed that fresh legs were required as we began to lose midfield dominance and fluidity. Nonetheless we still had bullets (unlike the mob up the road apparently). Ceballos curled a shot past the far post after a nice dribble into their box by Özil. He was replaced immediately thereafter by Torreira. Another close range save was required from Leno after Richarlison took possession of a Delph shot on the edge of the 6-yard box. The hardworking Aubameyang made the final clearance from the feet of Bernard.

With 12 minutes to go, the tightness of those muscles and the accumulating lactic acid was evident as we began to walk around with the ball and make short passes. The opposition sensed their advantage and yet another Richarlison ball from the left flashed past Calvert-Lewin and across the goal. Just watching from the stands, you could feel the exhaustion in Arsenal legs as they tried to continue the press or simply make up ground. Going for the equaliser, Ancelotti brought on Kean for Delph. We brought on Guendouzi for Özil to get some fresh legs. Mesut was given warm applause while Mikel Arteta encouraged his exhausted players to make one last effort.

We sat deep and hoofed the ball forward into space while our knackered forward-line watched it fly over their heads and prepared for the next Everton attack. The crowd sensed that the team needed help and cranked up the volume. Surprisingly our forwards summoned up the energy for a concerted press that regained possession from Sigurdsson at the edge of their box and Nketiah hit the bar in the 86^th minute. If only that had gone in the final minutes would have been somewhat less enervating! Guendouzi won a few minutes relief in the corner by getting hacked down by Richarlison. Everton came forward again with a long ball from Gomes towards Richarlison that Bellerin couldn’t cut out. Leno sprinted 24 yards to hook the ball away from Richarlison’s feet. A minute later Leno was down injured after catching a cross, probably from the earlier tackle. It bought a welcome bit of rest for everyone.

Could we hold out for five added minutes? Eddie immediately went to a corner with the ball demonstrating our lack of creative energy. We then sat deep and challenged Everton to show what they could do. From a corner, an unchallenged Calvert-Lewin headed a Bernard cross inches wide. Seconds later the same player leapt high to meet a Richarlison cross but his effort was headed clear by Mustafi to Aubameyang who was unceremoniously knocked over by Gomes. A fourth card for Everton. You could sense the relief coursing through the Arsenal players for those extra moments of rest in the penultimate minute.

FT 3-2 Arsenal

This game saw a superb effort by the whole team with special mentions for Leno, Mustafi, Ceballos, Nketiah and Aubameyang and credit to Saka, Luiz and Pepe for their assists.

Sweet Caroline rang out. So good! So good! So good!

No Emery team could have achieved that result.

In his post-match interview Mikel said,

“The best thing is the spirit that we showed. That’s coming back from Europe, three games in seven days, concede a goal in the first minute – the way we reacted, the way we played for 60-65 minutes. It’s exactly what I want from my team. And again, the resilience that some of the players showed when they were absolutely knackered and they kept going and going and going and it’s exactly what I want.”

Arsenal are the only team in a European major league still unbeaten in any competition in 2020!

It was a cold and rainy night in the city by the bay. The sort of night to test the calibre of Arsenal’s young guns who arrived in Piraeus on the back of an 8 match unbeaten run in cup and league.

Before the match Mikel Arteta had talked of his belief that our younger players would not hide in the face of a hostile Attic crowd. True to his word he started Saka, Martinelli, Guendouzi and Willock but slightly surprisingly preferred Leno to Emi in goal – the German’s greater experience required for a tricky away night perhaps. Sokratis came in at right back in preference to Maitland-Niles and as expected, Joe Willock replaced Mesut Özil, who had remained in London to be with his wife at the upcoming birth of their first child.

On our last trip to Greece in December 2015 we had come away with a 3-0 win courtesy of a Giroud hat-trick. However, lest we read too much into that result a touch over four years later, with Hector and Özil rested and Chambers injured not a single member of the 18 man Arsenal squad that won well that night was still playing for the club. In the past Olympiakos have tested the best at home and beaten the likes of Real Madrid, Juventus, Athletico, Liverpool and the mighty Arsenal – we could expect a stern examination of our new-found defensive credentials particularly in the opening quarter of the game. Could we rise to the challenge or would we come a cropolis?

The first 5 minutes were not reassuring as two very decent chances came and went for Olympiakos, the first well saved by Leno and the second nodded over from close range. Sokratis and Saka were given early problems out wide and we struggled initially to cope with the snap and speed of movement from the home side. On the right particularly we looked vulnerable as Auba was offering precious little defensive support to an out of position Sokratis. We rode our luck, a touch fortuitously at times, but slowly, with Guendouzi and Willock working hard and the Mustafi / Luiz partnership looking more secure in the centre, we grew into the game. The first booking came and went for a sly little stamp on Guendouzi’s foot by El Arabi and then finally on 20 minutes we fashioned a decent chance for Lacazette to put wide from 6 or 7 yards out. Should have scored to be honest. From then on however we started to get on top and the closest Olympiakos came during the rest of the first half was an interception by Luiz (or possibly Guendouzi!) that nearly caught out Leno. For The Arsenal a Xhaka free kick deflected off Martinelli forced the Olympiakos keeper into action, a few other half chances were missed but we struggled for fluency going forward. Half-time was reached and we could be satisfied with having curbed the early fire from Olympiakos but needed to create more going forward with Laca not looking to have gained much confidence from his goal against Newcastle, and Martinelli quiet. Could we get a precious away goal in the 2^nd half?

There were no changes at half time for The Arsenal as the 2^nd half kicked off. The pattern set in the opening 45 minutes continued with both sides unable to create any chance of note in the first 15 minutes. The first change came close to the hour with the arrival of Ceballos for Martinelli.

Olympiakos came more into the game after that, gaining a frustrating series of free-kicks and corners as The Gunners still lacked coherence in the transitional moments to put it in coach speak. Or passed poorly to put it another way. A hopeful appeal from Lacazette for a penalty that never looked like being given, then a decent save by Leno from a header that turned out to be offside and we were already in the final quarter. Pepe came on for Willock, who had had several bright moments on a tough night, and the match meandered on until suddenly on 80 minutes we lit up the Attic night with a cracking goal to delight the traveling faithful.

One nil to The Arsenal

A long ball out wide left from Mustafi was acrobatically kept in by Auba and then slipped inside to Saka on the overlap. Saka controlled well and played a beautifully weighted cross for Lacazette to slide in from close home.

In all honesty we could have scored twice more after that, though it would have not reflected what was mostly a tight game. Lacazette had a chance well saved soon after scoring and a Sokratis header from a Ceballos corner bounced off the bar with the keeper just beaten. We saw the game out with minimal fuss and much blatant time-wasting, a job done and a valuable advantage to take back to The Emirates.

All in all not a game that will live long in the memory but one they may actually be important for defensive confidence – a third consecutive clean sheet that the opening 5 minutes aside was built on solid, disciplined performances from Leno, Sokratis, Mustafi, Luiz and Saka and much unfashionable hard work Guendouzi and Xhaka. It’s been a rare pleasure to write solid and disciplined about an Arsenal defence! If I feel that just watching then how must the players feel to be playing in one? The times they are a-changin?

A good result and onward to the Everton game we go.

I was supposed to write this match report from a hotel room in India, in the middle of the dark night, my creativity fueled by sleeplessness, drinks, and a long day of visiting friends and relatives that despite sapping physical energy – or maybe, because of that – tends to light up the imagination. Bereft of such natural stimuli, a couple of untimely shots of espresso are my inspiration in this grey Boston afternoon. Also, an ecstatic eight-year-old boy who has been doodling cartoon of his heroes, Auba and Laca, reenacting their inimitable handshake, the drawing further decorated by a stick figure of Dúbravka lying helplessly inside his own goal. And, of course, an inspirational second half performance from our beloved The Arsenal.    

A few days before we were talking about what (he wanted to know) I remember to be our best performances at Emirates. The come-from-behind 2-1 win against that Barcelona vintage – one of the greatest club teams in history – in 2011 was at the top of my list. Coincidentally that match was played on 16^th February as well. That team of promising young Turks never really achieved anything memorable at the end of season, and soon afterwards for one reason or another most of them had left the club and the club entered a new phase, not relying entirely on young talents but carefully and judiciously adding established players: a few glamorous effervescent talents of world football (Özil, Alexis) as well reliable, and intelligent professionals who are less of world stars but no less valuable. Of the latter type, Mikel Arteta was the perfect example. As a player he was an excellent leader even before he was made the club captain, and his intensity, commitment, seriousness, intelligence – all ably supported by high quality technical abilities and tactical awareness – had helped the club to get out of an alarming little phase of footballing chaos and continue its reputation as a progressive, creative footballing team that had helped to attract talents like Cazorla or Özil or Alexis later, and we had enjoyed three FA cup successes in quick succession, continued champions league football and the metronomic regularity of St. Totteringham’s Day. Arteta the captain had shown such a genuine love for club and had embraced its values with such wide open arms that it had felt inevitable when he left that he will be back one day patrolling the touchline.

I personally was fine with that stature of our club – an attractive football team winning cups, playing in Champions League, making incremental progress towards winning the league back again. But of course football, like life, doesn’t move in a continuous upward curve and the ones that can respond to the inevitable downward slopes with patience, fortitude, and intelligence, and then fight for their core values while remaining open to necessary changes are the ones who eventually come back up again.

Last three years have been the longest few in my Arsenal supporting life. A lot has really happened off the field and irrespective of how we may individually feel about each of the decisions being made by the club one thing was becoming clear that as a football team we were falling headlong into a dysfunction that very swiftly went from alarming to catastrophic. Forget the results: the football was unwatchable. Unwatchable for the entirety of the match, match after match. No creativity, no shape, no structure, no spirit and no discipline.

In matters Arsenal I choose to be an optimist, so I have been encouraged by how Mikel had gone about reversing the trend. With iron hands in velvet gloves approach towards his players, an uncompromising demand on commitment, discipline and work-rate, and a footballing vision that carries the imprints of his two great mentors in Wenger and Guardiola he has been able to inspire a few halves or good performances since he joined, but a result like today’s was absolutely necessary to convince the players themselves and then transmit that belief fully to the supporters.

The team selection was curious, but not inexplicably so. Steve Bruce’s Newcastle was expected to play with two deep banks of four players, so having Ceballos – in the post-match interview Arteta praised Dani had apparently “trained like an animal” – linking defense into attack and moving the ball fast vertically instead of a traditional deep-lying protector in Torreira made sense. Laca’s recent wretched form in front of goal meant sooner or later he will miss out on the starting line-up. But it was unexpected to see Nketiah down the middle whereas most of us would have probably played Martinelli on the left and Auba down the middle. Probably Martinelli was being saved for the important Europa match where being the away team he will have the space to attack in front of him and his directness and pace will be more of a threat.

So, the team, from left to right: Leno; Saka, Luiz, Mustafi, Bellerin; Xhaka, Torreira; Aubameyang, Özil, Pepe; Nketiah.

The first half was a slow affair, where despite us having majority of the possession there was neither incisiveness nor any genuine quality in the final third. Newcastle defense was well-organized and balls moving slowly and/or sideways didn’t create too much of an alarm for them. Ceballos and Özil both were enjoying a lot of possession but there was not enough movement off the ball for them to open up spaces. Rather, the first real goal threat came from Newcastle around 14 minutes when a cleverly taken corner resulted in a deflected shot off Ceballos’ head that Leno had to jump acrobatically towards his left to save. The awareness that the team cannot just wait for things to happen and they need to force the issue may have clicked on a few players’ mind then and there was an increase in intent. Saka, not for the first time this season, looked the liveliest and the likeliest to make something happen. Around 20 minutes he cut inside and his rasping shot flew over the bar.

There were a few exchanges of corners, including an excellent one by Pepe from which  a more alert David Luiz may have had a chance to work the goalkeeper. Arsenal was structurally solid and kept their defensive shape and discipline for the most part – though in all fairness it was a relatively easy thing to do as the only genuine threat came from the mercurial Saint-Maximin who was giving Bellerin a harder time than Hector had probably expected – except for an unnecessary pull-back in the middle of the pitch in a truly Xhaka-esque manner by none other than the man who probably invented the art of needless yellow cards, Granit Xhaka himself. But credit to him for not repeating any more moments of thoughtlessness in the rest of the match, and being not only neat and tidy on the ball but also imaginative in the second half.

Lee Mason – the eight-year-old quips that he looks like an overgrown baby; sorry Lee the primary school sarcasm is brutal :–)  – was easily buying into the theory that wispy Dani is pushing and tackling the large unit of Saint-Maximin so much that every-time they came together Newcastle earned a foul. Hope Dani doesn’t get into his head that he has some kind of a magical power.

Even though the attack was not quite coming together there was a good link-up play between Özil and Nketiah from which Nketiah’s effort flew straight to Dúbravka. Ceballos with his nifty little turns, ability to suddenly accelerate and good close-control – reminiscent of the irreplaceable (at least, not yet replaced) Cazorla – maintained a measure of control over the middle of the pitch which was allowing Özil to float between the two banks of defenders and picking up ball in spaces. I think this is the first time in this season Mesut Özil could play as Mesut Özil, thriving in the ambiguity of space and using the positional discipline of defenders and defensive midfielders against themselves, and not having to continuously drop deeper to pick up the ball brought out the occasional luster to his game which has been missing for a very long time.  We are probably never going to see the Özil of 15-16 season again but maybe in this (most likely) swansong of a season he can leave behind more indelible memories.  The half ended with a promising moment: a great free-kick by Pepe that was saved finger-tip by Dúbravka.

The half-time break felt interminable as the TV pundits on the studio were being a tad bit too critical of what has been until then admittedly a blunt attack, but more so because of the repeated showing of some irrelevant club in North London winning away at mighty Aston Villa with a last minute goal. The eight-year-old was half resigned to one more draw, and as the teams appear back on the TV screen his plea of just scoring a goal touched both my heart and nerves.  

The team started the second half brightly. I guess just like it happened in the Leeds match the team was reminded at the break that they have a responsibility to live up to their abilities. An excellent move down the right by Pepe led to what seemed like an easy chance for Nketiah who somehow managed to hit the cross-bar from point blank range. Pepe was growing in the game and it was noticeable that there has been a conscious tactical tuning to the team’s attacking play: instead of using the right side merely as bulwark and/or decoy and asking Pepe to cover the entire right side and hence use him primarily in the role of defending from the front while the left side creates the chances, Pepe as a creative winger was being ably supported by both Nketiah coming out to his right and Hector overlapping. Xhaka had by then assumed his customary “left back” role, pushing Saka forward and essentially using Nketiah and Auba as a strike partnership.

The increased tempo and an improved movement off the ball led to our first goal around 53 minutes. Pepe floated in an accurate but otherwise innocuous looking cross which Auba attacked over the head of their right back and headed back across masterfully into the goal beyond the outstretched left arm of Dúbravka.  In post-match interview Auba confessed he has been practicing that particular header. He doesn’t score many headed goals, this particular route can become another productive avenue for him, especially given that he will generally outjump most right backs even if he starts behind them.

The second goal was a thing of beauty. Auba and Saka exchanged passes down the left and Saka found himself near the by-line with two defenders around him, a classy nutmeg through the legs of one and then his pin-point cutback curled emphatically by Pepe’s left foot. Interestingly Mustafi of all people was actually in the penalty box at that time and whether that was intentional — to create diversion as Pepe attacked the empty space quickly to reach the ball even before defenders could realize what was happening – or not, it worked beautifully. 56 minutes, we are up 2-0, and Pepe (unfairly criticized in my opinion as I think he will become a highly effective and productive player once he becomes familiar with the league) with a goal and an assist.

After the second goal the team started to show signs of uncertainty. They are still carrying scars of awful things happening earlier in the season and were visibly unsure about how exactly to approach the rest of the game. However, the coolness of Xhaka, Luiz and Mustafi (despite a couple of stray passes), and truly wonderful control of ball and tempo by Ceballos slowly helped us back regain the domination. In between Newcastle fashioned out a few good moves, including a very impressive Saint-Maximin hitting the bar after a great run. Leno was beaten and, on another day, it could have ricocheted off to a defender or Leno into the goal. But given what the team has been through they deserved a little bit of good fortune.    

As the team started to control the game again Saka went on a mazy run and was almost through to the penalty box but a collision of legs left him in the heaps. He was probably marginally more to blame for the coming together. But it once again showcased his prodigious talent. With cotton wool in one of his nostrils, he was back on the pitch relieving us all of any potential injury fears. Around 82 minutes Ceballos was replaced by Torreira. He left the field among ringing applause of appreciation. I am one of those who think if Real Madrid sanctions it we should get him on a permanent basis. The class, the ability, the quality are all there and he is quite the fighter.  Around 85 minutes Nketiah was replaced by Lacazette. The boy said hopefully he will score a goal today.

Which he did. But before that he provided a neat assist to someone else who also needed a goal very much. For all his technical abilities, awareness of space, and ability to move away from his markers Mesut Özil doesn’t score enough goals. Even in his pomp he was happier providing the assist than scoring and I remember Arsene openly cajoling him in public interviews to take more shots himself. He has scored quite a few memorable goals for us but just like his assists his goal scoring too has dropped off vertiginously in the last couple of years. As mentioned earlier he played a lot more like the old Mesut Özil today – not just in all those touches and glides which never deserted him even in the bad days but more in creating opportunities in the final third with Ceballos providing him the midfield foundation so that he can afford the unpredictability of his movements without costing the team defensively – and the cute finish that slipped past Dúbravka brought a visible smile of joy and relief to his face. He likes those unconventional “dropped shot” finishes, sometimes they don’t work at all and I am not convinced today it worked fully, but just enough to put Dúbravka off. After scoring the goal Arteta took Özil off so that he could leave the field with standing ovation. Willock came in for him with just a few minutes to go.

Then it happened. Around the fifth minute of the stoppage time, Lacazette, our player of the season last year, going through the most barren patch of his entire career, always working hard but every single missed opportunity visibly draining away his self-confidence, finally scored a goal. Another excellent move down the right with Willock feeding Pepe who provided a simple cut-back to Laca from which he scored. It was a most un-Lacazette like finish. He doesn’t score many from scuffed shots or tap-ins, his shots in or around the penalty box are almost always emphatic. This one was a somewhat hilarious exception: he miskicked his right foot shot on his left foot and the ball looped and spun straight into the top corner. His elation, shared by everyone in the team, and the collective release as they celebrated jubilantly together was a joy to watch. That camaraderie is what often makes the difference between success and failure in a team sport.

Arsenal 4 – Newcastle 0.

Goals: Aubameyang (assist Pepe), Pepe (assist Saka), Özil (assist Lacazette), Lacazette (assist Pepe).

If an Arsenal fan had spent the last year or so in a silent meditation retreat and he was treated to this result after his first day back joining the human chaos, he will take it as just another day at the Emirates. As it should always be. Arsenal, with those players playing together in attack, should more often than not have results like this at home. But the rest of us shouldn’t easily forget the ineptitude of last one year and should not take this for granted. I am certain that the Arteta revolution will gather momentum and the team will continue to get better, but whenever the occasional bad performance and bad results come about, we should still stand by the team and the manager, and not forget that for nearly the entire span of 2019 this team’s performance was no better than that of a relegation candidate.  

Can we go on a run in PL, Europa, and FA cup now? If the team can resurrect something tangible from this season then it will be proudest moment of an eight-year-old boy’s Arsenal supporting life. And we all can start believing that we are back, or on our way back, where we belong. We belong among the best not because of any misplaced sense of entitlement, but because this is a club that, despite everything that has happened in recent past, champions and represents the best values of the game that we all love: creativity, camaraderie, discipline, harmony.