Goonerholics Forever

When 2025 began we were six points behind Liverpool, who had a game in hand. C130y, who we had expected to be our major competition, were eight points behind us. To everyone’s surprise, including Predictathon participants, Nottingham Forest occupied third position. We had work to do to catch Liverpool who had lost only once. We had only suffered two league defeats but a number of draws had seen points trickle away.

The year commenced with a tricky away game against Brentford. Sky still clearly regarded their screening of Brentford’s return to the top flight in August 2019 as a major coup and an occasion to be relived despite the fact that Arsenal‘s only defeat at the hands of Brentford was in that Covid-affected and dubiously refereed match, and Arsenal had won their last three games at the Community Stadium without conceding a goal. When the dangerous Mbuemo struck in the first ten minutes to put Brentford ahead they started to roll out the familiar ‘Arsenal don’t like it up ’em‘ theme. Except this Arsenal side don’t mind a bit of physicality at all and soon equalised through Gabriel Jesus who was becoming a regular scorer after his goal drought ended. In the second half Arsenal’s superiority manifested itself very clearly and a quickfire brace of goals from Merino and Martinelli saw Arsenal ease to victory.

We then travelled to an even more testing venue – the Amex Stadium – to play Brighton. Brighton had benefited from a very flawed refereeing decision in our first game with them and they did so again this time. Anthony Taylor a referee who likes to be the centre of attention decided that an innocuous challenge from Saliba on Joao Pedro, where he clearly played the ball, was an illegal headbutt and therefore a penalty. Watching it Arsenal fans were incredulous. To add insult to injury Joao Pedro converted the spot kick to equalise an early goal by Ethan Nwaneri, who was subsequently taken off with a leg injury leaving us even more strapped for creative wing resources. The two ‘ eccentric’  refereeing decisions in favour of Brighton had robbed us of four points. The fates seemed to be conspiring against us with another ‘only us’ decision. Certainly it was hard to think of another side who had been penalised so heavily, for such trivial incidents.

Newcastle’s visit to us for the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final was a depressing evening because it underlined the main fallibility in our side, and we witnessed possibly the best individual performance against us during the season. Alexander Isak tore us apart upfront, scoring in the first half and setting up Anthony Gordon for another early in the second half. We created a number of great chances, several of which we missed with Havertz being particularly culpable, Burn and Botman playing out of their skins, and Dubravka proving unbeatable. As a matter of interest, so slanted did I consider the narrative to be in the Sky commentary that I wrote to the Head of Sky Sport to register my disapproval. I treasure his reply, which no doubt a secretary had run off from their store of regularly  aired excuses and which said nothing of any consequence. A two goal deficit was theoretically recoverable when the teams were to meet again in a month’s time but there was a confidence and aura about this Newcastle side that suggested they would be a very tough nut to crack in the second leg.

We segued from League Cup to FA Cup , a competition that we had wildly underperformed in since Arteta led us to victory in his first season. While I am extremely sympathetic to Arsenal’s campaign to eradicate knife crime, I find the white kit they wear for FA Cup matches seems to produce anaemic performances in keeping with the theme of the campaign. We faced a home game against the erratic Manchester United who we had beaten easily a month earlier. United were a much tougher nut to crack despite Bayindir (their reserve keeper) playing in place of Onana. Having looked highly suspect in previous games he predictably was brilliant against us, saving an Ødegaard penalty and playing superbly throughout the game and in the ultimate penalty shootout. Fernandes had struck a superb opener which Gabriel equalised shortly after Dallo had been sent off . We could not score again and Havertz missed the fateful penalty in the shootout to seal our FA Cup exit. In a few days we had suffered two serious setbacks in two competitions both at home.  More significantly Gabriel Jesus was carried off with what later proved to be an ACL injury ruling him out for the season. This increased the pressure on the club to find more striking resources.

Next up was the North London Derby at home. We dominated play almost completely but went a goal down when Son hit a speculative volley that appeared to be deflected past Raya. Thankfully we hit back quickly with Gabriel heading home from a superb Rice corner and then Trossard drove home on the break to put us ahead. We controlled a nervy second half and secured victory to ensure bragging rights in North London for the  foreseeable future and Lewis Skelly increased his popularity with Gooners everywhere by winding up irate Tottenham fans as he was substituted. The emergence of Lewis Skelly, a midfielder converted into a highly effective left back, had been astonishing and this was to be one of the stories of the season as within a few weeks he was a full England international, who scored within the first twenty minutes of his debut. But he was also a player that controversy seemed to follow around!

Our run of home games continued with a game against Aston Villa who had damaged our championship challenge so grievously last season. We set about rectifying this damage racing into a 2-0 lead through Martinelli and Havertz. Sadly our vaunted defence failed us on this occasion. Two players with whom we have been heavily linked in the past,  Tielemans and Watkins, equalised taking advantage of very un-Arsenal-like defending. A Merino deflected effort seemed to have clinched the points for us but VAR intervened as it so often does for us and we had to settle for a point.

The transfer window was in full swing but this was a relative term . Few clubs seemed committed to extensive trading and this made the acquisition of a striker extremely problematical .  A £40 million bid for Ollie Watkins  was rebuffed by Villa while we also considered whether to advance the potential purchase of Benjamin Sesko albeit paying a heavy premium in the process . One reassurance was the durability of Kai Havertz who was used unremittingly by Arteta through this period. But could Havertz continue to play through the rest of the season without respite? We were soon to find out.

The absence of an experienced Sporting Director hit us hard despite the hard work of Jason Ayto who acted in an interim capacity and has by all accounts secured the signature of Zubimendi from Sociedad for next season. We were incomplete as a unit in attack given the absence of Gabriel Jesus and the almost complete inability of Sterling to make an impact. The two loan transfers which blocked us from doing other loan business were not impressive. To be fair to Neto he only had one game but most Gooners were very glad about that after his performance in Girona. Sterling was frankly awful notwithstanding his goalscoring CV and experience. It would be hard to imagine a much weaker contribution from an experienced player who was drawing a total salary of £375K a week. Thank goodness Chelsea were paying the lion’s share.

Our next game was one of our most controversial. We travelled to take on an improving Woves side at Molineux and to our astonishment found ourselves down to ten men early in the second half when Lewis- Skelly was given a straight red card for a cynical trip SEVENTY yards from the Arsenal goal. The referee Michael Oliver has plenty of previous with Arsenal, including sending off Martinelli for two offences within seconds at Molineux a few years before. It was a ridiculous decision which was subsequently overturned but it left us with ten men away from home. Wolves were reduced to ten men shortly afterwards themselves and then Calafiori produced another sublime goal from left-back to secure the points. Conspiracy theories abounded about Oliver who had sent Trossard off at the Etihad and it was a very unsatisfactory episode, although MLS seemed to shrug off the controversy without any problem.

Our next league game was the reverse fixture with C130y who had been stuttering over the previous few months and were on the fringes of the title race. It was possibly the most joyous league game of the season. An early Ødegaard goal was cancelled out by a Haaland header ten minutes into the second half and we feared that this might turn the game . From the restart a deflected Partey shot gave us the lead again and the last twenty minutes saw us rip their hesitant and desperately slow rearguard to shreds. MLS scored his first Arsenal goal and then mimicked Haaland who was entreated throughout the match by Arsenal fans to be humble but in very impolite terms! Havertz who was suffering from a lack of confidence in front of goal characterised by an astonishing early miss converted coolly after a Martinelli breakaway and then a long and complex passing sequence saw Rice find Nwaneri on the right and he finished with a sublime (and rapidly becoming trademark) curling shot. It was hugely enjoyable to destroy C130y in this way and underlined the quality that existed in this Arsenal side at its best.

Unfortunately we were not at our best in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi- final where Isak (especially), Murphy, and Gordon tore us apart and Newcastle recorded another 2-0 victory. Their re-emergence as a power was slightly tarnished for me by the release of a wave of supporter arrogance that was fairly rich coming from a club that  had been in the doldrums for seventy years! Sky could barely contain their delight at this turn of events.

Arsenal jetted off to Dubai to lick their wounds and to refresh and revive themselves as they did so successfully there last season. Then we received the catastrophic news that Havertz would miss the rest of the season with a serious hamstring injury acquired in training out there. This effectively ended any realistic chance we had of hunting down Liverpool, even if they faltered and so we  turned our thoughts towards Europe to salvage any glory from the season. We had been given a painful lesson in squad management and the need and ability to rotate the squad and our forward recruitment had been woefully inadequate in the summer. Now it came home to roost.

The Havertz news broke before the window closed. Our main effort to sign a striker was the Watkins initiative but Villa having sold Duran were understandably reluctant to sell. It was suggested we looked at advancing a sale of Sesko, signing Alvaro Morata or Vlahovic and I suspect we looked at the viability of a loan deal for Marcus Rashford. In the end we kept our powder dry. It was probably the sensible thing to do but it creates pressure on our work in the summer window. Every team in the world knows we need a striker although we appear to be shopping for players who have an agreed transfer value in their contract (a la Partey when we signed him). That’s an easier negotiation but it does require you to pay all the money in one lump which has PSR implications. A few seasons before when we needed to upgrade Lacazette and tried hard to sign Vlahovic who opted to go to Juventus, we also decided not to follow any of the other options available in the striker department that window. One of them was Alexander Isak of Real Sociedad. I wonder what happened to him?!

Our temporary solution to the Havertz injury was to switch Merino upfront. He made his first appearance at Leicester as a substitute with about twenty five minutes to go. The score was 0-0 and we had looked toothless with Sterling giving a performance that was distressingly bad. By the end of the game  Merino had scored twice including a powerful header to break the deadlock. He dedicated the goals to his wife who he had forgotten to buy a Valentine present for! Had Arteta stumbled on a solution to our goalscoring problems by accident rather than design? One positive feature of the game was an excellent performance by Nwaneri who was being considered as a possible contender for the  place in the England team, temporarily vacated by Saka!

Our title aspirations were hanging by a thread but that thread snapped when West Ham arrived at the Emirates and came away with a smash and grab 1-0 victory. It was reminiscent of last season when they also won at our place and our limitations as an attacking force were writ large . To rub salt in the wound Lewis-Skelly was sent off for a professional foul early in the second half. It was a reasonable decision on a bitterly disappointing day and only our third defeat in the league. 

We then had to travel to Nottingham to play third-placed Forest, who up to that point were having a wonderful season. They are a very dangerous counter-attacking side and Chris Wood their striker scored consistently all season. One wonders what he might have achieved in the red shirt of Arsenal. The game was frustrating because we totally dominated possession but the nearest we came to scoring was when Calafiori produced an excellent turn and right foot shot that bounced against the post and away. We created little beyond that but controlled Forest easily in all their transitions and were much the stronger side. The reaction to our 0-0 draw was frankly ridiculous. One suspects Sky were despairing because there was no title race by the end of February but the reaction to our performance was 180 degrees away from Liverpool’s brave recovery from 1-0 down to draw at the City ground a few weeks before – ‘the sort of performance champions give‘. Arsenal meanwhile having strangled the life out of one of the toughest teams  in the country were pilloried as inadequate.  We would obviously have expected and wanted a better result but given all of the circumstances it was a  well earned point.

When we travelled to Old Trafford in early March we had just put PSV to the sword in Eindhoven. We didn’t put a very bland United team to the sword in Manchester but we were very comfortably outplaying them until they got a free kick just before the interval which Fernandes bent into the top corner past Raya – quite unsaveable. Afterwards every Arsenal fan I spoke to said that as Fernandes stepped up to take the kick they knew he would score. I certainly did! It summed up this really frustrating season perfectly. Arsenal managed to equalise in the second half through a fierce Rice drive. The narrative was set though. Arsenal drop further points in their forlorn chase of Liverpool. They had dropped four points in two away games that they won last season and would have almost certainly won this season if they’d had a decent striker. Who knew?

Arsenal were comfortably ahead of their rivals for a Champions League place but still needed to accumulate enough points to avoid an unseemly scramble at the end of the season. Chelsea’s visit in mid-March was an example of a six point local derby but in reality it was a fairly flat atmosphere. Arsenal dominated early on, took a lead from a set piece through their new Spanish scoring sensation, Merino, and while Chelsea had huge periods of possession they created virtually nothing and rarely looked like scoring . If Arsenal had invested mega millions in a striker who,produced the goal return that Merino was achieving in the League and in Europe most Gooners would have been delighted . Some of us began to think the problem of failing to score in the volumes we had the season before might lie with the combination of an absent Saka and an Odegaard who was a pale shadow of the player who had played so brilliantly in previous seasons .

We welcomed another West London rival in our next game when Fulham visited us. They had started to prove a difficult nut to crack in recent seasons, possibly because they now employed so many ex-Gunners, extra motivated to do well against us. Hot shot Merino put us ahead midway through the first half and midway through the second we welcomed back Bukayo Saka. A few moments later he celebrated by heading home a chip from Martinelli. A late, deflected Muniz goal produced a final 2-1 scoreline that rather flattered Fulham but the big news was not even the return of Saka but what looked like a serious injury to Gabriel. A few days later it was announced that his season was over just before the visit of Real Madrid, Mbappe and all! Could our luck get any worse?

We paid our last visit to Goodison Park on the following Saturday. Everton’s form had improved markedly under Moyes. We began positively and Trossard scored neatly on a transition after an assist from the prolific Raheem Sterling. We were leading comfortably when early in the second half referee Darren England decided to become the latest PGMOL referee to visit an injustice against young Lewis- Skelly, deeming that a slip with minimal contact had been enough to poleaxe the Everton forward. Ndiaye despatched the penalty and we recorded yet another draw. Given Everton’s late season renaissance this was another result that wasn’t a complete disaster but it would have almost certainly been a win without a grotesque refereeing intervention.

Arsenal’s focus was increasingly on Europe but a happy Emirates welcomed an obdurate Brentford in our next game. We rotated heavily given the game fell between the two legs of the Madrid tie. A second half break orchestrated by Rice and finished by Partey saw us take a deserved lead. A late well-taken Wissa goal gave Brentford a share of the points. We  had other fish to fry but we were haemorrhaging points often from winning positions – a habit that was becoming distressingly common and which undoubtedly owed a lot to the absences of key players like Gabriel, Timber and White.

We paid our first visit to Portman Road for many years on Easter Sunday. It was a very dominant performance against a side thst had endured a tough campaign after their surprise promotion last year. Trossard gave us an early lead which was doubled after a slick move, by Martinelli, before the interval. Ipswich had their left-back Davis sent off in the first half and were in damage limitation mode thereafter. Trossard increased the damage midway through the second half and Nwaneri got a slightly scruffy goal with three minutes to go. A 4-0 victory was a welcome return to the goal standard in the league.

Cup semi-finalists Crystal Palace visited us a few days before their Wembley date with Villa. A very fine early header by Kiwior was cancelled out by an Eze volley before Trossard restored our lead. A late rather odd Mateta goal, a chip from thirty yards that went in off the bar earned Palace an equaliser and saw us drop two more points.

Our next game against the Cherries was sandwiched in between two semi- final matches in the Champions League and saw Arteta understandably rotate again. Declan Rice was becoming a more regular scorer and he finished intelligently midway through the first half to give us the lead. Hjuisen, now on his way to the Bernabeu headed an equaliser and Bournemouth snatched a scrambled and undeserved winner when the ball hit Evanilson on his hip or his elbow ( depending on your point of view) and was forced home. It was another set piece defended extremely badly by us and showed our reliance on Gabriel rather than Nicholas Jover.

There was just a slight concern that Champions League qualification was not assured with three games to go with two being against the champions at Anfield and Newcastle visiting the Emirates. Arsenal started appallingly at Anfield conceding two goals in just over a minute around the twentieth minute through Gakpo and Diaz. Most Arsenal fans would probably have signed for a respectable defeat at that stage but the team are made of sterner stuff. Martinelli headed home just after half-time and Merino equalised with a diving header after Allison had tipped Ødegaard’s shot onto the bar. That was an important and meaningful point especially as Merino was dismissed with fifteen minutes left after being played into trouble by Raya who was combining spectacular goalkeeping with increasingly erratic distribution.

The Newcastle game brought the curtain down on another season in N5 and after a first half where Raya’s brilliance saved us on several occasions and almost cost us with very strange distribution choices, Rice thumped home a fierce drive ten minutes into the second half to secure the points. The absence of Isak and Joelinton helped our cause and we welcomed back Kai Havertz for a late cameo. It was good to get some measure of revenge on Newcastle who we had not scored against before this season. Arteta was clearly frustrated in his address to the supporters but the mood was generally positive although this season was far from perfect.

The campaign ended with the deadest of dead rubbers against already relegated Southampton. Arteta’s team selection was more benign than usual with Sterling and Tierney starting, and Kieran celebrated his last appearance for Arsenal with a neatly taken goal with his right foot just before halftime. Our weakness on defending set pieces reared its head again when Stewart headed in a corner just after half time. Despite bringing on the cavalry it looked like yet another draw would ensue when Ødegaard hit a fine left-footed drive in the last minute to send us three points clear of C130y.

Football seasons merge into one another especially when you have lived through many. This season has had its highlights although ours were more often found in Europe than in the League. I suspect many of us believed with a degree of conviction that we would be champions this season. It was not to be partly because of a stream of significant injuries to significant players, partly because the refereeing gods appeared to have it seriously in for us but it has to be said that we were not good enough this season, we missed the opportunity to strengthen the squad and find a regular goalscorer in the summer and there has been a diffidence about our play that wasn’t there last season.

But second place in a league of this quality and intensity is still a notable achievement and we hope that this summer we take the steps we need to ensure that next year’s review is a truly triumphant one.

On the playing side I would give player of the year to Declan Rice who is consistency itself and has an onfield maturity that is immensely impressive. He just shades it from the admirable Gabriel. Saka, Saliba, Raya, and Partey had good seasons but the revelation of the season was Lewis-Skelly, who came on in leaps and bounds and exudes a pride in playing for Arsenal which is tangible. We look towards the transfer window knowing that with the right additions we can upgrade a silver medal to gold next season…

We often bemoan the fact that hope is a frustrating  commodity for football fans.  Certainly the abundance of hope among Arsenal fans at the start of the 24/25 season was as high as it had been for twenty years. Two second place finishes in the previous two seasons had fuelled optimism that the title was within reach.

In this review of the season just gone I have dIvided my musings into three sections. Our domestic programme before and after Christmas and our journey into Europe which I have looked at separately. Hopefully, you will avoid a degree of indigestion by this division of what seemed in retrospect a very eventful and long season.

Arsenal’s close season had been unremarkable. Several of our players went a very long way in the Euros and we signed two players who had shown up prominently in the competition – Riccardo Calafiori, a left-sided defender from Bologna who had shone for Italy, and Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad who had come off the Spain bench to notch the goal that knocked Germany out of the tournament and played as a sub in the tournament final. As the window drew to a close we acquired two loan signings, Neto the Bournemouth back-up goalkeeper and excitingly (well, it seemed exciting at the time!), Raheem Sterling joined from Chelsea in a deal which saw them effectively pay him to play for us! It looked a strong squad but there was a huge striker-shaped hole upfront that we thought the continued development of Havertz and the addition of Sterling might help us to paper over. Havertz had finished the season so strongly and was so durable that many supporters felt he would be able to be the focal point of the attack for the season and it seemed that this was Arteta’s view too. In retrospect that seems a fundamental error.  Certainly Benjamin Sesko of RB Leipzig appeared destined to join only for him to reconsider the move because he didn’t want to spend time understudying Havertz. The usual suspects were linked Osimhen, David and Watkins prominent among them, but no purchase was made.

A few weeks later it emerged that Edu was to leave his post as Sporting Director to join the network of clubs owned by Marinakis, the Forest owner and reflecting retrospectively on what proved to be an inadequate summer of team building there has been speculation that Edu’s attention had been diverted from his Arsenal role by the very big new job he was about to acquire. Certainly, suggestions that he wanted Arsenal to develop a multi-club model with a  particular focus on South America started to circulate. Whatever the circumstances, Edu had presided over a very important period in the club’s history and helped to build a much stronger squad. Edu’s duties were assumed by Jason Ayto, his assistant, until Andrea Berta, formerly Sporting Director at Atletico Madrid moved into the Edu role in April. It has just been announced that Ayto, whom Arsenal hoped to keep has decided to leave. It would appear that the Berta appointment has thwarted his career aspirations at Arsenal. 

Berta was an interesting choice. He is a close associate of Jorge Mendes the super agent. Arsenal had become increasingly  data driven in their search for players. Since Sanllehi departed under a cloud following the Pépé deal the sense was that data trumped ‘ connections’ in deciding who to sign. Arsenal were the sixth highest spender on agents fees in the previous season, at a tad under £23 million, well behind the likes of Newcastle, the two Manchester clubs and Chelsea who topped the table with a spend almost double ours. It will be interesting to see what the ‘Berta effect’ has on our agent spend. 

Arsenal’s season began on a hot Saturday in August at home to Wolves. Havertz opened the scoring with a header in the first half and Saka finished crisply  in the second half to secure an uneventful 2-0 win. Both of our new signings had acquired injuries before the match and Merino missed several games through a shoulder injury sustained in his first training session. It was an eery omen for the season. 

Our first away trip was a demanding one at Villa. A couple of Watkins misses spared us when he seemed certain to score but the main reason he didn’t were a couple of extraordinary saves by Raya who was becoming an increasingly impressive last line of defence . Trossard put us ahead midway through the second half and the travelling Gooners were quick to point out an Emi Martinez error which allowed Thomas Partey to extend our lead. A 2-0 win was a very good start to our away fixtures. 

One of the themes of the season was to appear for the first time in our home game with Brighton, Havertz gave us a first half lead but shortly after halftime with Arsenal pressing for a second goal, the referee, Chris Kavanagh, took the extraordinary decision to send off Declan Rice for flicking the ball a few inches after being kicked by Veltman of Brighton. It was a second yellow after he had kicked the ball away in the first half. Joao Pedro of Brighton had committed exactly the same offence with no punishment, significant because he later acquired a yellow card and then secured an equaliser for Brighton ten minutes after Rice’s dismissal. The game was fundamentally altered by the decision and subsequent justifications by PGMOL for Kavanagh’s decision were profoundly unimpressive. It was hard not to develop a victim mentality when we received what Depressed Gooner described as ‘only us’ decisions from referees. We had plenty of those to come!

This meant that Rice missed the North London Derby which came up next and his absence was compounded by a long-term injury to Ødegaard who had seriously injured his ankle playing for Norway. The extent of his injury was not appreciated at the time but, after his return from a prolonged absence, the Norwegian captain was a shadow of his former self for most of the season and undoubtedly the injury had a lingering effect on his efficiency all season. The absences did not affect  the Arsenal performance in the Derby though.  We held Tottenham comfortably and Gabriel struck from a corner midway through the second half. Forever in our shadow, the Totts started to turn against their Australian manager as we recorded our third win away at the Toilet Bowl. 

The last leg of three seriously challenging away days in a week  was at the Emptihad. The game was billed as pivotal to the title. Rodri injured himself early on (seriously) and an early Haaland goal augured badly. We then saw why Calafiori was signed as he scored an exceptional equaliser with a great curling shot. Arsenal started to take control of the game and Gabriel produced another majestic header to put us ahead just before the interval. There was still time for Trossard to earn a second yellow card from Michael Oliver, our refereeing Nemesis, for kicking the ball as the whistle blew for a free kick award. It meant the second half was a Mancunian version of the Alamo but we defended superbly only conceding in the last minute of injury time when Stones touched the ball home. The charmless Haaland abused the eighteen year old Lewis-Skelly, bounced the ball on Gabriel’s head and entreated Arteta to ‘stay humble’, a phrase that came back to bite him later in the season. Our performance was an extraordinary example of defensive resilience but a win would have emphasised more keenly the threat that Arsenal now posed to C130y. 

Our next game was against a side from a similar area but several rungs lower in the pyramid. We faced Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup. It was the sort of game where Neto  seemed a natural alternative to Raya…but we had signed a back-up keeper who was already cup-tied in this competition! Maybe a sign that Edu didn’t have his mind on the job or just as the papers had portrayed the signing – a stop-gap after a last minute change of heart by Espanyol who seemed all set to sell us Spain’s Olympic keeper Joan Garcia! In the Carabao Cup 16 year-old Jack Porter made his debut, Ethan Nwaneri scored his first goals for the first team and Raheem Sterling scored his only goal for the club – a tap-in from a few inches which completed a 5-1 victory.

We then continued a run of winnable home games by taking on Leicester City. The Foxes had started the season quite positively but we sailed into a comfortable 2-0 lead through Martinelli and Trossard. After the break Justin struck twice, one a worldie , to equalise and we had to rely on two injury time goals – an own goal provoked by Trossard and a late Havertz effort, to secure the points.

We returned to league action against stragglers Southampton and remarkably found ourselves a goal down just after half time when Archer finished a sinuous run with a cool finish. Havertz soon equalised and Martinelli fired us ahead ten minutes later. A Saka goal three minutes from time clinched another victory that was more ‘hard won’ than should have been the case against a club already grappling with relegation. It was hard not to feel a degree of sympathy for Aaron Ramsdale in the Southampton goal as he returned to the scene of former glories . 

Arsenal were still unbeaten despite the best efforts of the PGMOL, but that situation changed at the Vitality Stadium largely because of a controversial VAR reversal. William Saliba was sent off after initially escaping with a yellow card for denying a goalscoring opportunity. Rob Jones, the referee, was persuaded to go to the monitor after originally deeming a yellow was sufficient punishment for Saliba’s foul on Evanilson, forty yards from goal. It changed the rhythm and mentality of the game even though by this time Arsenal had considerable experience of playing with ten men! Early in the second half  Bournemouth worked a clever set piece routine at a corner for Christie to score and Kiwior conceded a late penalty which Kluivert converted. It was a disappointing and frustrating evening.

One of the few Holic gatherings of the season preceded the game with Liverpool in November, a game that was being billed (with some reason) as a potential title decider. The match began sensationally with a brilliant Saka strike but Arsenal were undone by a Liverpool corner routine that allowed Van Dijk to equalise . A bullet header from Merino (his first for the club) restored  Arsenal’s lead but Salah equalised for the second time in the last quarter of the match. The game ended controversially when Anthony Taylor prematurely ended an Arsenal attack to penalise a Havertz challenge that  when scrutinised was legal and which resulted ultimately in a scrambled goal for Gabriel Jesùs. Given the significance of the game a number of Arsenal fans began to believe there was a PGMOL conspiracy constructed to deny Arsenal the title. That feeling was destined  to grow stronger.

Progress continued in the  Carabao Cup when we coasted to a 3-0 win at Preston. The highlights were a rare goal from Gabriel Jesùs who was suffering a scoring drought and a superb effort from 17 year old Ethan Nwaneri, so young that under current youth protection rules he had to change away from the team. It was a very impressive performance in which we controlled possession for almost all the game and Tommy Setford, making his debut in goal, was rarely troubled . We had advanced to the last eight of the competition having ducked a round because we were in Europe and then we eased past Bolton and Preston. It wasn’t difficult to sympathise with those who felt the League Cup was ranked low on our aspirational ladder although the Arteta sceptics implored him to seek silverware by whatever route he could. 

We were entering a challenging group of fixtures away from home which included the Inter away game which I will discuss in the review of our European exploits. We travelled to St. James’s Park for a lunchtime fixture with Newcastle and ran into the very impressive Alexander Isak who scored the only goal of the game with a superb early header. We gave a flat performance and found it difficult to make progress against a stiff Newcastle rearguard. This was the first of our meetings with them and highlighted how tough an opponent they had become.

Our next away trip was to the Bus Stop where results in recent years had been very encouraging. Chelsea had spent an inordinate amount of money on a huge squad most of whom they had secured on  very long contracts. In a tight, tense London derby, Martinelli put us ahead early in the second half but Neto, one of the huge flotilla of wingers they have at their disposal, equalised with about a quarter of an hour to go. A point each was a fair result.

We returned to N5 to face a Nottingham Forest side who had been one of the surprise packets of the season but we beat them comfortably. Saka gave us an early lead, Partey doubled it in the second half and Nwaneri scored his first league goal soon after coming on as substitute. It was a Charlie Patino moment where he scored almost with his first touch but one hopes his story develops more positively than Patino’s did from an Arsenal perspective.

Our next away game in the League saw us travel to West Ham just after we had put Sporting Lisbon to the sword. The previous season we had won 6-0 at the London Stadium, emptying the stadium in the process. This time we were 4-0 up in the first half after Gabriel gave us the lead, Trossard doubled it and then Ødegaard scored from a penalty and Havertz finished unerringly when clean through. I mistakenly went to make a celebratory pot of tea only to return to find the score 4-2 after a West Ham scoring burst that took everyone by surprise as both their full backs scored. We were then awarded a second penalty which Saka dispatched and went to the interval 5-2 ahead emptying the ground again in the process. Despite wild imaginings of what the final score might be it finished at 5-2. 

We were moving rapidly into the pre-Christmas period and faced a midweek test against Manchester United and their new manager, Ruben Amorim. We sealed victory in the second half with two set piece goals from Jurrien Timber, his first for the club and William Saliba with an inadvertent deflection off his nether regions. In the second half we exercised almost complete control in what was an impressive performance . Our set piece efficiency was becoming legendary but detractors claimed that Arsenal relied too much on their set piece expertise at the expense of more creative open play.

We then travelled to Fulham, once an easy place to visit as an away fan, but now one of the most expensive tickets in the League. We had been derailed there last season and we feared the worst when Jimenez outpaced Kiwior, who was deputising for the injured Gabriel, to slot home after we had dominated possession for the first twenty minutes. Saliba restored parity early in the second half with a goal from a corner allowed after an excruciating wait. Despite territorial dominance it looked like the points would be shared until Saka popped up to head home in injury time. This time the result of another excruciatingly long  VAR enquiry was to disallow the goal because of a Martinelli offside and we had to be content with a share of the points.

Everton were up next at Ashburton Grove in a very busy December and were able to neutralise us as an attacking force almost completely. This was grist to the mill for those who refused to discuss Arsenal without demanding that we sign a striker immediately. 

We had reached the quarter final stage of the Carabao Cup and found ourselves down to Palace within the first minute as Mateta scored. Gabriel Jesùs was picked upfront having endured a very long lean spell in front of goal but on this night the dam broke and his second half hat- trick illustrated how fickle football can be and how talented our Brazilian is. Eddie Nketiah, once of this parish scored an excellent header after coming on as substitute. It finished 3-2 and we were into the semi- finals where Newcastle lay in wait. 

We then played Palace again on the Saturday before Christmas, this time at Selhurst Park. Jesùs having ended his goal drought scored twice in the first half (Sarr equalised the first goal) and Havertz put us 3-1 up at the interval. Goals by Martinelli and Rice enabled us to earn a 5-1 victory which looks increasingly impressive given Palace’s recent exploits. Alarmingly, Saka went down injured in the first half and was subsequently found to have a serious hamstring injury that required surgery and a lay-off of over four months. This was a profound blow to our prospects and reduced our creativity and goal threat enormously. There was intense speculation about how we would cope in his absence.

The last fixture of the year on the Friday after Christmas saw us labour to an untroubled but far from fluent 1-0 win against Ipswich at home. Havertz scored midway through the first half and  the victory left us in second place in the league at the turn  of the year but several points behind Liverpool who were setting a frightening pace at the top of the league. 

The brutal and remorseless grind of fixtures appeared to have taken a toll on our stretched squad. In the first half of the season we had seen several key players injured: Ødegaard,  Gabriel, White and Saka had suffered serious injuries. Little did we suspect that the news on the injury front was to become even worse very quickly. 

So, as the year ended we could reflect on a season that saw us challenging for the title but which hadn’t been plain sailing as regular, serious injuries and what seemed unduly harsh and discriminatory refereeing decisions had cost us vital points. Whereas in past seasons we saw Manchester City as our main rivals, they had struggled through the first half of the season and lost their best player for the whole of the campaign. Liverpool were emerging as the most serious domestic threat to our aspirations. Could we find the sort of consistency and momentum that we had shown in early 2024 when the new year began?