What a weekend. Saturday started with United’s crazy and controversial victory in the Manchester Derby, which meant Arsenal had a huge opportunity to increase their lead at the top of the table. Elation turned to bewilderment, as news broke of Chelsea’s apparent hijacking of the seemingly complete Mudryk transfer. Initial anger was quickly quelled for any logical Gooner once details of the move were revealed. Regardless, it was a heck of a distraction with less than 24 hours to go until a huge North London Derby at White Hart Lane.
As has been a theme this season, Arsenal started strongly and took the game right to Spurs. Eddie had a chance to break the game open straight away, but Lloris did well to save. Luckily the Frenchmen wasn’t able to continue his strong form and ultimately had a day he’d love to forget. Saka’s goal to break the deadlock was pure comedy. Sessegnon pushed Saka onto his weaker right foot and a seemingly tougher angle to produce from. Our Starboy fired a hopeful ball at Lloris, who inexplicably chucked it into his own net to give us the 1-0 lead. We nearly doubled it soon thereafter with Partey cannoning a rocket off the post in what would have been a legendary NLD goal. The 1-0 lead was nice, but we surely needed to get a second goal before half given our pure domination. Our captain duly obliged, as he fired a long range shot that went bouncing into the bottom corner of the goal to make it 2-0. It was pure elation and undoubtedly a valuable goal, as Spurs are a team that capitalizes on counter attacks and the pure talent of their front three. No matter how poor they play, you know they can always produce something out of nothing whether they deserve it or not.
While Spurs came out strongly in the second half, Aaron Ramsdale refused to let them find any joy. He produced a man of the match performance and exuded so much security. With so many years of inconsistency at the keeper position after Jens Lehmann’s departure it has been so nice to have the Englishman between the sticks. His love for banter and constant winding up of the Spurs fans behind the goal was a big bonus. The closing moments were a blast, but also a bit of a damper on a great game of football. Richarlison, who has scored the same number of Premier League goals as me this season, decided to be a tough guy and incited a pointless moment of violence culminating in a scum fan trying to get onto the pitch and kick our keeper. Looking forward to the FA charging Ramsdale with hitting the fan’s foot with his back!
Arsenal haven’t won away at White Hart Lane for nearly 10 years, so to break that duck, especially after the disaster that was the late season loss last season, was a huge moment on so many levels. We successfully extended our lead to the top of the table to eight points and did it in style. The players celebrated like mad men with the incredible away fans, dancing and singing all over the scum’s pitch. Martinelli’s toss of the Arsenal scarf an emphatic mic drop on a near perfect day. Any sadness at the Mudryk transfer put aside as players and fans alike simply enjoyed the moment. These are the days you live for as a football fan.
It was great to see Emile Smith Rowe come on for the closing stages, but all of us know the club needs to bounce back from the Mudryk disappointment in a big way. It’s an interesting situation because now the entire world knows serious money is available, given the nearly 100 million euros we were about to spend on a single player. We’re clearly short in attack and need one more body at minimum. As I’ve mentioned previously, I would really like to see us made a signing in central midfield as well. Luckily this has all gone down halfway through the month, as opposed to at the end. Edu will have to show he didn’t put all his eggs in one basket, or at least show that if he did he is able to quickly pivot. I’ve been so impressed with both him and Arteta to this point and am seriously proud of our stance on the Mudryk deal. With that said, we all can look back at last January and admit that an extra player could have been the difference between Europa and Champions League. Let’s see what they can generate in the next two weeks. Yes this team is going places, but there’s no guarantee we’ll be in this position in the league again. The powerful clubs and riches they possess mean they can do just about anything they want from a transfer perspective. Just look at Liverpool, a very similar operation to ours, and their struggles over the past decade with City. We can’t walk away from this window with regrets – we just can’t.
Have a great day Gooners. North London is Red!
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