Good morning Gooners! It’s been a while since my last post (at least it feels quite a while!) and I think a few explanations are in order.
I’m still within the first 12 months of starting this blog and at the start of this journey I had a very clear idea of what the blog was going to be about, what sort of posts I was going to put out into the world and when, but in reality, things have worked out quite differently, especially lately.
I always wanted to do a preview post for every game, along with a review including player ratings either as part of the review post or separately and for a time I got into a bit of rhythm on this and started to post some content that I was quite happy with. However, juggling work and family and life in general was starting to make this difficult and the posts started to get cut down to just the one per game and then right at the end of the season it pretty much stopped altogether.
There’s a couple of reasons for this, one, I’m still fully aware that I’ve yet to attract a single reader to my blog, so I knew that I wasn’t letting anyone down by taking a bit of a break and secondly, I think the season as a whole was starting to have an effect on me, to the point where I couldn’t bring myself to write about what I was seeing and feeling.
There’s been a lot of talk over the past week or so (or in reality a lot longer than that!) about Arsenal having not won the league for 22 years and I’m of an age where I’ve been there for the both the last success and every single failure since. It’s been a long and painful road and at times unbearably so, particular over the past 5 years, and it felt like this season was either going to be the worst season of the lot or the one where Arsenal finally got over the line. Thanks to whatever forces are a play in this world…it was the latter!!
The Arsenal are Premier League Champions once again. We are the standard for all teams in England to aspire to and it could get even sweeter in Budapest on Saturday night, with a mouthwatering Champions League Final against Paris Saint Germain to look forward to.
I think what I was trying to do, was just survive these past few weeks of the season and while I also considering that maybe blog writing isn’t for me, as I was also finding it difficult to make time to write these posts, I remembered one of the reasons why I started this blog in the first place. There were many reasons, but one of them was certainly to attempt to chronicle moments and feelings like this, so I felt compelled to return to the keyboard, so here I am!
Burnely – Home
I didn’t write a post for the Burnley game, one which I was actually in attendance for, so I’ll start with a quick recap there. I don’t get down to London for many games due to issues with what I’d call geography and lifestyle, but I was determined to get down for this one as I knew it could be really significant. I had hoped to take my 10 year old Son to the game, but thanks to Sky Sports and their infuriating obsession with moving games to Monday nights, that wasn’t possible, so I set about trying to find a way to get to the game and back within the same night/early morning. This was a fate which I surprisingly achieved, albeit with a lack of sleep that I usually reserve for holidays abroad, as I arrived back home at 330am! It was worth it though, especially after what happened the night after. I have kept my season ticket all these years with the dream of one day seeing the Premier League trophy presented on the beautiful turf at The Emirates and although it soon became apparent that this was not going to the be the case this season, this was the next best thing (from a home game perspective anyway!) so I wasn’t going to miss it.
I went down to the game with a hope of watching a comfortable scoreline that would bring goal difference back into the fold as an option, to really turn up the heat on Manchester City and make the upcoming tricky looking away fixture at Crystal Palace, that bit less daunting, but what played out was far from comfortable! Arsenal knocked on the door with persistence from early on, without every threatening to take it off its hinges and I was starting to get a bit concerned before Kai Havertz leapt like a salmon to head home Bukayo Saka’s right wing corner to give us the lead. Cue an outpouring of relief from everyone in attendance and I’m sure countless thousands of other Arsenal fans across the globe.
What followed was a very unpleasant experience, as Arsenal once again failed to register that second goal that would see them coast over the line. So despite the fact that Burnley offered very little in attack, the risk of ‘that one moment’ where things could potentially go wrong, was certainly in the back of everyone’s minds, right up until the final whistle.
On the whistle, it was very much job done with eyes then turning to City’s game at Bournemouth the night after, with Arsenal knowing that any dropped points would see them crowned as Premier League Champions once again.
Waiting for a favour
This was a very strange feeling. I’ve written a bit about this in my ‘ARSENAL FOOTBALL CLUB ARE PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS…AGAIN!!!’ post, but I’ll touch on it again briefly here.
Part of me really wanted us to win it on the pitch. We’ve had so many moments this season where the final whistle was greeted by deafening cheers and unbridled relief and it felt like that should be the way that we got over the line. As we couldn’t possibly win the title against Burnley, to win the title in this way would mean the fight rolling over to the final day at Crystal Palace, a fate which I wasn’t sure that my heart could take! Think of it though, the whole season of fighting, coming down to one final game, like a Cup Final, but for the league. Considering how dominant we had been this year, this didn’t feel fair, especially when you look back at games like Wolves away, where we threw away two points or those string of draws in January, where we could have really opened up our lead.
Therefore, unsurprisingly, I had made my peace with winning the title off the pitch and was absolutely desperate for Bournemouth to do us a favour.
I went back and forth multiple times in my head about whether or not they would do it. ‘They’ve got the longest unbeaten run in Europe…’ / ‘They were so good at The Emirates, I can’t see City beating them’ / ‘Then again, this is City and they know how to win titles and respond in these huge games’ and so on and so forth.
I had planned to watch the game with my adult Nephew, but when the plans fell through, I couldn’t bear watching it in the end, so I planned to watch the second half. I heard that Bournemouth had gone one up and I just couldn’t bear to turn it on and watch at that stage. I left it until about 70 minutes I think and then I mustered up all of the nerve that I could and put it on, just as Bournemouth hit the outside of the post from a corner I think. Knowing that City would need 2 goals to win it, gave me hope and that was the one thing I was clinging to every time they came forward. We all know what happened next as Bournemouth squandered amazing chances to make it 2-0, not unlike ourselves in that regard, and City then levelled in stoppage time to send Arsenal blood pressure to collective world record levels. Despite one scare at the end, Bournemouth held on and just like that, The Arsenal were Champions of England.
I barely flinched. I still don’t understand why. I had waited for that moment for so long, I don’t think I dared celebrate. The next few moments were surreal and even when my Wife got our Son out of bed to join in the ‘celebrations’ I still didn’t really react. It was only when my now drunk Nephew and Niece turned up that I think it really sunk in and I started to get excited and take in the moment.
Since that moment, I’ve taken in hours and hours of Arsenal content. I’ve truly tried to take in as much as I can. The videos of the Arsenal players watching the closing scenes of the Bournemouth game are absolutely priceless. On watching those moments, you see what this really means to them and how similar the feelings that they went through are to those that we, the fans, went through. They were just like us in those moments and I particularly liked how the Arsenal players all started to move forward and shout as Bournemouth pushed out late in the game, trying desperately to encourage them to get up the pitch!! Brilliant. Just brilliant, brilliant scenes. At this point, the regret of not winning the Title on the pitch completely evaporated for me. Those celebrations were as good as anything on the pitch would have been and those moments will live rent free in my head for years and years to come.
I watched the celebrations on the streets outside The Emirates with great envy as well. I never thought about this being a thing, otherwise I might have made another trip down to London the night after the Burnley game! Absolute scenes. Truly incredible. What I really liked about these scenes, and similar examples across the globe, was that it showed the world how undeniably huge this football club is. We are an absolutely global monster of a football club. Manchester City can buy success and have that period of dominance over the past 5-10 years, but you can’t buy that and you can’t buy class and what the Arsenal fanbase showed in that moment, is that we have class and are a real force on a global scale.
One piece of content that I have consumed over the past week or so that really resonated me was on an Arsenal podcast (I’m still not sure on the legalities of referencing other people’s content, so I’m not going to mention the name, but it’s the really, really good one that has been going for years and year and years!) where one of the hosts mentioned a feeling of being overwhelmed by it all. That’s exactly how I feel and have felt, in stages, since we were officially crowned Champions. This is why I find Arsenal content so cathartic. There’s always someone out there who feels the same way as you. No matter how messed up you are!!
I’ve felt overwhelmed by it all. Desperate to not let this moment and these feelings pass me by. Worried that I’m going to miss something or that I’m not reacting how I should or embracing the moment. etc. etc.
I think these are relatively normal feelings. The feeling of worry, that it will pass you by or that you’ve waited for it for so long and then it’s not going to live up to the hype. We’ve waited a long time, right? I personally just don’t want this to end, but I’m getting to a point now where I am starting to fully digest what has happened and starting to look forward a little bit.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that one
Another thing that I was worried about (yes, I’ve been worried about a lot of things lately – it’s a strange time right now, so cut me some slack!!) was that the events of the Champions League Final would bring everything crashing back down to earth and ruin everyone’s buzz. This was a real concern for me in the lead up to these final few weeks of the season however, once the moment actually arrived, I started feeling the exact opposite! I was more worried that I wouldn’t care what happens in the Champions League Final, as we’d already reached the pinnacle with the Premier League win.
Now I’ve always known that I’m a Premier League first sort of fan, but to feel that flippantly about a Champions League Final really did shock me!! Let’s face it, this is the one thing that we’ve never won and that all fans liked to hold over our heads, particular fans of the smaller teams who have managed to win it (I’m looking at you Chelsea and City!). Winning the League is the highest of highs and I don’t think it can be topped. I truly believe that. That said…it would be awfully nice to bring home the double!!
Crystal Palace – Away
Onto the final game of the season, that trip to Crystal Palace that had once looked so daunting (to me at least!) had now been reduced to a little more than a procession. Arsenal could afford to rotate ahead of the Champions League Final the following weekend and to give a chance to fringe players who are looking for either a chance to impress or to say goodbye to the club, which I think was the case for a couple of the starting eleven. More on that later in the Summer! I still really wanted to win this game though and to lift the Premier League trophy on the back of another three points and despite a little scare at the end of the game, where VAR came to our rescue once again, we did just that.
Cue mad celebrations at the end and the moment that we’ve all been waiting for, seeing Martin Odegaard lift that famous trophy over his head. Those were some special, special scenes at the end. I think seeing the players who have been with us since the start (or thereabouts) lifting the trophy were most special. The ones who have been with us for the lowest of lows. I’m looking at players like Odegaard, Ben White, Gabriel and of course, Bukayo Saka. These guys deserve special mentions as they’ve gone through so much with this club and have really played massive roles in getting us to where we are now.
Other notable moments from the celebrations – anything involving Ian Wright, that guy just embodies everything about being an Arsenal fan – and he was a player! The Viktor Gyokeres celebration picture was excellent, as was his ‘whistle walk’ with the trophy and I also liked the bits with Max Dowman and Marli Salmon (although he seemed largely on the periphery) who seemed thoroughly overwhelmed by what was going on around them! The full circle moment of Eberechi Eze lifting the title at Selhurst Park, anything involving William Saliba and Gabriel, Declan Rice’s face while listening to his new ‘it’s not done song’, Mikel Arteta’s winding, twisting trophy lift, there’s just so many. Great day, great scenes and a day I’ll never forget. I actually had to watch the whole thing on catch-up as I was at the Burnley-Wolves game with my Son’s Junior Football team, but thankfully Sky Plus didn’t let me down so I caught up on everything when we got home!
Almost forgot about this one
On writing this, now mammoth post, I just realised that although I posted a preview to the West Ham game, I didn’t post anything afterwards and to say this game was significant, is the understatement of the whole season. Looking back, it’s now clear what a hugely pivotal game that was. To be fair, it felt pretty pivotal at the time, but now we can stay with absolutely certainty that this is one of those games where the title race really swung in our favour.
‘That’ save from David Raya from Mateus Fernandes will go down in history as one of the great Arsenal goalkeeping moments. Might sound a bit dramatic, but if he doesn’t save that, I’m not sure if we win the league. We certainly wouldn’t have won that game, in my opinion, had we gone a goal down at that stage of the game.
There was then the absolutely ecstasy of breaking the deadlock with about 7 minutes to go in a game where it seemed like the title was starting to swing back into City’s favour. Another, huge, huge moment. Martin Odegaard off the bench to great effect, in very similar style and circumstances to how he turned the game for us at St James’ Park, to prove that he is still the man for the big moments, in what has been a hugely frustrating campaign for the Skipper. I cheered that goal like no other this season (maybe Dowman’s would run it close though!). I didn’t even do my usual wait for VAR/replay before cheering. I was just too much in the moment to even think about that at the time, which made it even more special.
We then just had the simple task of hanging on to the win. Unfortunately, ‘simple’ and Arsenal don’t usually mix when it comes to things like this. When Callum Wilson stepped off the West Ham bench, I knew he was going to cause us trouble. I just knew it, and so it proved! Gabriel did unbelievably well to block a goal bound effort from Wilson deep into stoppage time to, what seemed like it at the time, save our bacon. However, from the resulting corner…well, you know what happened. Crazy scenes and even more crazy (and stupid) reactions from the online discourse against Arsenal, as the goal was correctly ruled out by VAR. I’ve been quite critical of VAR and it’s inclusion in our game during my blog posts this season and I’m not saying that I’m turning a corner or anything daft like that, but I was glad that it was there – for once!
Surprisingly Arsenal managed to see out the final few seconds without incident and they then had a great three points in the bag to take back across London and deal yet another blow to City, with a last gasp win, when dropped points seemed almost inevitable.
So there it was, another pivotal day in the title race, another chapter written and as per the above ramblings, that book turned out pretty well for all of those in red and white, so happy days!
What next?
Oh yeah, we’re on way to Budapest aren’t we?! Just the small matter of the Champions League Final to come on Saturday. That would be a truly amazing way to end the season. We can do it. I truly believe that. I think the Premier League Title win may have an unbelievable deep and lasting effect on this team and lift an enormous weight of their shoulders going into this one. Let’s see.