Have Arsenal had a better weekend than that this season?
As far as weekends go, that one was pretty special. After a hard fought victory on the south coast on Saturday evening, Arsenal were left in the advantageous position of sitting back and relaxing on Sunday, as many of their rivals faced difficult matches, while the Gunners already had the points in the bag. It’s a nice situation to be in, but it can also work the other way a little bit. Some weekends you can still be on a high from an Arsenal win on Saturday by the time the Sunday fixtures come round and have the wind taken out of your sails a bit. Like when a rival gets a last gasp winner or wins a game that you thought they might drop points in. However, this weekend…it all went Arsenal’s way!!!
It started with the Manchester United match, as they dropped another two points in a game that it looked like they probably should have won late on, based on their chances, and slipped further into the mire. This was then capped off by ANOTHER mid-season Manager dismissal on Monday. I know they’re not really our rivals as such, at least not right now, but I still feel the same way towards them as I did in the late 90s and early 00s, so anything that puts distance between us and them, is alright by me.
I then had the privilege of watching the second half of Tottenham v Sunderland, which looked like turning into a much needed home win for the beleaguered Thomas Frank. That was until a late Brian Brobbey goal earned a well deserved point for Sunderland in the last 10 minutes, and consequently another game in which Tottenham fans booed off their team at full time. I really worry that they’re going to persist with Thomas Frank and finally get it right down there, so anything that pushes him further towards the exit door is always cause for celebration from me. I really rate Frank as a Manager and I don’t think he’s really been backed in the transfer market to date, so to get rid of him would be a mistake in my opinion, but it wouldn’t be the first one that the Tottenham board have made, so who knows?
The aforementioned wind was then taken slightly out of my sails when I saw Liverpool get a 94th minute winner at Craven Cottage, which could be that spark that Liverpool have been lucking for, to kickstart their season. I hadn’t even finished moping about the Liverpool goal when Fulham hit back to inflict what must have been a hammer blow to Arne Slot’s team in the 96th minute, to earn a point for Fulham. What a goal by Harrison Reed it was as well. Worthy of taking a point in any game, yet I’m sure Slot would have rather it had been in literally any other match! Liverpool are another team that seem to be searching for something to grab onto right now and with a massive game coming up at The Emirates on Thursday, I think it really suits us that it didn’t come right before we play them. Now we just need to make sure we’re not that ‘something’ that they grab onto to kick start their season!
This led onto the final match of the weekend – Manchester City v Chelsea. I kept telling myself that City would turn them over easily, and desperately trying to play down my own expectations, but deep down you always hope don’t you? There’s always that part of you that chirps up with ‘well they’ve got a new Manager incoming, maybe the players will put on a show’ or ‘Cole Palmer always plays well against City, maybe he’ll produce a bit of magic’ and so on. I did my usual trick when I really want something to happen in a non-Arsenal game by trying my best to completely ignore the game altogether, for fear of it ruining my day. I managed to get to half time and then my son wanted to check the score on the way home from his friend’s birthday party. As I saw him read the score, his poker face isn’t the best so I could tell straight away that City were winning. I then managed to calm down a bit and really put the idea of an upset out of my head, but all of a sudden I started to check the score every now and again and when I got home it was about 80 minutes gone and still 1-0. Maybe, just maybe, I thought. So I put the game on and crossed everything that I could possibly cross.
To my surprise, Chelsea were actually playing quite well and I thought there might be something in the game for them until Cole Palmer side-footed fresh air when really well placed and I was convinced that this was Chelsea’s chance and they’d blown it.
I watched the last few minutes out of habit more than anything else and I was rewarded (and them some!) as Chelsea poked home a 93rd minute equaliser to snatch a point and leave Arsenal’s lead at 6 points over their nearest rivals. I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I was probably about as nervous in the last three minutes of that game that I was watching Arsenal the night before. You could just sense that this was 2 huge points that City were dropping and with injuries compounding their misery as well, you can’t help but think that someone up there was shining down on us this weekend, as the final whistle went!! Unbelievable moment. How important that moment was, we won’t truly know until May, but it felt huge.
I know Villa also won on Saturday, so it wasn’t a completely perfect weekend, but I would definitely have taken an extension of our 4 point lead at the start of the weekend to 6 by close of play, so I’m not going to complain too much!
Who’s getting carried away?
So now we’ve got ourselves in a really great position and I’ve seen loads of really positive blogs and YouTube videos from Arsenal channels and fans over the past 24 hours and I absolutely love it. There’s some part of you that worries we’re getting a bit carried away with just one round of fixtures, but then when you think about how it’s gone for us in the past couple of years and all of the nearly moments that we’ve had and I just think that we’ve all got to enjoy these moments while we can. Don’t get my wrong, if we’re not top of the pile come the end of May, I’m going to be truly devasted, but that shouldn’t mean we can’t enjoy these weekends when they come around.
Last year it seemed like this was happening to Liverpool pretty much every weekend, with all of their rivals dropping points at the same time, so now it’s our turn, at least for this weekend, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it and so should all Gooners.
The next question is, can Arsenal push home this advantage against Liverpool and really turn this title race in our favour?! They have to. They absolutely have to! Come on Arsenal, let’s turn the screw!