What a game that was! I don’t get to many games these days due to many commitments and I’m largely okay with that, but every so often there’s a game that comes along where I feel a great swell of envy for those who were lucky enough to be at The Emirates for the game, and Sunday’s North London Derby was definitely one of those!
It was Eberechi Eze’s night as he truly announced himself as an Arsenal legend in the making, by becoming the first player since Alan Sunderland in 1978 to get a hattrick in a North London Derby, which subsequently extended Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League table to six points to cap off a truly brilliant weekend for Arsenal.
Eze has been in a key figure in the Premier League for a few years now, regularly lightning up games with his goals and skill and as all of those special moments so far had been with Crystal Palace, he still felt like a Crystal Palace playing for Arsenal in the early days since his move. Well he did to me anyway! That has been changing slowly over the past few weeks with Eze’s improved performances and contribution and the transformation feels like it is well and truly complete now. He really feels like a key player of this team at the moment and now it’s time for him to push on and start delivering performances and moments, like he did on Sunday, every week. Can you believe he nearly did the unthinkable and signed for that lot down the road?! Makes me shudder to even entertain such a horrible thought.
Special mention for a few (relatively) unsung heroes
The headlines rightfully belonged to Eberechi Eze, given his lethal finishing and all round quality on show, but there were a number of other key performances across the team that deserve a mention. I thought Piero Hincapie deputised for Gabriel brilliantly. Let’s face it, those are some of the biggest shoes to fill, yet the Ecuadorian seem to relish the challenge, and the derby day battles, as he dominated Richarlison and just generally oozed class in everything he did. I’m very excited to see what he will bring to this team given a run of games.
Mikel Merino was another who was superb. His pressing and all round energy have improved so much, I think it’s got to a point where he just feels like a genuine striker option now. When we started the season with Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyokeres as the two strikers I thought our days of seeing Merino lead the line were well and truly behind us. Injuries saw to it that he would see him pick up the baton again and he seems to be running it with it more comfortably than ever right now. His link up play was utterly superb and all that was missing was a goal to cap off a fine performance.
Another player who has played a massive role this season, and continues to be a key part of our attack, is Leandro Trossard. I was among a number of people who were happy to see the winger depart in the summer, with our options out wide growing by two with the additions of Noni Madueke and Eze, it seemed his days in an Arsenal shirt were at an end. Fast forward a few months and I really can’t imagine where we would be without him. He’s come up with big goals and big moments time and again this season and it was the Belgian who forced home the all important opener to set us on our way in this one. We now have serious depth out wide with Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli back and fit again. What a great position to be in.
Did you see…
Gabriel’s celebration of Eberechi Eze’s goal was one of those moments that I think needs to be played over and over again. As fans, it’s easy to get carried away and feel like the players feel exactly the same way about the club as we do and although I think the overwhelming majority of Arsenal players have a great affinity for the club and it’s fans, I don’t think many feel the same way as us fans do when the team scores a goal. You’d think people like Bukayo Saka or Ethan Nwaneri, players who had been with the club since a young age, might fall into that bracket however, one player who definitely does, is Gabriel Magalhaes.
The way he celebrated Eze’s goal just looked so genuine, so full of joy, so natural and awkward!! The way he grabbed Martin Odegaard and nearly dragged him to the floor reminded me of how I’m often celebrating goals with my family at home, when you just grab the nearest person and do something daft with them. Or even at The Emirates, when you just feel overcome with emotion you grab complete strangers and jump up and down with them like a nutter. Gabriel just gets it. I think Eze does too. I think we are blessed right now as a lot of our players really seem to and that it something that Mikel Arteta and the recruitment team behind the scenes deserves enormous credit for.
Just smile…
In terms of the game itself, it was an absolute pleasure to watch this team strut it’s stuff and step out of the ‘set piece team’ shadow to carve open four excellent open play goals, against the deepest of low blocks, and bust many a myth of our apparent lack of creativity and verve. Even now, it was one of those nights that when it comes into my head I just find myself smiling to myself like a crazy person, no matter where I am, and I think this will be one of those games that will have that affect for a long time to come. So smile Gooners, as North London is undeniably, undoubtedly, red!