That is the performance of champions! Nelson wins it for Arsenal with the last kick of the game!

 

What can you say about that?!

Arsenal hosted Bournemouth, who have been struggling this season and were 19th in the table before kick off – only 3 points from the bottom of the table.

So before the game, I think it would be safe to say most Arsenal fans thought this would be a routine win. Whatever that is.

But if this season has taught us anything, football is anything but predictable.

After 9 seconds, Bournemouth took the lead when (it has to be said) they pulled off a clever kick off routine, which was well finished by Billing.

Arsenal were caught cold and the only good thing was that there were still 90 plus minutes to go to get the 2 goals we needed to get the 3 points. Unfortunately for all the possession, Bournemouth were relatively comfortable at keeping us at bay.

And then on the hour mark, Bournemouth doubled their lead.

We were now faced with a situation where losing against a team who were second from bottom was a reality. And with Manchester City beating Newcastle earlier on in the day, the lead at the top of the Premier League table would have only been 2 points.

But as we know from this young Arteta side, they are fearless.

Thomas Partey scored on 62 minutes, and then White equalised on 70.

It was a good comeback, but even a draw would feel like a defeat in the circumstances.

The last 20 minutes were tense and the officials gave us 6 minutes of injury time. And then those 6 minutes were up and it was still 2-2.

Had Arsenal blow it? Were Arsenal going to be called bottle merchants?

In the final passages of play, Zinchenko had a cross-shot deflected behind for a corner, which Saka sent in. It was headed away by a Bournemouth player, and was chested by Reiss Nelson. The trajectory of the ball took it onto his weaker foot, and if he needed to produce a moment of magic it was now. And with his left foot, he only went and smashed the ball into the top corner.

You couldn’t make this up!

The players, coaching staff and fans went absolutely ballistic! I screamed the house down! I don’t think there will be moment as important as this one – simply in terms of keeping the momentum and positively around the club.

Make no mistake about it, a draw today would have been absolutely devastating.

But what did you make of the game? Are you starting to believe? Leave your thoughts in the comments section!

So there’s 13 games to go… can Arsenal do it?!

 

After winning their game in hand 4-0 win against Everton, Arsenal went 5 points clear of Manchester City. So after 25 games, the Premier League table looks like this:

Photo credit: Premier League Twitter

Arsenal are on 60 points and Manchester City on 55.

I’ve said all season that I would be over the moon with Top 4 and our place back in the Champions League, and that’s still the case. But it dawned on my last night that there are 13 games left!

That’s still a big number of games remaining, but not sure a huge number. And anything can happen between now and the end of May, but even a pessimistic like myself is starting to believe – just a little bit anyway!

And this is not just me being reserved or trying to play down our chances, but all things considered Manchester City are still favourites for me – even with Arsenal having a 5 point lead.

They have won 4 of the last 5 Premier League titles, with the following points totals:

2021/2022: 93 points
2020/2021: 86 points
2018/2019: 98 points
2017/2018: 100 points

So a rough average of the points Manchester City will achieve this season is around 95 points – but in the title winnings seasons they usually lost between 2 and 4 games, whereas this season they have already lost 4.

But they have the experience in winning the league and getting results when it matters. In the last game of the season last year, when they needed a win and were losing 2-0 to Aston Villa, they rallied and came back to win in dramatic fashion. They have the players, the expertise and knowhow when it comes to the crunch moments. Plus they have Pep Guardiola, who is considered by many to be one of the greatest coaches of all time.

But there’s no doubt Arsenal have been phenomenal this season and the belief Arteta has instilled in his young squad is nothing short of miraculous. He’s given the Arsenal fans hope, and put us in a real title challenge for the first time in 18 years. Whatever happens, we can be proud of the players, the manager and the club.

But do you think we can get over the line and do it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

Did you even imagine Arsenal would be in this position going into November before the season started?!

 

In the summer, we brought in a few players like William Saliba (finally), Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, and after the 5th place finish last season, the level of optimism from Arsenal fans was fairly high – as it usually is. However, 4 months later, Arsenal are top of the league, 2 points clear of the mammoth Manchester City, who are seen as many as this unbeatable footballing machine, thanks to the addition of Erling Haaland.

The biggest criticism has been that although we can beat the lower teams in the Premier League, we always bottled it against the top sides. However, we have beaten Tottenham and Liverpool, and even though we lost against Manchester United, the general consensus was that we were the better team.

And we face Chelsea this weekend.

And in the Europa League, we’ve topped the group with a win against FC Zurich last night, although it was certainly a nervy finally 20 minutes as they turned the screw and really pushed for that equaliser which would have been a disaster for us!

So the big question is, hand on heart – did you expect Arsenal to be in this position before the season started?

Given we had the terrible burden of Thursday Night Football, I have been surprised at the performances in the Premier League and we’ve managed to keep up such a high level. Although the games against Leeds and Southampton certainly saw the effects of this – we managed to get back into the groove in a much better performance against Nottingham Forest.

And another question, where can Arsenal finish this season?

Let me know in the comments section below!

Where will Arsenal finish this season? Cast your vote here!

 

There is no doubt that Arsenal have started the season in fantastic fashion.

Great football, great performances and most importantly, great wins. Minus the blip against Manchester United, Arsenal have managed to win 6 of their first 7 games of the season – and currently sit 1st in the Premier League table.

By anyone’s standards, that’s a blistering start to the campaign.

As the old adage goes, there’s a hell of a long way left to go this season but where will we end up?

It’s a tough question to answer because we’re only 2 months into the new season, and we don’t know how we’ll do against the other Top 6 sides this season. Added to this, we also don’t know how the Winter World Cup will affect Arsenal, and indeed affect the other Top 6 sides.

We have the North London Derby this coming weekend and the big question for that game is can Arsenal learn their lessons from the Manchester United game?

It will be another tough match and while we played well at Old Trafford, and were arguably the better team, United picked us off far too easily. They had a game plan and executed it excellently, and we didn’t have the answers. Yes, I would say United were negative in their approach, especially as they were supposed to be the home side – and in the end they parked the bus and played like the away team – but that’s exactly what Tottenham will do.

Conte’s approach is to win by any means necessary, and that will include putting 11 men behind the ball and then hoping Kane, Son and Kulusevski can hurt us on the break.

It will be a difficult game that’s for sure, but I’m hoping the fantastic Emirates atmosphere will get us over the line.

But where do you think we will finish this season? Can we genuinely challenge for the title? Or should we be fighting to get ourselves back into the Champions League places?

And how will our Europa League campaign and the Winter World Cup affect our season?

Cast your vote below and leave your thoughts in the comments section!

Should the Premier League have cancelled football matches in the wake of The Queen’s passing?

 

There has definitely been a difference of opinion in the wake of The Queen’s passing this week, regarding sporting events around the country.

All English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish football has been postponed this weekend as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Since the announcement, the response has been mixed shall we say!

A lot of people have said football shouldn’t have been cancelled, such as Piers Morgan:

And others, put their point across a bit more bluntly…

A lot of people have commented that the reason that the Premier League decided to cancel all fixtures this weekend was because they couldn’t trust football supporters to honour The Queen and would be disrespectful during any minutes silence or minutes applause.

The Premier League is a global brand, broadcast in over 180 countries around the world, and the Premier League didn’t want the risk of their brand being damaged by any kind of disrespect to the Royal Family which in itself is a global institution.

But what are your thoughts? Was cancelling the fixtures this weekend the right call? After all, they made the same decision in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland?

Or should the Premier League have followed suit of golf, cricket, rugby, tennis and motor racing and continued on, but shown displays of respect to their global audience?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section! ?