Declan Rice controls the ball with his chin, settles it by his feet then strikes. The ball deflects off Johnny Evans and powers through the hand of the diving Andre Onana, hitting the back of the net. The Emirates explodes! Rice knee slides towards the corner. He and his team mates bundle into the jumping, screaming and disbelieving crowd. As far as football goes. This is bedlam.
On Sunday, Arsenal came from behind to score two late goals in injury time to beat Manchester United. United had set up to hit Arsenal on the counter attack. A classic away performance seemed to be going to plan when they scored with their first shot from the constantly threatening Marcus Rashford. However, the Gunners quickly combined to hit back just a minute later with a well worked move finished by Martin Odegaard.
The second half saw VAR drama; Arsenal having a penatly over-turned and United having a goal ruled out for offside. So far, so dramatic but the best was yet to come. Towards the end of the game, there was no sense that the teams would look at how the game had gone and think a draw might have to do. Arsenal made positive substitutions, replacing players that had emptied the tank with ones who were chomping at the bit. Corner followed corner until the ball fell to Rice, who controlled it with his chin. You know the rest.
The adrenaline and giddiness lasts for days when it is your team coming out on top of such a dramatic late win, in the same way the anger and disappointment remains if it is your team defeated. The aftermath has seen a mixed reaction from both pundits and fans which raises the point about perspective. United fans calling into radio phone-in shows claimed that their team had played the best they had played all season, that they had a clear game plan, that they were dominant. Pundits were talking up Arsenal's decisiveness in these pivotal moments (having done pretty much the same last season against Villa away, Bournemouth and United at home). It's not a plan Arteta will want to rely on but knowing that the players have the fitness, focus and desire to keep pushing and pressing for the winner will no doubt give confidence to the team and fans but also concern to the opposition.
Arteta has spoken already this season about variety, control and further improvement from the delights of last season. Those of us watching in the stands have seen a team in transition. Having lost the influential Xhaka in the transfer market and several key players to injury (Partey just the day before), performances have reflected a team embedded new personnel, relationships and tactics. Frankly, it's felt like a grind. That is in direct contrast to the elation felt in injury time against United on Sunday which says more about the opposition and the timing. However, there is evidence out there that suggests the narrow scores and recent errors that have made watching fans somewhat frustrated are exceptions in a trend of building dominance.
Lewis Ambrose (Arseblog) analysed our opening day performance against Forest and had a stat which seemed to jar with how watching the game, as an emotional fan, felt: "Arsenal recorded more touches (902)...than any Premier League match in 2022/23." Given that the last ten/fifteen minutes 'felt' so nervy, this stat undermined emotions and thoughts about our performances last season.
Statistics are a funny thing. They are like the Terminator. They have no emotions. They are mechanical, unfeeling and relentless in their pursuit of truth. The Fulham game was the most disappointing result so far this season and the majority of fans will be fixated on the errors in the game which ultimately cost us the points. However, Scott Willis (Cannon Stats) reported the xG (goalscoring opportunities) for Arsenal was rated as 3.1 and Fulham's only 0.8. Arsenal created enough to have scored three goals. They only scored two. They restricted Fulham enough so that they should have only scored one, at best. They scored two. The errors undermined the stats.
Then, we have what happened on Sunday. An emotional rollercoaster. A low block looking to beat the press. A sucker punch on the counter attack. Twists and turns due to technology. In all the chaos, it might be easy to see why fans of both sides cover the full range of reactions. United fans may be forgiven for looking positively at a performance that succumbed to late pressure and decisions I'm sure they would (wrongly) question. Arsenal fans would be forgiven for outcome bias. That, because we got the result, the performance somehow was deserving of it. It didn't feel like that. It felt, in the stadium, that United had a lot of the ball albeit deep in their own half, Rashford was a constant threat and our attacking seemed to lack incision. However, Adam Keys (The Arsenal Therapy Podcast) reported that "Arsenal finished the game with 55% possession, had an xG of 2.53 to theirs (United's) 0.98...played 209 passes in the final third to their 74...key area domination." That territory victory tells the story that Arsenal had United at arm's length. Emotionally, it didn't feel like that.
Arteta has talked about the need for more control. It was something we lacked, especially in those games at the end of last season. Fans have such a different, more heartfelt, perspective. There needs to be some understanding on both sides that the logic and focus the players and coaches are trying to create will always rub up against the passion that fans emit from the stands. Fans need more patience, perhaps, but the way the excitement built and over-flowed on Sunday will remain for some time. The opportunity to maintain that momentum is interrupted by an inconvenient international break. At least Arsenal can bask in the glory of that late late (and apparently dominant) victory.