Had we been offered at the start of the season that we would be heading to Edmonton with 4 games to go and in the title race, we all would have taken in.
Our little wobble over Christmas saw us go 5 points behind Liverpool, level on points with Manchester City (with them having a game in hand) and 1 point above Tottenham who were 5th. At this point there were worries that we might not even make the top 4.
Our form in 2024 has been nothing short of remarkable.
14 games played, 12 wins, 1 draw and just 1 defeat. It is title winning form and no other side has more points this calendar year.
That form has seen us leapfrog City (who still have their game in hand), and swing the gap behind to Liverpool from 5 behind to 2 in hand, with us having a game in hand.
Meanwhile, that lot from Middlesex have shown mid-table form and gone from a point behind us to 17. They have only won 1 more point than Chelsea in 2024, which is incredible when you consider how poor the team from West London have been and how great Ange Postiwhatshisname has been.
Following results over the weekend, Champions League football is now guaranteed for The Arsenal next season.
What has made me happy so much this season is not only the way we have fought our way back in the title race, but how we have maintained title chasing form whilst also playing in the Champions League. Many pundits expected us to struggle with the higher intensity games.
It also makes Tottenham’s position more laughable – they have had no mid week football and have played just 3 cup games. They look knackered despite being set for a 41 game season – just one more than the minimum. But they will always have thrashing the Lion City Sailors 5-1 in pre-season.
If we avoid defeat today, then we will secure finishing above Tottenham for the 23rd time in 29 seasons. Has their ever been a “hotly contested local derby” where one side has been so dominant?
However, as Everton showed a week ago against Liverpool, form can go out of the window in these local derbies, and Tottenham only need to play for a draw to spoil our party.
We basically need to win all of our last 4 games. We can not afford to drop any more points. Spurs will know that and set up accordingly.
In a little more than 8 hours time, we will either be ecstatic or miserable whilst waiting to get on a train at Northumberland Park.
Get the win, than it is head back to Islington to catch the Man City game. I do not expect them to drop points this weekend. Lose and it is head back to drown our sorrows.
And then it is a weekend off (for once) before Bournemouth.
Arsenal (1) 5 Chelsea (0) 0 Premier League Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU Tuesday, 23rd April 2024. Kick-off time: 8.00pm
(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard. Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko
Scorers: Leandro Trossard (4 mins), Ben White (52, 70 mins), Kai Havertz (57, 59 mins) Yellow Cards: Mikel Arteta, Ben White, Leandro Trossard Arsenal Possession Percentage: 44%
Referee: Simon Hooper Assistant Referees: Adrian Holmes, Simon Long Fourth Official: Graham Scott VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Peter Bankes; AVAR Simon Bennett
Attendance: 60,238
A major showdown ahead on St. George’s Day with the boys from SW6, as most of our matches are with them, and have been for many years now.
This evening’s game could see the return of Takehiro Tomiyasu after his injury that prevented him from taking part in Saturday’s victory against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux, but aside from him, there appear to be no other issues reported.
Right from the start, there was an immediate penalty shout as Kai Havertz went through but tumbled under pressure from the retreating Benoit Badiashile as soon as he strolled into the penalty area, but in the fourth minute, we had the perfect start when Declan Rice moved forward before feeding in Leandro Trossard who, although the angle may well have been against him, got his head over the ball and smashed it past Chelsea goalie Djordje Petrovic and into the net for our opening goal!
A few minutes later, Takehiro Tomiyasu collapsed on the halfway line after clashing with Nicholas Jackson, whose studs appeared to catch our man just above the ankle, but the VAR team were not interested in informing the referee about it, apparently.
Chelsea came back at us through Conor Gallagher, but William Saliba was on hand to deal with the issue successfully. The visitors certainly felt that they had a chance in scoring, with the best of the chances falling to Axel Disasi but the ball ran post our post, thankfully.
We started to take a hold on the game when Declan Rice received the ball on the half-turn, easily spinning past Enzo Fernandez before firing a strong shot just over the crossbar from the edge of the penalty area.
Although Nicholas Jackson hit the outside of the post when the visitors broke out of their half, we just shrugged out shoulders and got on with the game. Just before the half hour mark, we had three good chances to score again.
Bukayo Saka ran into the penalty area but his shot went straight at the keeper, and then Chelsea lost the ball and goalie Djordje Petrovic was called into action to deny Leandro Trossard an obvious goalscoring chance, and then the keeper pulled off a sensational save to keep out another Leandro Trossard shot that deflected off a defender at the last moment and looked certain to drop into the bottom corner of the net before fate took a hand.
Just before the break, Chelsea had a couple of good chances to score through Nicholas Jackson and Conor Gallagher, but David Raya played exceptionally well to keep the visitors out to ensure that we were a goal to the good at half time, but not before Mikel Arteta was booked by the referee for complaining!
The second half started rather slowly, with both clubs having chances to score, but it was us that got closest to putting the ball into the net when Declan Rice won the ball off Conor Gallagher high up the pitch and passed it to captain Martin Ødegaard, who moved forward and beautifully laid the ball off to Declan Rice in the penalty area, but he shot it straight at the Chelsea keeper.
Our captain was driving the boys forward, and it was a sublime pass from him that found its way to Kai Havertz, who was through on goal, but Chelsea keeper Djordje Petrovic raced off his line to keep out our man, sadly.
Seven minutes after the restart, we grabbed our second goal of the night when the ball was eventually played in to Declan Rice whose shot was blocked, which fell right into the path of Ben White who merely tapped the ball into the net.
This second goal certainly fired us up, and five minutes later, we scored our third goal when Martin Ødegaard played a stunning pass forward, which was weighted perfectly for Kai Havertz who ran through on a one-on-one with Djordje Petrovic and merely chipped the ball over the hapless Chelsea keeper and into the net.
We were now actively hunting for more goals, with Chelsea looking more and more lost as the game was rolling on.
Kai Havertz scored our fourth of the night when his shot went in off the post, and our tails were up and our confidence was there for all to see.
Ben White scored our fifth of the night (and his second) when he collected Martin Ødegaard’s lobbed through-ball, attempting a first-time cross that stroked elegantly into the top corner of the net!
A few minutes later, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard were replaced by Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli in order to consolidate our situation on the pitch, and there were even more changes when Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko replaced Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu with about a quarter of an hour remaining of the match.
Ben White was booked for a silly, yet minor infringement and a little whilte later, we almost scored our sixth goal when Declan Rice hit the post, and then, with one eye on the weekend, Mikel Arteta replaced Bukayo Saka with Fábio Vieira with just a few minutes left on the clock.
Fábio Vieira then went on a clever run through the Chelsea defence before unleashing a strong shot which hit the side-netting, confusing everyone, as it looked like a goal!
During the seven minutes injury time, Gabriel Martinelli easily beat the offside trap and ran at the Chelsea goal, but Djordje Petrovic somehow saved the one-on-one to spare the visitors yet further embarrassment. There were no more goals, and we ran out worthy winners here tonight.
With this victory tonight, we have gone three points clear of Liverpool and have significantly added to our goal difference situation as well, which is most pleasing to see. Tonight’s win was a triumph for everyone in the team, but none more so than our captain Martin Ødegaard who put in a masterful performance that inspired his men from start to finish.
It was great to see both Kai Havertz and Ben White get two goals, but it is not to be forgotten that Leandro Trossard’s early goal set us on the path to victory against our West London rivals this evening. And yet, we could have scored yet more goals tonight, but it was not to be.
The performance by everyone overall was wonderful, the attitude was first-class, and nobody in the Premiership will surely fancy their chances when they get the opportunity to play us, whenever that is. Well done, chaps!
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners.
Our next match: Tottenham Hotspur at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, 28th April at 2.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon
And just like that, we wake up and it is another game day.
Facing Chelsea is never an easy task, no matter what form they are in.
As Mikel Arteta said in his pre-game press conference, we need to “keep doing what we’ve been doing, focus on the game, on the task.”
Whilst some of us might already be glancing towards Sunday’s North London Derby, we need to get past this Jekyll and Hyde Chelsea team first.
Chelsea have lost just 2 games from 8 against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Man U and Tottenham – 2 wins, 4 draws, 2 defeats. They certainly seem to up their game in these bigger matches.
Reports are that Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto are out injured, but my feeling is this is just Mauricio Pochettino being cagey on his team selection. And ultimately they have 3209572057 players to choose from so having a couple out will not make much of a difference.
Arsenal seem to have no new injury issues. It was only Jurrien Timber that Arteta spoke about yesterday, ruling the Dutchman out of Sunday’s game against Tottenham.
Last night, Timber played his first game since August – starting left back for the U21s. If you have been living under a rock, he opened the scoring within 9 minute with an absolute worldie.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has got some criticism this season for his defensive frailties, with many calling for a new left back to be signed this summer. This is wrong.
I am fairly certain that had Timber been fit this season, the Dutchman would have spent much of his time at left back, and we would have seen Zinchenko replace Granit Xhaka in that left hand 8 position, with Declan Rice in behind. Who knows what we might have gone on to achieve?
Considering how long he has been out for, and how little of the season there is left, it is unlikely that Timber will start a first team game this season.
What is more likely is he gets on the bench for Bournemouth and Everton and has a 10-minute run out at the end of both games if we are comfortably winning.
With the focus back on today, we just need to start fast and maintain that intensity. Win and the momentum is back with us.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 