WHAT IF THE HOPE DOESN'T KILL?

ARSENAL HAVE US DREAMING

Sensational. Stupendous. Incredible. The exact tonic we needed after a heady away day in Madrid. I demanded a disgusting performance in Spain, but the type I wanted against Fulham was comfortable.

The only way you get to that is to lay the smackdown early, step on the throat, then hit them with a paving slab just to make sure. Damn, that was some violent rhetoric. Am I ok?

NO.

Arsenal demolished Fulham. They didn’t let up. Minute 1 to 47 was an absolute masterclass in control, directness, and clinicality.

Mikel Arteta took, what I would argue, was the biggest gamble of the season. He put Myles in the team. Not at left back. In midfield. Not as an 8, where he’d be more protected, no… Arteta put him in at number 6, and oh my, what a move that turned out to be.

… also, can we just be clear here. Myles has been poor this season. He’s gets caught in posession, takes huge risks, and he’s been overpowered by teams like Mansfield and Portsmouth. The idea that he had any right to a run in midfield in a game so important is offbeat for me… the risk from Arteta was kind of nuts. I don’t know why so many people are like, yah, this was a totally sane move.

Anyway, we know what is capable of when he’s feeling the love. He moves the ball at speed, he is very direct, he has more stomach for risk than Zubimendi, and he was keen as f*ck to prove he should be an Arsenal player. The performance was magnificent.

But… the name on the team sheet that had us all purring was Bukayo Saka. He was the first sip of a Guinness on a Sunday morning. I mean, afternoon. Unbelievably satisfying in every sense. Incredible decision-making. Silky. Winning aura. He took over the captain’s armband and looked unbelievably focused.

There was a moment where he had a little whisper to Gyokeres before the game — I think he said ‘let’s be best friends, I love you’… because the little bromance on the pitch was the first time we’d seen them connect in a way that gave immense pleasure.

Bukayo put Anthony Robinson in career ER with a sharp turn that literally floored the American. Ambulance chasers from Morgan & Morgan were on the phone to his agent, because my word, he looked like he’d had an accident that was not his fault. That moment gave Bukayo freedom of the Fulham penalty area to entice our very own fox in the box… Big Vik. The Swede freed himself for the simplest of tap-ins. It was a great start. 9 minutes deep and we’d scored. The hopes and dreams of that Fulham team drained from the afternoon, there was quite clearly going to be no miracle for them.

The second goal took another 31 minutes. Not that we didn’t ask questions, the loudest was Calafiori who was adjudged offside after he scored a lovely header. When the big one came, it felt like a miracle. Gyokeres brought the ball down out wide, carried it, turned and slipped in Saka… our winger, free again, homed in on goal and lashed a low strike left foot strike at Leno’s inside post. Gyok… with assists? What was happening?

But there was more, the second half had tithings. It started with a Bukayo hospital pass to Big Gabi, the Brazilian narrowly connected with the ball, avoiding Jiménez getting loose on goal, but that crazy moment freed Trossard for an immense counter. He ran 40 yards, sucked out the fullback, then clipped a beautiful ball to Big Vik, who looped his header over Bernd. Magnificence… he whipped that Bane mask out and the crowd went WILD.

That hammering afforded Arteta the luxury of taking Bukayo off at half-time for Madueke. Some might have wanted Arsenal to go for 6 goals, but the thinking was probably more about conserving energy, not breaking anyone, and shutting down a very good Premier League score. Also worth noting that only three teams have won four or more games by 3 goal margins this season… FOREST (4), Arsenal (6), and Man City (7).

Most of the subs that came on in the second half didn’t really add much to the game. Max Dowman had a very mazy run through the middle that ended with him dragging his shot just wide. But largely, the second half was just about defending well, maintaining that clean sheet, and giving minutes to players so they didn’t have to do a warm-down. Arsenal delivered 3.2 xG and conceded 0.37 off one shot on target. Extremely professional stuff that was a long way from ‘stumbling over the line.’

Let’s talk about Myles… what a performance. He was told just before the game he’d be starting his first game of the season in midfield and wow… he delivered. He had 78 touches, 97% pass completion rate, won 64% of his 11 duels, he was just all over the place. No real errors of note. Totally comfortable at Premier League level, in a game that, if banana-skinned, could have ruined our title hopes. The club are clearly considering selling him this summer… but did the maths change after that game? 18 years old, and he’s doing that? Sure, Fulham were extremely porous and lacked intensity, but you can only play who is in front of you… and the point here isn’t that he’ll be starting as our 6 next season, it’s that if you don’t need to spend £60m on a young back-up who is 5 years from his peak… just make him a midfielder and go and buy another left back.

Viktor Gyokeres… my word. Sensational is too dull a word for the clinic in 9ism he put on. His best game in an Arsenal shirt. He was winning duels, his passing was really good again, and his presence in and around the box left him with 2 really important goals and an assist. He’s the first Arsenal player to score that many goals in a season since Alexis Sánchez in 2014/15. Quite incredible. There’s no real need to go into a deeper dive here from me, when a striker scores important goals and plays like that, all you can do is praise the work. The two most important features of Viktor are 1) Character: he deals with the heat, he deals with being dropped, and he plays the same way every single time. Part of being a pro is not letting anything get you down. 2) Availability. Kai, for whatever reason, was once again sitting in the stands. Gyokeres has been in the stands for about 2 weeks all season. He’s there, always, and that gives him a greater chance of impacting games. We have a max of 5 more games this season, if he plays like that in all of them, I’d fancy us winning something sexy.

Max Dowman. At what point is Arteta going to have the light bulb moment that means Max takes minutes off Saka? I’m not quite sure why we keep investing minutes in Madueke. Max holds onto the ball better, his one vs one skills are miles ahead, and he’s the bigger goal threat. Another lovely cameo. No doubt he has one more impact moment left in him this season.

So, game 4 in the 5-game shootout went to Arsenal. We’ve put 6 more points on the board than Manchester City. We have stretched our goal difference to +4. I think that’s really important as well, because they blew their opportunity for a goal fest against Burnley. Most of their games remaining are against serious teams now, bar Palace, I can’t see where they’re going to drop a 7-0 on someone. Not only that, Hand Of Arsenal, one of the most reliable voices in the whole of football, revealed that Pep is off and Maresca is taking over. That is a damaging bit of news for City, his pre-Everton presser will be all about his future. Not ideal. Not ideal at all. Honestly, you just don’t like to see the dark arts work that way against Man City.

Arsenal, by contrast, are playing a relegated team, another team in the battle for the last relegation slot, and a team that’ll be dreaming of a European Cup final. The only negative for our end-of-season is I have a sneaking suspicion we’re going to keep Spurs in the Premier League. Emery is going to f*ck it up against Spurs tomorrow after an upsetting Euro outing… which will, hopefully, bring Brentford into the fight for CL football. That means Villa might actually have to do something against Man City in the final game of the season.

The Spurs stuff is sad, sure. But it shows the contrast between the two clubs because Spurs would throw the Premier League to see Arsenal relegated and their fans would celebrate in the stands as it happened. Levels, as the kids say.

The Opta Supercomputer now has Arsenal with an 80% chance of winning the league. I don’t entirely trust that number because I always put personal feelings over highly tuned dispassionate algorithms and I’ve been burned by Arsenal to third degree levels over the past 30 years… so I won’t be counting my chickens, or counting on stats nerds.

But… that was a huge win. The most important of the last 3 months. The momentum is with Arsenal. Heroes are emerging from the shadows. Arteta has learned to rotate. Kai and Odegaard will be available next week. Hopefully Timber isn’t too far. You can smell something exciting cooking up in North London. How f*cking amazing is this? Jeopardy with three games to go, watching the team we love fight it out for the two most important trophies in world football. THIS is what we’ve been waiting for.

The big question on my mind: what happens when the hope doesn’t kill? Maybe we’ll find out this season.