As seen by the eyes of an Arsenal fan
Do I need to mention it? No? I’ll mention it.
Arsenal are unbeaten in the past ten league matches.
If Arsenal only lose to Manchester City, and they don’t win the league because of that one match, then sorry, but you can’t be overly angry or disappointed, I mean all you can say is “fair play”. We would witness another version of City’s unreal end-of-season form and absolutely nobody (without their finances and the depth of their bench) can measure up.
Now, “unbeaten in the past ten league matches”.
I know this fact can be disputed because Arsenal almost lost the last match against the last team on the table and twice in a row dropped a two goal advantage.
But also, in those three matches, I see that we “overcame adversity”, more precisely, we overcame extremely difficult, almost impossible to survive situations.
This is the story of Arsenal’s past three league matches in the buildup to their biggest match of the past two decades – a clash against Manchester City on their home ground, as seen by the eyes of an Arsenal fan.
Arteta-esque Xhaka, Stalingrad, the roar of Anfield and fucking, fucking Liverpool
Easter. A plentiful breakfast, a plentiful lunch, but the stomach doesn’t ask for food or even worse – refuses it. Nervousness, anxiety, but shy optimism.
Arsenal need a win.
Arsenal have not won a league match at Anfield since 2012.
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics… No matter how different they are, that Easter afternoon they all pray to only one God.
The God of Football.
Forty-one minutes of seventh heaven
The clash at Anfield begins. “Now or never,” slips from the lips of nervous Arsenal fans.
Now.
Just eight minutes after the referee’s whistle that marked the beginning of the clash with Liverpool, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard try a combination in front of the Liverpool goal whose net is defended by their number one, Alisson. Central defender Virgil Van Dijk cuts the connection between the two, but the ball falls to the feet of Gabriel Martinelli, who puts the ball behind Alisson’s back and leads Arsenal to the zone of pure insanity.
Liverpool 0, Arsenal 1. Not even ten minutes have passed.
“Just don’t stop attacking now”.
They didn’t.
Arsenal continue to bite as the hosts scramble nervously to get back into the game, and just as they manage to claw their way back into the match with an attempt by the defensive midfielder Fabinho and a dangerous cross from the local and proud Scouser Trent Alexander-Arnold, another shock arrives.
In the 28th minute, Granit Xhaka finds Gabriel Martinelli who crosses into the penalty area, where he finds Gabriel Jesus, who confidently increased Arsenal’s advantage to 2-0 with a sublime header.
Pinch me, I’m dreaming
The result doesn’t seem real. Not even half an hour into the game, and Arsenal are 2-0 up at Anfield. They play beautiful football. Liverpool are trying, but they aren’t playing just against any side. The Champions came to visit them.
I give myself the right to dream. After years and years of sadness, pain and disappointment, I watch my Arsenal glide around the pitch.
Confidence, Arsenal is thy name.
Xhaka 2023., Arteta 2021.
Arsenal show no signs of stopping. Liverpool are scrambling.
“This team demolished Manchester United 7-0 on this very same field?”
First half is nearing its end, and Liverpool still don’t have a shot on target. It’s looking good bruv.
But then, to the disbelief of Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and Arsenal fans familiar with the character and work of Granit Xhaka, in the 41st minute a rare moment of his madness occurs after an unsanctioned challenge on him.
In an act of retaliation, he emulates his manager (who, by substituting reason for heart, gifted victory to Liverpool the season before) and agressively goes after Trent Alexander-Arnold, the adored player of Liverpool fans (quiet, very quiet fans, to the extent that the voices of the visiting Arsenal fans could be heard) who explode within a second and blast the match and Liverpool alike into sixth gear.
Klopp’s heavy metal football is waking up and shit is starting to hit the fan.
Same circumstances, two years apart
Last season, the Arsenal team was filmed by the Amazon Prime film crew for a whole season, so that fans could get a chance to see what managing an Arsenal team looks like behind the scenes and what exactly happens in the dressing room and at the club itself.
They put a lot of emphasis on Arsenal’s clash with Liverpool at Anfield and the way Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is preparing them for the clash.
Arteta, being a young manager, thinks outside the box and puts loudspeakers around the field for the Arsenal players in a training match and simulates the atmosphere at Anfield with the iconic “You’ll Never Walk Alone” blasting through the speakers.
The general consensus is that the approach is interesting and after all, who knows? It might work.
It didn’t – but approach at the training ground is not to blame.
(Dirty) Liverpool tackle the Arsenal team however and whenever they can, the referee doesn’t react, Arteta is furious, but the score remains 0-0…
…until Arteta exploded after the star of Liverpool’s murderous front three, Sadio Mane, elbowed Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu (something we’ve seen season after season), but the referee decided not to book him.
At that moment, Arteta runs towards Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp and almost gets into a physical confrontation with him.
Modest Anfield explodes at that moment (“Don’t touch our manager!”), Liverpool IMMEDIATELY smell blood and just six minutes later score a goal against us. Goalscorer? Sadio Mane.
They tear us apart 4-0.
Anfield in the style of Stalingrad
Let’s go back to 2023. Just a minute (literally a minute) after Xhaka pounces on the local favourite, we concede a goal.
Carried by the wings of the Liverpool crowd, homeside’s captain Jordan Henderson finds another star of the murderous front three in Arsenal’s penalty area, Mohamed Salah, who registers the first shot on goal and the first goal for Liverpool.
Liverpool 1, Arsenal 2.
Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly from the iconic movie “Back to the Future” needed a DeLorean to go back in time, we only needed a Granit Xhaka’s trademark moment of madness.
Anfield is on our backs, just like in 2021. The last thing we need in the closing stages of the season.
Liverpool registers another shot, but outside the frame of the goal.
The referee whistles to signal the end of the first half – and saves Arsenal. We have 15 minutes to calm down, and Anfield may also give in. At least calm down a bit.
End of first half: Liverpool 1, Arsenal 2
I’m shaking with fear, we fucked up. We could all feel it, for sure.
Just nine minutes after the start of the (until then peaceful) second half, in the 54th minute, Arsenal’s defender Rob Holding commits a foul in the penalty area on Liverpool’s Jota.
Last season’s golden boot winner Mohamed Salah prepares to take the penalty kick.
We’re fucked.
2-2 in the 54th minute gives Liverpool an almost certain victory.
To the delight of the Arsenal fans and the disbelief of the Liverpool fans, Salah misses the entire goal. Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale can breathe a sigh of relief… if only for a few seconds.
After a short celebration, it is evident that Arsenal’s fans do not have much reason for happiness and optimism.
It remains 2-1, but for how long?
Liverpool attack. In just half an hour of the second half, they have 61.2% of the possession and as many as six shots at Arsenal’s goal, while Arsenal only register one shot.
But Arsenal are holding on. Heroically holding on. The net must remain intact. A proper Football Manager match.
Flames to dust, lovers to friends – why do all good things come to an end?
Arsenal maintain a minimal lead until the 87th minute, when Trent schooled an unfocused Oleksandr Zinchenko with a skillful dribble, sending another cross into the penalty area as the ball finds its way to Liverpool striker Roberto Firmino (who else?), who scores to make it 2-2 and resets the match back level.
Arsenal have three minutes plus stoppage time to keep the point. A point, because there is only one team on the field: Liverpool.
But with the help of Ramsdale’s heroic saves, Arsenal manage to keep their heads above water. “How did he keep that one out?!”, can be read from the lips of those present at Anfield.
In the last seconds of the match, Martinelli shows that he is still very young and that it is unrealistic to expect him to be completely cool in such mentally intense conditions.
Arsenal get a chance for a counterattack, the ball is led by Martinelli, who makes the wrong decision and does not pass to Saka properly, only for the referee to call for the end of the match not long after.
Full time: Liverpool 2, Arsenal 2
Arsenal played an almost identically demanding match like the season before, but this time not only did they not lose, they almost managed to defend their lead (!) of 2-0 at Anfield, with a missed penalty for Liverpool as well.
Ramsdale is the hero of the match.
Give any club in the league the situation Arsenal had to deal with, 99 out of 100 times they would’ve lost at least 3-2. Liverpool’s deadly grip at Anfield is comparable only to that of an anaconda. Once they sense weakness, there’s no going back. The prey will be slaughtered without any mercy.
Unless if it’s this season’s Arsenal on the other side.
That’s fucking progress and a match of fucking Champions.
Mikel Arteta’s boys have a visit to the London Stadium against West Ham next, and another game in which a slip-up must not happen. But we survived brutal Liverpool. This team does not fall.
I dare to dream. We’re going for three points.
(End of part one of three.)
