REISS THE MAGNIFICENT!
Reiss Nelson created a piece of football-future-iconography against Bournemouth when he let rip with an 18-yard screamer in the 96th minute against Bournemouth. The ball screeched past Neto, off his weaker foot, and as soon as it hit the net… you kind of felt like you had just witnessed the goal we’ll all be showing... Read more »
Reiss Nelson created a piece of football-future-iconography against Bournemouth when he let rip with an 18-yard screamer in the 96th minute against Bournemouth. The ball screeched past Neto, off his weaker foot, and as soon as it hit the net… you kind of felt like you had just witnessed the goal we’ll all be showing our great-grandkids in 50 years.
I don’t know how much I can give you on the game. It was a bit of a mess. Arsenal conceded after 11 seconds – 2nd most embarrassing timing in league history. We then conceded again early in the second half. It looked like we were toast… but deep down, for once as an Arsenal fan, I didn’t believe it. This team is built different. It doesn’t get rolled easily. It finds resources that didn’t exist with previous teams.
… and so it went.
Thomas Partey scored a volley to get the game going. Why was it delicious? Because Neto was linked to Arsenal during the Kia reign of terror and his flappy punch found ESR who nodded it back across the box to TP to smash home.
We clawed back another on 70 minutes. Benny Blanco, a halftime sub was the scorer, but the lead actor was Reiss. Thomas Partey did some great work to weave his way through the middle of the park, he found Reiss in space, our loan shy winger fizzed a low punched cross to the back post, Benny B smashed his volley past Neto who palmed it out… but the refs watch caught it and gave the goal.
Can we be clear… if that was on VAR, they’d have disallowed it.
The final goal of the game felt beyond us. The ref had rolled over an extra minute on the paltry 6 minutes we’d been awarded, he was going to blow up after our corner. Saka fluffed the setpiece, the ball was headed out, right at Reiss Nelson. He chested the ball, took a touch and smashed it across Neto about 100mph… with his weaker foot!
WOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! What a moment for the boy! Absolute scenes! I woke every baby in the building! My girl had a meltdown at the madness in the room! I was with my dad and we hugged like we were watching a game in Wembley!
The game finished. Arsenal took a crazy three points. We ruined so many rival fans’ weekends! That was INCREDIBLE!
Do I want to breeze past the refereeing standards? No. We didn’t get a single VAR decision all game. They missed encroachment from kickoff. They passed on 5 handball moments. Ignored all our penalty shouts. It was embarrassing to watch PGMOL try, once again, to exact revenge on Arsenal for being part of the reason Lee Mason lost his job. Think I’m a conspiratorial nut job? Explain this from Danny Simpson about Mark Clattenburg if you think bias or outright preference doesn’t play a role in football.
“I remember Clattenburg, mate. Wow. I think he should have sent someone away. He said something like, ‘I should have sent you there, but I want you to win.’
“Dude, that was crazy. That was crazy, you know, I swear to god. Good job there is no VAR but yes.”
That game was a shambles. Last week, VAR inteferred with an unclear and unobvious decision, this week, they don’t think handball matters. It’s really bad.
One more negative: Trossard going off with a groin injury is likely very bad news. That’s 4 weeks off the bat. We have big problems upfront if Eddie’s ankle scan comes back with bad news. Zero strikers is as bad as it gets for Arsenal. Gabriel Jesus ‘might’ be on the bench against Sporting, but he’ll be undercooked for at least 3 weeks as he fights to get back to full fitness.
Who can step up? Who will finish for us? What is the makeshift option? It’s a worry.
What we can’t deny is the character in this squad. It is Premier League winner levels now. We need 9 more wins and I think the league will be ours. We’re 7 points away from top 4 positions. How incredible is that?
We do need to work out what happened defensively today. It wasn’t good. Bournemouth had 4 big chances against us and scored 2 goals. It was a bad day… or Mikel Arteta told the boys to make up the goal difference and we overextended. We can’t defend like that against City or Newcastle. It’s not acceptable to dominate a game the way we did and concede two goals.
What I will say is Aaron Ramsdale made a few really good saves. That made a difference. It’s just a shame he had to be on call to make those.
Bournemouth had 4 shots / 4 on target.
Arsenal had 30 shots / 9 on target.
That. Is. A. Spanking.
How was it so close?
Who cares right now.
We won. It was one of the most epic results I’ve seen. Our title charge is so, so real.
Big shoutout to our incredible fans. They shook off the nerves, supported the boys from start to finish, and they all stayed until the death and they were rewarded.
What a journey we’re on!
Ok, get on the podcast right now you spicy BEAUTIES! x