After a self-imposed exile from The Emirates Stadium (revising for final exams), Saturday brought my return to the North Bank. In characteristically overly-ambitious fashion, I have decided to embark upon a new regular feature. From my seat in the North Bank Upper, I have seen a lot of good football, a lot of bad football, and a load of nonsense. It is here that I begin to chronicle it.
The Football
Against Leicester, Arsenal put on a show. If I had to single out a few individual performers, I would go with two new and one old. Nabbed from Manchester City, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus hit the ground running.
Zinchenko ran the left flank, drifting wide and tucking inside. With the ball at his feet there was an air that all was safe and sound, the kind of player who just instills some calm. On the other end of calm, is the hysteria that every Jesus touch brought. In spite of his two goals and two assists, the standout moment had to be when he brought down a long ball from Ramsdale, held off and turned the centre back, and forced a great save. It’s been an awful long time since I’ve seen an Arsenal forward with such ability with the ball at his feet.
The oldie this week is none other than Granit Xhaka. Maligned by many, adored by many, Xhaka has been drifting into a new territory lately. As opposed to the years spent as the gladiatorial deepest midfielder, Xhaka has been given a certain box-to-box licence by Mikel Arteta this year. As the left central midfielder he was a constant threat. Nearly scoring with a header in the first half, he got his goal in the second half with his clever attacking positioning. With Youri Tielemans on the other team, it was a real statement from the Swiss stalwart that he won’t be letting anyone take his spot too easily.
The Fans
As has been the norm over the last year, the fans were in terrific spirits and voice this week. The standout moment came after William Saliba’s unfortunate own goal. In my ten years going, I’ve been present for an awful lot of moments that brought groans and moans. This time, the attitude was simply pick yourself up and go again. After conceding, the fans would rally around the team. Both times the team would repay this with a goal.
For the longest time in the latter end of the 2010s, it would have been difficult to describe the relationship between fans and team as healthy. Fans would get on players’ backs, and certainly voice their displeasure towards the manager. This has changed.
Whilst there were absolutely teething issues with Mikel Arteta, he had the luxury of this coming behind closed doors. With fans away from the ground he bought himself more time. Now is when it seems that his more drastic decisions are paying off. The fans have a young and hungry squad, and a manager who, to his credit, clearly wants to bring the club back up to the elite level it once was at.
Once again, The Emirates is alive.
The Funny
As ever, with football there are comedy moments. Nonsense occurs on the pitch, nonsense occurs off of it. This week’s crowning moment could be nothing but the reaction of the crowd to Youri Tieleman’s substitution. In football’s worst kept secret, Arsenal are interested in signing him. Thus, it came as no surprise when the North Bank broke into a chorus of ‘we’ll see you next week…Youri Tielemans we’ll see you next week’.
Whether or not this comes true, one can only imagine what it must have been like for Tielemans to be walking off to semi-sarcastic applause from the Arsenal fans.
