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The Final Day: what might have been, but was brilliant nonetheless…

Blue Sky, red smoke

Credit: Arsenal.com

The Final Day

By guest writer, Jonah Jones

It’s fair to say that leading into the Everton game, the majority of Arsenal fans had made peace with the fact that in all likelihood, the Premier League title wouldn’t be coming to North London. However, when arriving in N5, stepping out of Arsenal tube station, you would have thought that the league had already been won and that the day was Arsenal’s title procession. When I got off the tube at about 1pm, 3 hours before kick-off, everywhere in and around the ground was already a sea of red. I walked around to The Armoury, where the day’s first rendition of North London Forever was bellowed out by the surrounding crowd, which was a musical signal of how united the Arsenal world was going to be today, regardless of the outcome of the title race.

I then walked down Hornsey Road, in an attempt to get into the pub pre-game. I was quite fortunate, as I managed to get straight inside, and by the time I sank my first pint, I looked outside to see the whole of Hornsey Road outside the Tollington filled with chanting supporters. Red flares were lit off in the street, as again, nobody was ready to lie down and accept defeat, and everybody was ready to make this a truly “beautiful day”, as Mikel would say. I’d truly never seen an atmosphere like it before at the Emirates Stadium.

Soon enough, the team news was out. No Bukayo Saka. On any normal day, a meltdown would surely follow. This was not a normal day. Maybe elsewhere was different, but certainly with the people I was with, we were defiant, nothing was going to bring us down today. Martinelli in, the rest unchanged, more than enough to beat Everton at home.
As everyone took to their seats, the feeling was one of hope and the reminder that this is football, and anything can happen. North London Forever was the loudest the anthem has been since the song was brought in. The noise was a clear message to the Arsenal players, that we are behind you and we believe…

Epic Emirates support

Credit: Arsenal.com

From minute 0 to 40, the crowd had very much flattened. News of 1-0 to City, then 2-0 to City, and then seeing the ball fly into our own net from Declan Rice’s head for 1-0 to Everton, the bubble was at bursting point. But then, what felt like seconds later, the wall of noise returned. Murmurs of a Kudus overhead kick began, simultaneously to “Super Tomiyasu” popping up in the ØZone, suddenly bringing the final day back to life. Then minutes later, there was a noise that I had simply never heard before in any stadium. Was it someone late to the party seeing West Ham had scored, or was it the away fans trying to be funny? Whatever it was, 60,000 now believed that it was 2-2 in Manchester, and a deafening noise followed, designed to drag the team forward and tell them that it was on. Data connection is non-existent at the best of times in the Arsenal ground, but I managed to ask two separate Whatsapp chats for confirmation. Still 2-1 they said, and slowly everyone else was informed the same. Half time blew, and although it wasn’t going exactly to plan, all outcomes were still open, both games were alive and the dream was still possible.

The second 45 was a strange half, we weren’t doing our job by winning our game, yet I never felt like we weren’t going to win the game. Maybe that was just me, maybe it was the fact that when the other game went to 3-1, people thought our result was irrelevant. The half didn’t seem to fly by as some games do, and I almost felt like the game was being played to golden goal. We hit the woodwork twice, Ødegaard somehow missed from close range, and the game drifted closer and closer to the final whistle, but still I felt we were just going to keep playing until we scored. And then we did. Kai Havertz scores again. 13 games at centre forward in the Premier League this season, 15 goal contributions. Those crying out for a ‘prolific’ number 9, might have to get used to a prolific number 29 upfront next season.

Timber returns

Credit: Arsenal.com

This game somewhat feels like it exists outside of analysis, as ultimately the tactics, the performances, didn’t matter, all that mattered was the result here, and the result up north. However, considering he has been out of the team for weeks, and he’d been asked to play off the right hand side, I thought Gabriel Martinelli showed signs of returning to his best. He showed the fearlessness to constantly take on his man, and the desire to make things happen that we have grown to expect from him. 2 big chances created, 5 key passes, 5 completed crosses, on another day he has a couple of assists to his name. A left foot cross to Kai whose header hit the post, a right foot cross for Smith-Rowe whose volley hit the bar. In many ways it sums up his season, lots of nearly moments, which last year probably went his way. Technically he’s still got some things to tidy up. A key theme from the last few weeks is a poor touch prior to him taking his shot. He ran clean through against Wolves and Chelsea, he took a touch where the ball ended slightly stuck under his feet so he couldn’t open up his body enough to find the ‘Thierry Henry’ finish, like he did twice against Palace.

Again in this game, a lovely piece of interplay with Ben White saw Martinelli run through, take a touch that got the ball stuck under his feet and then hit a weaker shot too close to the goalkeeper. Get the ball out of your feet lad, and the goals will come back. On the whole this was a nice return to playing 90 minutes for Gabi, and he can take this into what will hopefully be, a successful Copa America campaign with Brazil and come back to us full of confidence.

Finally in regards to the 90 minutes on the pitch, the return of Jurrien Timber, was an obvious high point. 37 Premier League match days since damaging his ACL. I remember his first substitute appearance in pre-season, and what really popped off the screen was his explosiveness, and whilst there isn’t too much to go on from a second half cameo, he still looked like Jurrien Timber. We will never know what might have been had he stayed fit the entire season, but what is sure is he feels like a big part of what is to come. His introduction also saw us change shape in possession. We went from our standard 3-2 build up, into a 2-3 build up, with Timber and Zinchenko either side of Rice. Maybe this is something we will see more of next season, maybe it was a one-off based on the gamestate, but what is clear is Timber gives us so much more flexibility and adaptability to be able to do these things. Combining that with ‘Mr Swiss Army Knife’ Tomiyasu, who ended the game at left centre back, the options on the defensive carousel next season really do feel endless. Tomiyasu at centre half is something I will be looking out for next season when you look at how many minutes Saliba and Big Gabi have played this year. The future is bright for what is already the best defence in the division.

Mo and Ø

Credit: Arsenal.com

And after all of that, the final whistle blew. No fourteenth title for Arsenal Football Club. When the whistle blew I found myself staring into space, zoned out, dreaming of what might have been. Then again, the noise of the crowd brought me back into the room, and for the players who were clearly devastated at missing out on their ultimate goal, I am hoping it did the same for them. Again, this was the crowd telling the team we still believe and we are still behind you. Mikel came on the mic and told us to not be satisfied with second place, well don’t worry Mikel, we aren’t, but we know that the journey is far from complete, and we are all on the boat. It is hard to see how the atmosphere throughout the day would’ve been any different were we already champions, and that speaks to the authenticity of how much this all means to all of us, unlike another club facing 115 charges against them, where the emotion is just not there in the same way. There is absolutely nothing fake or manufactured about the love, the belief, the support, for the best Arsenal team since the Invincibles.

Arteta

Credit: Arsenal.com

Unfortunately, I didn’t have to stay on my friend’s sofa that I had arranged in case of a title celebration. Instead I drove home, and started thinking about next season, and yes, I have rearranged a spot on that sofa for the end of May next year…

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