It’s not often a crowd stays behind to salute their team following a painful stoppage-time defeat but that’s what happened at Emirates Stadium on New Year’s Day 2022.
Arsenal had just lost to Manchester City for the tenth time in a row but for an hour Mikel Arteta’s side had gone toe-to-toe with the reigning champions and been the better team.
Our football was fast and slick, we looked like a well-organised unit from front to back and more than deserved the half-time lead given to us by Bukayo Saka.
Defeat in the last minutes, preceded by an avoidable red card and a soft penalty was hard to accept, but after a difficult few years, there was cause for optimism.
The gap between Arsenal and the best team in England - cavernous at the start of the campaign - had closed a little.
Fast forward 15 months and the Gunners’ progress has been nothing short of astonishing. In many respects, it’s caught supporters completely off-guard.
| Position Pos | Club | Played Pl | GD | Points Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Man City
MCI
|
38 | +61 | 89 |
| 2 |
Arsenal
ARS
|
38 | +45 | 84 |
None of us expected to be challenging for the title this year and if you’d suggested as much last summer, we wouldn't have believed you.
Sure, we made canny signings who added experience to a youthful side brimming with vim and vigour, but the ambition, having stumbled at the final hurdle last season, was always a top-four finish and the end of our UEFA Champions League exodus.
While Friday’s 3-3 draw against Southampton was not the result anyone of an Arsenal persuasion expected or wanted, it does mean we’ve secured a place at Europe’s top table with six matches to go.
It’s a monumental achievement. That there’s an even bigger prize still on the table, despite the recent wobble, is exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure.
To get to this point, Arteta has improved Arsenal in every department. After three consecutive years struggling to create and take chances, we’ve already hit 77 goals for the campaign; a figure that outstrips the tally hit by Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles.
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What’s more, we’ve not been reliant on a solitary talisman. Scoring goals has been a collective effort. Gabriel Jesus set the standards in the opening months, wingers Saka and Gabriel Martinelli took up the baton and the supporting cast have all chipped in with vital contributions.
A fluid formation has helped release our attacking potential. In particular, the deployment of Oleksandr Zinchenko as an inverted left-back with a licence to roam in midfield. His probing has freed Granit Xhaka, reborn in a more advanced position, to bomb forward and create space for the talismanic Martin Odegaard to pull the strings in the final third.
With an extra body higher up the pitch, we’ve become much more adept at pressing high and turning over possession in dangerous areas.
Thomas Partey’s athleticism and the aggression of William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Ben White mean we’re constantly squeezing the pitch. Behind them, Aaron Ramsdale continues to grow in stature, making telling contributions with a consistency that belies his age.
Relentless, physical, dynamic, and adventurous; Arsenal have been magnificent to watch this season. Throw in a series of dramatic last-gasp wins at home and away and we’ve made memories to last a lifetime.
In that context, it feels greedy demanding more but that’s what football fans do, isn’t it?
Once vague dreams come into focus, expectations reset and you persuade yourself the impossible is possible. We’ve topped the table for so long, to let it slip now won’t be anything other than gut-wrenching.
Of course, in City, we couldn’t have a more formidable opponent. Pep Guardiola’s tactical tinkering has breathed new life into them recently, Erling Haaland looks irrepressible and they have a psychological edge after beating us twice in the last four months. That Arteta, in all likelihood, won’t be able to field his preferred starting XI is also a serious concern.
The smart money isn’t on Arsenal. But then, it hasn’t been all season. So maybe, just maybe, we can upset the odds again, assert ourselves on the match and sneak away with a result that keeps us in the driving seat heading into the final month.
Whatever happens on Wednesday, that gap between us and City continues to close.
Andrew Allen is deputy editor of Arseblog news and the Editor of the The Arsenal Collective