There is nothing like supporting Arsenal Football Club I swear. No team is able to be gifted great opportunities to only almost utterly collapse at the end and ruin everything. Arsenal (2) – Leeds (1). At this point, I keep stressing, results over performances. 3 points are all that matter despite how abject we were today against Leeds.
FIRST HALF: Coming into the match, Leeds found themselves just outside of the relegation zone with any point(s) helping in their cause to stay in the top division in England. We deployed Ramsdale in goal with a newly formed back 4. Cédric took up the right-back position with Holding and Gabriel as our center backs with Ben white still recovering from an injury. Arteta deployed Tomiyasu at left-back over Nuno Tavares which I am assuming was to make sure Raphinha from Leeds was kept in check and he probably didn’t trust Nuno to do as much. Legit before I could get myself settled into the game, Arsenal was gifted the easiest goal we will get all year from the Leeds keeper:
All things being considered, if I was fighting relegation, I would not have let the other team (Arsenal) have such an easy goal, but that’s just me. Arsenal were then able to break the game open the game a few minutes later with Martinelli doing well to get free on the left flank before cutting a cross back to Eddie for the easy finish:
And it just got worse for Leeds when Luke Ayling goes in with two feet on Martinelli with the stupidest tackle you’ll see all weekend to give Arsenal the pleasure of playing against 10-men:
SECOND HALF: Fucking shit. Embarrassing to let 10-men Leeds back into the game the way we did. Leeds had some legitimate asshole-tightening chances at the end to tie the game, and I do not want to even think about the possibilities of things I would have done if that happened. Whatever, it’s over, give me Spurs on Thursday and hopefully we end their season.
QUICK HITS:
MOTM: Illan Meslier – Just an unreal performance from the Frenchmen in our quest for Champions League places. To gift us the opening goal the way he did, can’t thank him enough and his services will surely not be forgotten.
Arsenal fan of the game: Luke Ayling – as dirty as a tackle as it was, as a former Arsenal Academy player, he should be applauded for assisting his boyhood club the way he did. What a legend.
The dumbest person at the game besides Ayling: Chris Kavanagh (the referee) How Chris Kavanagh does not give Ayling a straight red for that tackle might be dumber than what Ayling did for the tackle. The tackle is so egregious and obviously a red that Chris Kavanagh needs to be tested for his credibility for only giving that tackle a yellow at first glance. The fact he needed VAR was embarrassing.
Did we lose 4-0 to Brighton? No, we did not. Not sure why I put that in there but felt relevant for some reason.
Best Egyptian player in the League: Mo Elneny. There is this Salah guy everybody keeps talking about but only one Egyptian won a game this weekend and the other guy lost the title at home.
We find ourselves 1 point behind Chelsea with 3 games to play with the Spurs game this Thursday. We put ourselves in the fortunate position where we can take a loss against Spurs this Thursday and still control our own destiny for the rest of the season. With that being said, there would be nothing and I mean nothing that would bring me greater joy than to end their hopes for Champions League football. We beat them this Thursday, we finish atop of them surely and secure our place playing Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Lettuce fucking pray.
Featured image credits: AP
Video/Gif credits: NBC