MOMENTUM OUT OF CONTROL
At the start of the season, one of the things I was trying to negotiate with the footballing gods was a succulent piece of momentum to carry us through a very tough opening set of fixtures and beyond. Not in my wildest dreams did I envision where we’d land after getting screwed by that fixture company and some fluke stuff from Liverpool in the last 15 minutes.
We’re now on a 10-game winning streak, we’ve just equalled a 123-year record for consecutive clean sheets, we’re rolling out multiple teenage debuts in the heat of Champions Super League phases, and we look unstoppable.
Going away to Prague, to a team who hadn’t lost at home this season, and beating them 3-0 in second gear really was a nice way to continue powering through a relatively easy phase of the season. The easy games, per our history, have tended to be the ones that cause us the most bother. They require elite levels of focus, a lot of maturity, and a killer instinct.
And when we think about killer instinct, let’s be totally honest here, there’s only one man in Europe we’d turn to. King Mikel Merino. The best finisher at Arsenal right now by quite a margin. Trossard, another underrated production monster, found the Spaniard at the front post early on against Prague, and the half-volleyed finish into the bottom corner was just pure number 9 stuff. Outrageous how instinctive and classy his finishing has been in 2025.
Bukayo Saka scored our second with a cucumber-cool penalty into the bottom right, and we capped the night with Merino causing a keeper error for a simple finish.
Dowman stole a lot of attention at the end of the game, drawing fouls and making senior players look like chumps. He just looks so ready for the big stage, which is crazy considering he’s still not old enough to watch scary movies. Andre also landed minutes, playing as our lone striker for the last 15 minutes. These sorts of subs are made possible largely because we’re so dominant at the moment, and we’ve really worked hard at choking out games until the eyes roll into the head.
It’s one more game until we break the clean sheet record, and that comes against Sunderland in the last game before the international break. But really, for me, the three points and an 11th straight win are what I want. Sunderland is an “on paper” three points, but we’ve all noticed they’re second in the league at the moment, and their confidence is off the scale.
This little run won’t last forever, much in the same way Liverpool’s losing streak shifted hard this week with a second win, this time against a Real Madrid side who were absolutely battered at Anfield.
The main power of these wins is they give us a bit of breathing space through a December month that isn’t going to be easy for anyone. Teams like City and Liverpool are always on the edge of dropping too far back, which is a terrible pressure to deal with. I’d much prefer to be stretching leads than giving control to another team.
We just have to be prepared for a dip that might last more than one game. We have to accept the Premier League will never be a cakewalk. Arsenal fans need to be strong and not melt into oblivion like everyone else seems to when trouble comes their way.
There was pretty decent news on the injury front. Martin Zubimendi is back in training and Big Vik should return to the mixer for the Spurs game. I also have high hopes that Martin, Kai, and Madueke could be in contention for those games as well, which gives Arsenal some real selection decisions to make in attacking positions. And let’s be clear, our attacking options have been mostly horrible this season due to outrageous injuries.
It’s worth noting that Norgaard was decent last night against Prague. He isn’t the most spectacular player, but he covers a lot of ground, moves the ball at speed, and he’s really aggressive. You have to remember that in seasons past, his role has been Big Mo. The upgrade here is clear, and what we don’t see is how this older player helps with the dressing room. I like him as an addition, and it must be great for him to play in the Champions League at this stage of his career after a really positive stint for Brentford.
We’re also starting to figure out the purpose of Hincapie.
“He can play in those two positions, as a centre-back or full-back. The way we had to set up and the situation that we imagined with the ball, I wanted him low on that side. I think he was really good, really strong, really efficient, and now he’s got some minutes in the last week with two games and the last minutes against Burnley, so we’re getting him up to speed.”
We’ve got another multi-purpose player, and he’s going to shuffle around the defence and do jobs that damage opposition teams. There was a moment in the game where one of Prague’s more gigantic players tried to intimidate him, and he went right at him. I love that sort of courage, especially because we’ve gone through chunks of time at Arsenal with cowards representing the badge. We don’t have that nonsense these days. Brilliant.
Ok, that’s me done. See you in the comments. x
P.S. Check out the latest Dugout below! x