At the start of the season, one of the things I tried to negotiate with the football gods was a juicy bit of momentum to get us through a very tough opening series and beyond. In my wildest dreams I couldn’t have imagined where we would end up after being screwed for the last 15 minutes by that fixture company and some flukes from Liverpool.
We’re now on a ten-match winning streak, we’ve just equaled a 123-year record for consecutive clean sheets, we’re introducing multiple teenage debuts in the heat of the Champions Super League stages, and we show no sign of stopping.
Going away to Prague, to a team who hadn’t lost at home this season, and beating them 3-0 in second gear, was a really nice way to get through a relatively easy phase of the season. The easy games are, according to our history, the games that cause us the most trouble. They require an elite level of focus, a lot of maturity and a killer instinct.
And when we think about the killer instinct, let’s be completely honest: there is only one man in Europe to whom we could turn. King Mikel Merino. By a wide margin the best finisher at Arsenal at the moment. Trossard, another underrated production monster, found the Spaniard at the front post early against Prague, and the half-full finish into the bottom corner was pure No. 9 stuff. It’s outrageous how instinctive and stylish his finish was in 2025.
Bukayo Saka scored our second with a chilling bottom right penalty, and we ended the evening with Merino causing a goalkeeping error for an easy finish.
Dowman stole a lot of attention late in the game, making mistakes and making older players look like dorks. 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 made minutes and played the last 15 minutes as our only striker. These types of subs are made possible in large part because we’re so dominant right now, and we’ve really worked hard to choke games to the point of eye rolls.
There is one more game before we break the clean sheet record, and that is against Sunderland in the last game before the international break. But for me, the three points and an eleventh win in a row are what I want. Sunderland have three points ‘on paper’ but we have all noticed that they are currently second in the league and their confidence is excessive.
This little run won’t last forever, just as Liverpool’s losing streak turned sharply this week with a second win, this time against a Real Madrid side that was absolutely battered at Anfield.
The main strength of these wins is that they give us some breathing room in a December that won’t be easy for anyone. Teams like City and Liverpool are always on the verge of falling too far back, which is terrible pressure to deal with. I prefer to expand the leads than give control to another team.
We just have to be prepared for a dip that could last longer than one match. We have to accept that the Premier League will never be a cakewalk. Arsenal fans need to be strong and not fade into oblivion, as everyone else seems to do when trouble comes their way.
There was some pretty good news on the injury front. Martin Zubimendi is back in training and Big Vik should return to the mixer for the Spurs game. I’m also hopeful that Martin, Kai and Madueke can compete for those games too, allowing Arsenal to make some real selection decisions in attacking positions. And let’s be clear: our attacking options have been mostly terrible this season due to excessive injuries.
It’s worth noting that Norgaard was decent against Prague last night. He’s not the most spectacular player, but he covers a lot of ground, moves the ball quickly and he’s very aggressive. You have to remember that his role in recent seasons was Big Mo. The upgrade here is clear, and what we don’t see is how this older player helps with the locker room. I like him as an addition and it must be great for him to be playing in the Champions League at this stage of his career after a very positive period for Brentford.
We also start to figure out Hincapie’s purpose.
“He can play in those two positions, as a centre-back or as a wing-back. Because of the way we had to position ourselves and the situation we imagined with the ball, I wanted him low on that side. I think he was very good, very strong and very efficient. Now he has had some minutes in the last week with two games and the last few minutes against Burnley, so we are bringing him up to speed.”
We have another multi-functional player, and he will shuffle through defenses and perform tasks that damage opponents. There was a moment in the match when one of Prague’s biggest players tried to intimidate him, and he went straight for him. I like that kind of courage, especially because at Arsenal we have had cowards representing the badge for a long time. We don’t have that nonsense anymore these days. Brilliant.
Okay, I’m done. See you in the comments. X
PS Check out the latest Dugout below! X
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