Wow. Wowsers. Wow-wee. Wowingtons. What a finish to a football match. That will live long in the memory. It will go down in Arsenal folklore. It will be seen by some as ‘the moment’ and in the context of this season, it could be huge for Arsenal, huge for this title race.

When a game ends in dramatic fashion like it did yesterday in North London, then that is the only place to start when you’re trying to explain the situation. The stadium, the noise, the collective bundle of the entire Arsenal coaching staff. The moment that Reiss Nelson’s beautifully struck left foot rippled the back of the net, there was pandemonium. Bodies everywhere. The unscripted hug of complete strangers. The unbridled joy. It was all there. I had given up. I was starting to head for the exit. I was almost out the door too. But “just when I think I’m out THEY PULL ME BACK IN AGAIN!”, as the saying goes.

It was amazing. It was the highest of highs and the joy of that victory will last for some time yet. And the manner of the victory too felt all the sweeter; as I described to Dave when we met afterwards for a drink, it was fitting that the goal was scored in ‘Neto time’, after the Brazilian ‘keeper had time wasted a solid five minutes on his own in that second half. There are some pictures doing the rounds of the Arsenal players celebrating and how so many emotions are on show – Odegaard on the floor, Saliba running off to the corner to kick the flag, Reiss Nelson being the coolest of cucumbers – but it is Ben White’s celebration that I loved the most. Having just been punched in the back of the head by Neto (who was on a yellow card for dissent to the referee in the second half, by the way), he simply turned to him and fist pumped just a yard away. “Have that you cheating bar steward” is what I hoped he was saying.

What we’re all saying this morning is that, eventually, it’s ‘job done’. But we could only say that come the final whistle, because for the vast majority of yesterday’s game, it certainly was not ‘job done’. In fact for almost the entirety of that game – because of the early Bournemouth goal – it was ‘points dropped’. Pre game the discussion was about ‘how many’ rather than whether Bournemouth would get anything from the game. Bournemouth were a side who haven’t scored goals, they’ve leaked goals, so surely with our defence we should be able to shut them out and then see by how many we could win.

But football never works like that. It is not played on statistics and what has come before and Bournemouth caught us stone cold in just nine seconds. The kick off went wide, the ball came in, Gabriel’s leg swing was lazy and Saliba’s peripheral vision didn’t pick up Billing ghosting in at the right time. One down inside the first few seconds and already it felt like it might be ‘one of those days’.

We responded, as you’d expect us to, with an Odegaard shot and Saka on the rebound, within a minute or two of their goal, but after that the stage was set for a low block as Bournemouth frantically set up with a low block and lumping balls forward just to clear their lines. The problem for us was that when they did clear those lines on a couple of occasions, they created chances. There was one counter in that first half that I felt certain was a goal, except Ramsdale came up trumps with a brilliant save to keep the score line from doubling. We huffed, we puffed, we created chances but none of them worked the ‘keeper. At halftime there were 14 attempts on goal for us, but I think we only had two or three of those on target. We had something ridiculous like 85% possession in that first half. It was all one way and you felt that in the second half that would only continue, so the question would be whether we would be able to break down an opponent that was – to their credit – defending well and cutting out balls from out wide by throwing their bodies at everything.

So when they got their second goal, there was just a stunned silence. 57 minutes on the clock and Bournemouth had come here and scored two goals in the Premier League for the first time since a 3-0 win at home to Everton on November 12th. That’s nearly FOUR MONTHS in the league without registering a second goal on the sheet. Yet here they were at the Emirates putting a serious dent in our title chances.

We had dominated the ball, the territory, had more shots and I also thought in that second half before their second goal that we were turning the screw. Yet we were two behind. Then the Arsenal beast really did wake up. The rage really did kick in for those Arsenal players and I think that Thomas Partey goal to bring it back to 2-1 came at a very opportune time. It was five minutes after Bournemouth had doubled their lead and I think if they hold out until 65-70 minutes, then the crowd start to wobble and that has a knock on effect on the players. But by scoring so soon and with still a solid 30 minutes plus ‘Neto time’ to go, there was still time to turn it around, which you could see in how we responded. Ben White, for example, was overlapping Saka more than I’ve seen him all season and clearly with Bournemouth retreated deep in to their own box, the instruction was for a bit more gung-ho in how the players positioned themselves, because the one time Bournemouth got forward after Partey scored was because we committed people forward and Ramsdale had to make a smart save at his near post.

The equaliser was thoroughly deserved and with it going in from White to get his first goal in an Arsenal shirt and there still being another 20 minutes on the clock, the hope was there that we could complete a comeback that looked thoroughly unlikely at 60 minutes.

But as what happens with these low block teams at the Emirates, Bournemouth used every gamesmanship tactic in the book. I’ve already mentioned Neto and his antics, which also included going down with supposed ‘cramp’, before getting up and running towards the referee to remonstrate when he was told to get up after about a minute on the floor, for which he was rightly booked. He should have been sent off for his punch on the back of the head of White, but nothing will come of that, I’m sure. But you can’t as a goalkeeper go down with cramp. I’m sorry, that’s just not on, nor is it true. If his calf really was hurting that much, then he should have been subbed off. But as we know because he then got up and ran towards the referee, it was a ploy to waste time, which was deliciously added on – on top of the six minutes that the referee gave at the end of the game. I’ve seen a couple of other fans of other clubs suggest that playing for over seven minutes on a six minute injury time isn’t fair, but let’s make this right; a Bournemouth player went down ‘injured’ before being able to get up and sprint around in injury time. This was a tactic to spend a solid minute of that six eaten up with no football and we must credit referee Kavanagh for adding on that time that was clearly wasted by the Bournemouth defenders.

And so it came back to bite them, like the most sweetest of sweet bits of karma that you will ever see. The chest from Nelson, the composure to set himself, the left foot half volley and the jubilation at the end. We may not win the title. This may just be one of those amazing memories that ultimately doesn’t play its part in an Arsenal title, but at least we get to have these memories and at least we have collectively got another data point with which to look at this team and recognise they are the real deal.

I haven’t talked too much about individual performances today, nor the squad rotation that Arteta did to mix it up, or even some of the crazy lack of calls from a few penalty incidents that looked a lot clearer to me than the referees, but when you have an ending like that it almost feels a little redundant because games like these are just worth reliving from an emotional perspective rather than getting too much in to the detail of the statistical dominance. Or how any one person did or didn’t play. I do hope that Trossard’s injury was not too serious though. More on that in the coming days I suspect.

For now though, it is victory number four in a row and the team goes to Lisbon on Thursday to face a tricky opponent in the Europa League in Sporting, before an equally tough game away to Fulham. Fingers crossed we can keep the winning run going.

Catch you all tomorrow.