He comes to maybe one or two games a season, max, and so I could see where he was coming from. Heck, I even said beforehand that it would be an attritional game, and Mark – who helped me with the tickets – also said the same in the concourse before a ball was kicked. We all knew what Everton would bring; it was going to be a case of whether we could get over the line.

The line was well and truly ‘gotten over’ by the end, though, eh?

Effing football, eh? Effing Arsenal, eh? You will be the death of me, as much as you are the life of me.

I had mused on some way through the second half that the ball just doesn’t seem to be dropping to an Arsenal shirt when it comes to the loose ones. There seemed to be an Everton player there every time. That was, of course, until Big Vik Gyokeres was there inside the six-yard box to tap it home.

Pandemonium. Limbs. Hugging. Relief. Arsenal had done it. And all it took was a 16-year-old kid to send us wild. It was Arteta’s ‘Hail Mary’ and boy, did it work. I know we’ve been saying it for a while, but how has a 16-year-old got that much talent at that age? It’s extraordinary. He breathed fresh air into our attack; he unsettled Everton, so much so that I think Jordan Pickford’s flap for our first goal was a result of him being on the pitch. Maybe that’s a stretch, but it was a good ball; close enough to the keeper to entice him to come out, far enough away that he couldn’t get to it. Big Vik touches home on 89 minutes.

Football. In those moments, I love you.

There was still time for us to all be nervous as hell, though, and Everton – who had been pretty defensively resolute and not really an attacking threat in that second half – suddenly were here to spoil a party. But commeth the hour, commeth the…ma…erm…boy?

We now hold the record for having the youngest ever Premier League goal scorer to add to our record books for this season. It’s fair to say it wasn’t the hardest of goals at the end, but to get to that position, Dowman has to show composure, poise, and a fabulous header and touch to set himself off and us two points clear.

We had the joys at the end, and ultimately, the job has been done, but it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies overall, was it? We struggled to break down Everton; they created a few chances in the first half, and McNeil was unlucky not to score from his effort that hit the post. Raya also made a good save with his feet from Beto in the second half. I thought tactically Everton set up quite well; compact shape, difficult to break down, go long where you can, hit on transitional counter when you can. And we struggled in both halves. There was a period between the start of the second half and around the 60-minute mark where it felt like we were starting to exert pressure that might pay off, but after Everton rode that out, we started to look edgy. It wasn’t quite working, Arteta made the subs and, ultimately, I guess you have to say that it paid off.

We did create a few chances ourselves, but not loads and loads, with the Eze effort that just curled wide of the post being one that definitely sprung to mind. But our attack wasn’t clicking. Kai was ok, should have had a stonewall penalty and how VAR has given it I’m not really sure, but I guess it’s one of those that they probably looked at the ‘way’ in which Kai went down and thought he was over-egging it a little bit. We never got to see any replays in the stadium, and VAR seemed to say ‘no’ far too quickly for my liking, but I guess ultimately we got what we deserved, and that was the win. And I think it was a deserved win when you look at the stats. 25 shots, 65% possession, 2.59 xG toi Everton’s 1.07, 249 passes in Everton’s final third, compared to them having 85 in ours – this was a game that Arsenal should have won, and did, ultimately, win. 

We’re just in ‘win’ mode now. We’ve overcome the latest hurdle by hook or by crook. It wasn’t particularly convincing, but I think given all the context and given how deep we are into the season, I think we just have to accept ‘this is who we are’. We’ve probably got another seven of these types of performances to come in the Premier League. Bournemouth will be the same, as will Fulham, Newcastle, West Ham and Crystal Palace. 

The fabulous news kept coming, though, because City dropping points to West Ham was as awesome as it was surprising. That gives us a nine-point buffer, albeit with a game in hand, but that buffer gives us all a bit of relief as we head into a mini break away from the League with the Champions League and then the League Cup Final against Man City. Who knows, maybe the psychological blow from the Real Madrid first leg, then dropping points yesterday, then maybe an exit for them in midweek, can have an impact on how they play against us next weekend? Let’s hope so. 

James, Mark and I are doing the Same Old Arsenal pod this morning, so if you fancy it,  you can catch our thoughts here. Otherwise, I’ll be back tomorrow as the big games keep on coming – with Leverkusen in the Champions League to come on Tuesday. 

First up, let’s give some credit to Mansfield, because they played the occasion well, they gave it their all against clearly superior opponents, whilst managing 18 attempts and five shots on target. And they got their moment of happiness through Evans’ equaliser on 50 minutes. It was a mistake by an otherwise decent 16-year-old Marli Salmon that led to the goal, perhaps Mosquera could have done better by reading the pass and not being flat-footed, but the finish was tidy, and for at least 16 minutes, it made for awkward watching as Mansfield held us at bay whilst also creating one or two chances.

We weren’t great at all as a collective, it has to be said, but we should also acknowledge the mitigating circumstances. The pitch was an absolute bog. There was grass in the corners, and that was about it. The argument of “both teams have to play on it though” doesn’t hold up for me; one team plays it every odd week (and probably more like it in League One), whereas the other essentially never plays on a pitch like that, and the fact we had two players come off with injury should probably give a bit of an indication on the state of it anyway. Thankfully, it sounds like both Trossard and Calafiori’s injuries are minor, with Mikel describing them as ‘little niggles’ afterwards.

That’s just as well, particularly in the case of Trossard, because based on Martinelli’s performance yesterday, he ain’t seeing his name on the team sheet on Wednesday night in Leverkusen, that’s for sure. There were some positive performances that I will get to, but Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus were absolutely shocking. I’ve already mentioned the issues with the pitch, but both of those players should have done more when they got the ball. Both were wasteful, both were hiding in plain sight at times, and in particular, I thought Jesus’ performance was an absolute shocker. We can all bemoan Gyokeres’ lack of involvement in games, but when the other option is a performance like that from a former Brazilian international footballer, you have to ask serious questions about the front line.

The attack, in general, just didn’t really click yesterday. Madueke got a fine goal, but he also lost a few balls in the car park, and it felt at times as if he was just coasting along in the game. His control was weak at times, which again could be the pitch. But he should have done more. Especially so when you have a 16-year-old kid in midfield who looked like he was running the show.

I thought Dowman was excellent. It’s a shame he didn’t score that early chance he got from the Mansfield keeper’s poor kick out, because I think if he had, this game might have ended up being a bit of a cricket score match. Often, you get these Sliding Doors moments, in which games shift, and after we didn’t score that early chance, Mansfield fashioned one or two of their own. Our setup – with three at the back – left far too much space for direct long balls in behind, and once or twice our back three were caught out by that direct long ball from deep when a transition happened. The injury that Trossard picked up – which sounded precautionary from what Arteta said – actually helped us I think, because it forced the change and shift to a back four, and you could tell straight away that the team were more comfortable with it. So much so that just three minutes after the change, we were ahead through Madueke, whose finish was very smart I thought. He’s such a frustrating player, is Madueke, because he spent half the game shanking balls into car parks, whilst the other half was spent beating his man (as James mentioned on the Same Old Arsenal pod we recorded this morning, sometimes too often, to be honest) and looking like he’s having a worldie. He was the brightest of the three forward players by some distance, so it was good for him to get on the score sheet, I thought.

At that point, I don’t know about you, but I was thinking we’d start to rack up the goals. But to their credit, Mansfield didn’t let their heads go down, and the goal they scored five minutes after the restart was a decent finish. Salmon won’t be too happy with his pass, Mosquesra was too hesitant, and Kepa will probably feel he could have kept that ball out of the net, but Evans struck it pure enough, and for 16 minutes those Mansfield fans had something to shout about.

Inevitably, Arteta had to make changes, which he did on 62, and just four minutes later, it had an impact. I was pleased that Havertz got 60 minutes under his belt, and we must be getting close to the moment in which he will start in a crunch game up top, but his replacement, Eze, showed that this is why people say it is this part of the season in which he comes alive. His finish was a rocket from the position you always want Eze to be when you think about how he can influence a game. James and I looked at some of the attackers and some of their goal contributions this season, and Eze isn’t actually performing that bad. He had eight goals and six assists now, and you’d probably say if he racks up 20+ Gs and As by the time the season finishes, then he’s had a good season. Alright, most of them are against the Scum, but they all count and you can’t deny he knows where the goal is. We need to see more of that between now and the end of the season, methinks, especially given Odegaard appears to be out for at least another week or two.

So we’re through into the next round, it’s another win, it’s goals 100 and 101 for the team this season and although it wasn’t an amazing performance, we were able to rest and rotate some players, as well as giving game time to others. It won’t be remembered as a classic, but we don’t need classics right now, we need results. We got that. On to Leverkusen in midweek.

Catch you all tomorrow.

You can’t deny his output though. He got two assists in the Bernabeu, he scored in the first leg, he had a goal ruled out for offside in the home tie against PSG and when he was asked to play as a centre forward last season he bagged four goals in six games in the Premier League. Last season in all competitions for Arsenal he had nine goals and five assists in 2,600+ minutes and for a guy who is ostensibly a midfielder, that is pretty impressive, it has to be said. But there’s so many of us – me included – who still can’t quite work out what sort of player he is. At Anfield he operated in the Odegaard role but one could hardly say he excelled at it. We know what characteristics he brings to the football field – he’s physical, wins duels and has a high interception and recovery rate, is good in the air, scores goals and finds spaces in the final third to get those shots away. He’s 100% not a defensive midfielder. He’s not that suited to the creative Odegaard role either. Nor is he truly a centre forward. So what is he?

Maybe that is his super power and maybe that’s what will ensure he gets minutes in an Arsenal shirt when many of us thought he might struggle this season. In a team that has had its fair share of injury worries, Merino and his ability to play multiple positions makes him a valuable asset to Arteta. Will he get another 2,600+ minutes this season? I suspect that is less likely, but you never know.

Along with him in Turkey was David Raya who didn’t get on, as well as Martin Zubimendi, who played 71 minutes before being replaced by Rodri. There’s no suggestion that it was injury-related, so I suspect it was just a planned change and that hopefully means the Spanish lads can make their way home today with their limbs in tact. So too can Jurrien Timber it seems, who got 20+ minutes last night as the Netherlands beat Lithuania away, whilst Leo Trossard also started and played just over an hour for Belgium as they smashed six past Kazahkstan. No goals or assists for him though.

Today we’ll get Big Vik playing before he can head home, as Sweden are in Kosovo, whilst Calafiori and his Italian teammates travel to Israel in a game I think every Arsenal fan will be praying we don’t hear bad news. He’s been in fine form in an Arsebal shirt since the season started and I watched a really good tactical video on the Goonerverse channel yesterday about how Declan Rice is dropping down alongside Zubimendi to form a double pivot, whilst Calafiori pushes up and becomes one of the attacking players. It will be interesting to see what Arteta does when he wants to rotate in MLS, because so far he’s barely seen the green of the football pitch, playing just 44 minutes in all three games. Will Mikel give Myles the same instructions when he is on the field as he gives Ricci? Or does that left back role change when Lewis-Skelly is starting. Myles tends to be somebody – based on what I saw last season – who likes to drift in to that midfield role and occupy the position that was pointed out in the above video that Rice was taking up as that double pivot with Zubimendi. MLS also likes to carry the ball from that left midfield-just-inside-our-half space too. Is he going to be given instructions to play further up the pitch and a little wider to match Calafiori if the Italian picks up a knock, or is naturally rotated to protect him? That we don’t know, but if we don’t know, it also means Premier League analysts probably don’t know either, which as I’ve said already so far this season, makes us a little more unpredictable. I hope.

There are also going to be some under-21 matches played with England playing this afternoon and that means Nwaneri will get his chance. There’s no space for Max Dowman though, as he’s playing in the under-19s for England and breaking yet more records. I did wonder if they would fast track him into the U-21s and I think I’ve even seen Tuchel suggest he will be keeping an eye on him for England, but from an Arsenal perspective I guess the club just need to ensure they keep on keeping his feet on the ground. There’s still a lot of adrenaline and hype when it comes to Dowman at the moment and although I don’t like to link to that radio station TalkSport, there was a short snippet with Martin O’Neill where he talked about how he didn’t think Dowman would be getting that much game time this season, which I agree with. We have a super deep and competitive squad and although Dowman got on against Liverpool and made his debut against Leeds, I suspect what we will see as the season wears on, is a bit of dust settling and the kid will not have the same level of impact as he’s had with the football just kicking off in this last month. This isn’t me saying he’s not extremely talented, this isn’t me saying that I don’t think he’s good enough, I just think that we’re all super excited about him right now and when that excitement dies down he’ll have one or two games in which he won’t make an impact and I think we’ll all realise that “hey, turns out this kid is 15” kind of moment. Which is absolutely fine.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there today, then catch you in the comments and online.

Unfortunately for us we had to have some bad news, which came in the shape of injuries to Odegaard and Saka and whilst Martin’s I think might hopefully just be some shoulder bruising and hopefully won’t keep him out for too long, the sight of Saka holding his hamstring didn’t exactly fill me with glee. If you’re going to go ‘glass half full’ then you could say that at least Arteta confirmed it wasn’t the same hamstring that required surgery last season, but as Arteta admitted for Saka to come off it means it is in his words ‘significant’. I suspect it almost certainly rules him out of next Sunday’s trip to Anfield and just as you were thinking that this would be the perfect prep for that game, we go and get this happen to us.

Saka is a big blow, it will weaken us ahead of the weekend’s trip to the North West, but at least this season we have options. Madueke played on the left yesterday and was good, but you could tell he was more comfortable on the right and it was for just such a situation like this that he was purchased, so if Saka can’t make it we need to see him step up on that left hand side. If Odegaard is out then there is Eze who could come in and maybe we shift Rice to the right, or Nwaneri gets the start as the understudy to Odegaard. I thought Ethan did well yesterday for the 50+ minutes he was on the pitch for; tidy in possession, was involved in two short creating actions and one goal creating action on the day and on a day in which our end product was on display, he was part of the side that did the business.

That business started in the first half and started just over a third into the game with Set Piece FC Ole Ole once more proving how valuable they are for us. Up until that point it’d been a story of Leeds sitting a little deeper, not really venturing too far forward, but having the one big chance of the game when they forced Raya into a smart save from a corner. That was pretty much it from them but as soon as the first goal went in, you kind of sensed that Arsenal were ready to go up through the gears. That we did just over ten minutes later and on the stroke of halftime as Saka was slipped in by Timber to rifle the ball home on his weaker foot. Timber had one heck of a game yesterday and the kind of game that if you’ve got him in your fantasy team, you’re laughing all the way to the bank because he bagged two goals from set pieces and one assist on the day and when you’re delivering on that level of end product, you have to give the guy that man of the match gong I would have thought.

The second half very much felt like a case of ‘how many?’ I felt. And just three minutes after the restart Gyokeres was set free down our left hand side in front of me in Block Five and he bulldozed his way through the Leeds defence to bag his first proper goal in an Arsenal shirt. It felt like a very ‘Gyokeres’ style goal I thought. Running down that left hand channel, peeling away from his marker, then steamrollering through two defenders as he drove into the box to get his shot away. I was obviously in the ground so didn’t see any of the commentary until I’ve had a re-watch of the goals this morning, but Gary Neville was right to say that it was a big goal for him. With that goal – and the second penalty to be fair – he’s off the mark and we don’t have to have it become a ‘thing’ if he doesn’t get on the scoresheet. The way he also took the penalty that Dowman won (more on him in a sec) was also really well struck too. He does like to give that ball a good wallop. Love it. We knew it already, but he knows where the goal is and this will also give him the lift and confidence that he belongs in the Premier League. Let’s hope for more of the same next weekend.

And more of the same from a set piece perspective too, because that’s three out of our six goals scored this season from set plays, as Timber’s second was fumbled in through the melee after another good Rice delivery. It’ll be interesting to see if we can unsettle the experienced Liverpool defenders next weekend like we did with the Leeds lads.

Speaking of ‘lads’, how about that young one we’ve got who is still doing his GCSEs, eh? Max Dowman, lad, take a bow. He is just so full of energy, running and spirit. To be getting on to the pitch as a 15-year-old and look like he’s a seasoned pro whose been playing for 10 years is remarkable. As soon as he came on what he wanted to do was just run with the ball. He commits players and that’s his third penalty he’s won if you count pre season too. We keep telling ourselves that we need to be mindful that he’s just a kid, that the expectations should be managed, but every time you give him a new obstacle – and this one was a debut for The Arsenal – he just knocks them down. He’s gone up against the physicality of Newcastle, he’s sat down Leeds defenders on their arses yesterday, he’s delivering in the final third and after seeing what we’ve seen yesterday, he has to be a viable option from the bench and I think we have to be looking at him for next weekend too. It’s a massive difference playing away at Anfield compared to when you’re 4-0 up against a newly promoted Leeds side, but as I just mentioned, he keeps knocking off milestones, so why can’t this be one as well? He even had a really good effort that just whistled past the post too.

All-in -all it worked out to be a very good day at the office for those Arsenal players, injuries aside, and now they can get back on that training ground knowing that there’s a solid base that has been built on.

Catch you all tomorrow with another instalment of whatever Arsenal-related things come in to my head, plus I think we’ll be going live with a Same Old Arsenal pod at 10am if you fancy joining us.

Annoyingly I couldn’t watch the game as I was in Cologne airport and they weren’t showing it anywhere, nor could I get a signal or stream good enough to view the match, but by all accounts it sounded like an absolute cracker and as Arsenal fans, seeing/hearing/reading about how it was the Arsenal girls that made the difference on the night (and throughout this tournament, actually) just puts an extra special cherry on top of the cake. Chloe Kelly with an assist for Alessia Russo, Ageymang playing her part by getting England through two of the knockout phases with her late goals, Kelly’s overall impressive performances in general, with captain Leah Williamson doing her part at the back – Arsenal won the Euro’s and after the Champions League win a couple of months back, this is an amazing achievement for some of those Arsenal players. Let’s hope it carries them over into next season as Arsenal try to dislodge Chelsea Women from their dominant perch.

Over the other side of the world the men were of course gearing up for their season ahead by beating a physical Newcastle side and again, because I was out and about I didn’t get to watch the game, but I’ve seen highlights of the key moments and clearly the biggest talking point is Max Dowman’s second very positive cameo against top-level competition. This wasn’t one of those ‘Newcastle Select XI’ that you sometimes see. This was a side full of their first team prepping for the new season and if anyone was in any doubt about what sort of game they were going to get, it was evidenced with Joelinton ‘leaving one in’ on Dowman. Big Man – slapping a 15-year-old in the face. Naturally some of their fans thought it was hilarious, but what was more hilarious was that Dowman had the last laugh, because he bossed some of their men and even won us the penalty that Odegaard converted to secure the win.

Arteta said it was a test and batted off the physicality of Newcastle, but I would imagine that if he gets an option for future games in pre season over the years, a club like that is the last you want to play. Perhaps it was because they’ve had a pretty rubbish transfer window so far, that has meant they’ve signed just Athony Elanga (who scored their first goal to be fair) to compliment their first team, whilst spending the rest of the time fending off the advances of Liverpool for Isak, which led them to feel like they needed some kind of ‘win’ by getting something out of us yesterday. But they got nothing for their efforts and the hope is that they continue to have a ‘meh’ window, because I suspect Eddie Howe knows that if they don’t strengthen significantly more than they are at the moment, that they’ll struggle to juggle the multiple competitions of the Champions League and the Premier League. If they lose Isak to Liverpool, however……sheesh…that will make their job a lot harder indeed.

Of course that prospect is hardly palatable for us either, because an Isak at Liverpool makes the Scousers one heck of an attacking outfit. They’re shifting on Diaz for €75million and then they’ll look to bring on Nunez so they can push for Isak, which will make them a force to be reckoned with next season. So let’s just hope they don’t get him, that he stays at Newcastle and that Newcastle give Liverpool the same runaround all summer that we all thought they’d give us when we wondered if we were after the Swede.

But back to Arsenal, back to Dowman and back to the questions about whether he’s ready to force his way into Mikel Arteta’s plans this coming season. Naturally Arteta and the club want to keep it low key on a child prodigy, but if he keeps up with cameo’s like this then it will be hard to ignore him. We have all talk about Ethan’s development and that not being stunted by signings, but if this kid puts in more displays like that, the question over the new signings should probably also be aimed in Dowman’s direction. He was fast, his ball control was brilliant, he forced Ruddy into a few good saves and also had an important role in the eventual winner from Odegaard. I suspect this will be a similar situation to Nwaneri last season in that we didn’t really see him until the new year, but this time around we have more squad depth I think; Arteta has already talked about how we have raised the base of the squad and unless there is another mega injury crisis like we had last season, I can’t see Dowman getting the volume of minutes that Myles and Ethan got.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t look to impress in the League Cup competitions, or if we get a certain level of opponent in the FA Cup, there will be minutes for sure. But these things need a blend of patience, timing and also fortune, as well as talent. Dowman is forcing the talent angle to make himself seen by Arteta, but let’s not forget about the curious case of Charlie Patino who, last season, made eight appearances and a total of 382 minutes for Deportivo La Coruna last season. Dowman could be somebody who forces Mikel’s hand, but even Nwaneri who has been doing bits for the last few season’s since he broke through as a 15-year-old, still had dips in form last season. Arsenal and Arteta will be super mindful of this and I think we, as fans, have a duty to try our hardest not to hype-train this kid too much. He’s in a good place, he’ll train with the first team this season, he’ll get some minutes in competitions and Arsenal will monitor his development closely. And that’s how it should be.

Right, I think I’ll leave it there for today because although I could talk about the fact Gyokeres is now out in Singapore with his teammates, all that really happened was a wave to the fans. I could talk about how Calafiori went down injured again too, but I think for now we have to park that, as we don’t know how serious it is. Let’s see if either players get some minutes against the Scum on Thursday night.

Back tomorrow with some thoughts.