Arsenal Start A Forest Fire

And Nwaneri channels a certain Argentine

Screen grab from Arsenal.com

Sometimes when objects are perfectly aligned you can see things that aren’t actually there. I’ve seen leopards and witches and bears and all sorts in the forest, formed from tree stumps and branches and stones aligned to the eye, but are not actually entities at all.

Other times I might project onto people or situations my own desires or fears, creating narratives that don’t actually exist, building stories that have no right to exist outside of my own mind.

But there also exists rare occasions when things perfectly align, and fantastical projections are made, and both turn out to be true. Sometimes I see a player who really is the spitting image of say, Messi, and they do possess the demeanour and mentality that I’m so desperate is true.

Ødegaard was such player. It was obvious from day one that the 15 year old was more than just hopes and dreams, he was the real deal. Saka was another. It took no time to realise this kid was going places and he was going to drag Arsenal along with him. The first time I saw Tomáš Rosický or Santi Carzola play it was the same. These players weren’t phantoms or the desperate longings. These players were pure genius breaking through from the other side.

And finally it’s happened again. Ethan Nwaneri is one of those peculiar humans that excels at what they’ve chose to do, one of those people who found themselves in the right place at the right time doing the right thing with the right combination of personality and skill. And it’s a beautiful ting to see.

Comparisons are always hyperbolic, but Nwaneri is this most Messiesque player I’ve seen since, well since Lionel Messi himself, Nwaneri has the Messi’s demeanour, has his balance, his coolness and determination. Not a carbon copy but a carbon cousin for sure. Remember when Messi came on as a 17 year old for Barcelona and seemed like a child posses by a the demon of a 28 year old super player? Sound familiar?

Photo by 磊 周 on Unsplash

Remember those jinking dribbles, baffling defenders as he powered through invisible chicanes, those long swooping top bins goals or those darting poaches, appearing in the box as if from a wormhole? Remember that ultra seriousness wrapped in a wry smile, casual yet deadly. Isn’t that the perfect description of Nwaneri too?

Remember that feeling of inevitability when Messi scored from wherever and whenever he wanted, changing game sea igniting the crowds? Sound familiar? Oh yes, Nwaneri is Messiesque alright. And it feels as exciting when he saunters casually onto the pitch to tear a game to pieces as it did when Messi did the same.

Arteta is brilliant manager and a true lover of the game. He’s fully aware of what he has in his possession here. Who is going to tell Arteta how to coax the best from this most Messiesque player, when so far, so perfect? After all, look how he’s coaxed the Berkampesque Ødegaard from a superb wizard of geometry to a powerhouse of pressing with a clairvoyants vision for when and where to deliver passes on a platter. Ødegaard is Berkampesque. Nwaneri is Messiesque. It's a gorgeous combo and I reckon eventually Arteta'll come up with some way to get them both on the pitch. But for now, patience my friends, patience. The pieces are being put in place, or as Arteta says, the bricks are being laid. Looks like Arteta is drawing up plans that’ll make the Taj Mahal look like a garden shed. Lay those bricks Mikel, lay those bricks.

I’ll do a dedicated post on Nwaneri in the near future, when he’s played a few more games and we’ve got more of a feeling of how he fits into the team.

But before we get carried away with the future, let’s remember the recent past where Arsenal showed Forest that points don’t maketh the man.

Photo by James Kirkup on Unsplash

Arsenal and Forest were own the same tally coming into the game, but the obvious superiority of Arsenal was plain for all to see. It’s been a strange start to the season for reasons we all know, and a lot has been said about points and positions. A lot of things that probably should have been left unsaid. It was only a few weeks ago that Arsenal were supposed to blown the season in October by letting an invincible Man City get to far outta sight. We’re now one point behind. So let’s see what happens with Slot’s Liverpool.

One simple truth is that they have to drop points and we can’t afford to much more. which brings us into prediction territory. Now we football fans are basically full-time soothsayers. We've moved on from chicken bones and tea leaves to data driven tilting fields and percentage points, but essentially we're still peering into the future like boggle-eyed oracles desperately divining what might be.

We're dreamers and poets always yearning for better days, or building statues to the past. Live in the Now? Ha!

OK, given that I'll have a peer into the dark...the football gods have been against us with their petty red card punishments and their so-called Luck. But we've striven onward nonetheless, battered and bruised, but there we are still on the battlefield, not beaten down, maybe even with a glint in our tired eye.

The Forest game looked like the whipping up of a second wind, a coming together, a perfect storm of returning players and returning confidence which saw us sail over Forest’s (un)challenging waters, all done with an unusually rotated first eleven. Might Arteta be learning to throw caution to the wind and expand his choices? Might this be where we start to build momentum toward new Great Triumphs?

I guess all we can do is wait and see.

Have a great week fellow Wonderlanders, and let’s see if we can bring this returning strut into the Sporting game. But fear not fellow gooners, I have a sneaky feeling the harvest shall return!