Morning Gooners, we all good?

Do you know? I don’t think I’ve basked enough since Sunday. I mentioned it yesterday in the blog but in reality I watched the game, I got home, quickly wolfed down some food, went on the Same Old Arsenal pod to talk about it, then watched Match of the Day, then I’ve not really watched many of the goals back, or spent that much time actually thinking about the win.

Because it was a big win. It was – if you believed the media pre-amble – a ‘make or break’ for us and I wrote about that in the lead up to it. We were told that our season hinged on that result; win and we’re back in amongst Liverpool and City, but a draw or defeat and it’s almost certainly gotten away from us. So naturally as fans if you’re like me you immediately put a binary perspective on it and it really felt like this match meant a lot more than in reality it did. Don’t get me wrong, it was massive because of who the opponent was, because of where it left us in the table, because of the psychological boost it gives players, coaching staff, fans and everyone associated with the club. But as I saw somebody say on Twitter yesterday evening, if we don’t go on to beat West Ham this coming weekend, then all of that joy will be short lived.

It’s the relentless nature of the Premier League and the relentless nature of who we’re up against; Man City are a juggernaut who eventually made light work of Brentford. They play Everton at home in the Saturday lunchtime kick off and that’s as bigger home banker as you’re going to get in the Premier League it feels like. Liverpool also have a run of games that they just don’t look like they’ll drop points in. So whilst we can – and should – be all still dining out on that victory last weekend, it will ultimately be short lived because by the time we kick off against West Ham on Sunday at 2pm UK time, we’ll already be three behind City and once more five behind Liverpool.

That’s also why I feel like I’ve lost a couple of days of true ‘basking’ and I need to remind myself to do more re-watching. Of the goals, of the incidents, but also re-listening and re-living through podcasts, reading more of the content, etc. Because – again – the relentless nature of the Premier League and the proliferation of content makers that are churning our stuff (me included) means that by tomorrow afternoon we’ll already start to be thinking and worrying about whether West Ham are going to spoil our party for the fourth time in a row. They came back to draw against us and continue the trend of us dropping points to hand City the title last season, they knocked us out of the league cup, then skanked us over Christmas. So by the time tomorrow and Friday rolls around there will be many Gooners wondering what might be this coming Sunday if Arsenal don’t win.

But right now I’m still in the post-Liverpool, slightly fading glow, which I want to hold on to for a little while longer yet.

I will say I think the club’s social media feed do a good job of trying to keep that feeling going. I saw three or four different perspectives yesterday like bench cam, or extended highlights of fan reactions, etc, and I have to say I am absolutely here for it. Hook it to my veins and inject it straight in to my adrenaline system. More please.

And ‘more please’ when it comes to returning players too because, Thomas Partey aside, the realisation dawned on me that we’re starting to get our squad back together in more fuller numbers too. This weekend we will have Tomiyasu available and that could be very timely indeed given that Zinchenko went off at halftime at the weekend. We have Timber supposedly starting to train with the first team too, which is fantastic news. Then we have FaBio Vieira who must be nearing a return to a place on the bench as well. I haven’t even mentioned that ESR has started his first game against Forest and so feels like a more realistic option than he’s been for a very long time.

Suddenly, it feels like things are coming together. My hope for this week is that the lads feel energised. We have a whole week of preparation for West Ham, then we have another week until Burnley. So there is an opportunity to get players back, in to a cadence of games and ready to show their best against some tough opponents. Suddenly things are looking rosy.

But we need the players to continue to show that they are rosy by getting their game faces on. I’m still going to back in the glory of last weekend, but those Arsenal players need to take the positives vibes only and put the game behind them, because we need to follow it up by going on a run now. We’ve won three in a row but you just get the feeling that we have to be talking about six, seven or eight in a row before we can really start to say “yep, we’re right in the mixer for the Premier League right now” you’d think. It’s the sort of thing that you can see Liverpool and City doing given the games they have in the next month, so we need to be stepping up and proving that we can match them by going on the kind of run that will have not just Arsenal fans talking up our chances, but the rest of the media as well.

That’s all from me today. You have a good one and I’ll catch you all in the morning.