JUST AS I THINK WE ARE OUT, YOU PULL US BACK IN!

Watching the game last night I had a sense of calm. I had little to no confidence that the team who had just lost three on the bounce and scoring only one goal would achieve much at a venue which holds nightmare memories in recent years. The 'balanced' panel in the Sky box of a Chelsea fan, ex Chelsea player and an ex Spurs player agreed.

The game kicked off and I sat in awe of the Arsenal away fans who could be heard loud and clear, and smiled when hearing the song '..just like the old days, there's nobody here..' obviously referring to the pre Russian money days when they could barely gather more than 10k fans into their shed of a stadium which had a car park on the pitch! Absolutely brilliant!

Shamefully, whilst being so inspired by the support on show, I was visualising the camera homing onto these very fans towards the end of the match to display the pain on their faces as they witness a further damaging defeat.

However, Arsenal looked dangerous when they attacked the Chelsea defence although very nervous in defence themselves. Holding looked shaky on his return to the team, I kept thinking about his fantastic FA Cup final performances against Chelsea so I gave him some slack. He was helped out by good recovery work from his colleagues, on one occasion Xhaka turned all 'Messi' nutmegging and running around defenders.

Then all of a sudden Eddie who had been a livewire and pressing hard pounced onto a defensive mistake and after controlling the ball to go round the last defender slotted the ball home beautifully. It was such a classy finish and demonstrated his true striking ability. Now I was no longer calm, as I looked on in disbelief at what I had just seen. The hope returned and so did the nerves! Of course the lead did not last long. I had a 'it's only Ray Parlour moment' as Werner ran towards the penalty area. I knew there was no danger in this position with his track record and actually urged him to shoot, which he duly did resulting in a sickening deflection and past the wrong footed Ramsdale. Werner celebrated his lucky goal, only his 4th of the season, like he was some kind of warrior. Merson after the games said 'I'm not a keeper but he should have saved that!' Ramsdale was clearly wrong footed by the deflection. But there you go, each to their own.

However Arsenal were showing real spirit and looked so dangerous every time they attacked and before long we were back in front with a typically classy goal by our very own Smith-Rowe. The celebrations would have upset even the most lenient celebration police member. Again however our joy was short lived as Chelsea snatched a well taken goal back from a pumped up Azpilicueta and we reached the break level.

I stretched myself to thinking we could maybe draw the game before the match started, I now believed that this was definitely possible. Fortunately Arsenal showed more backbone than me however and Eddie again showing his true striker instinct struck again only this time in front of the joyous Arsenal fans. Fantastic scenes, could we actually hold on now? Surely we cannot give it away again? As the minutes passed I actually considered turning it off, the tension was now reaching uncomfortable levels! This is not a new consideration for me, many a time I have had this thought but manage to resist and keep going. In fact the only time I do remember not being able to take the tension and turn off was when listening to the radio in 1989, it's always worse listening to commentary on the radio anyway. Liverpool were playing West Ham and we knew whatever score Liverpool would win by (they were always going to win) we would then have to go to Anfield and beat them by half that score-line to win the league after blowing it against Derby and Wimbledon. Liverpool took a 2-0 lead, anymore goals and we would have to beat them by more than one goal. The thought of beating them at Anfield was bad enough, by more than one goal? forget it. I turned the radio off and kicked the ball around in the garden. I returned for the final score.... 5-1 to Liverpool!

I digress, we are holding on and apart from a couple of scares we looked well drilled. Then the most remarkable thing happened. Moss pointed to the spot and gave us a penalty after an off the ball tussle between Saka and Azpilicueta. It was an incredible moment, a big decision for once going with us. Azpilicueta was enraged and players had to be separated, mainly by of all people Xhaka who was the main peacekeeper. I have no idea why Gabriel was so involved, but then it shows his true passion which is always great to see. However he received a very harsh yellow card for his efforts. Meanwhile I was convinced VAR was going to over turn the decision. There was holding by both players but on the balance of the incident, Azpilicueta made the first move to grab hold of Saka whilst having his back to the ball.

For Saka to step up and take this crucial penalty says all we need to know about this young man. I would not think there would have been many who minds were not immediately taken back to the England final. However he grabbed the ball, and sent the keeper the wrong way hitting the ball to the right of the goal, exactly the side his ill fated penalty was sent. Only this time it resulted in sheer elation. After the game Saka was being interviewed, you could still hear the Arsenal players celebrating. The Celebration police must have been indignant with rage! Let them be. This is a young team with true spirit, who are so obviously absolutely behind the manager and are hungry! A special mention goes to Elneny who did not put a foot wrong again last night. With reinforcements arriving this summer, I would still like to see him in the squad.

We are off course still so very far from securing that top four spot. But after seeing a glimpse of what Eddie can offer we go from thinking this small injury plagued squad was running out of steam, to suddenly having renewed hope.

What a fantastic boost for Saturday this has given us, I fully expect a fantastic atmosphere now as we face Manchester United. I just cannot wait!

REF WATCH

To be fair Jon Moss had a quiet game last night. Just two flash points to mention. There was a nasty foul on Tavares by Mount who had his studs up just as Tavares was clearing the ball. As he lay on the floor holding his leg, Mount for good measure screamed 'Get the F up'. It is quite ironic that this very kind of foul that was waved away last night was enough for Vieira to be red carded....at Stamford Bridge!

The lead up to Chelsea's second goal was inspected by VAR for approximately 2.4 seconds to see if there was foul. It certainly looked like it to me. But we did not have to luxury of a 5 minute checks and the goal stood.

Again, thanks for reading and speak soon.

Rob