You know, I had a strange feeling before this game. I wouldn't call it 'dread'; but I just had a sense that it may be a bit of a banana skin. Everything felt a little too comfortable. As I said to my mate Stuart pre-match: 'This doesn't feel right. It's too relaxed. The seats are only half-filled at 5 to 3. It's almost as if everyone's a bit too chilled about it. Like; it's only Bournemouth. I hope that the players aren't feeling the same way.' So... blame me if you like.
But it was a horrible start. As I remarked immediately the ball hit the back of the net: 'Well, you've got to laugh, really. Otherwise you'll cry.' But irrespective of the fact that if the VAR had done his job the goal would have been chalked off - with three - I think - Bournemouth players in the Arsenal half when the game kicked off - it was quite clear that Arsenal were indeed half asleep. Zinchenko, Partey, Saliba and Gabriel all at fault for various reasons.
Now there's no need for me to go through what happened in the game on a blow-by-blow basis. It's a game that'll go down in history. So I'll continue to look at it from my personal point of view instead.
And it soon felt like it was going to be another one of 'those' games. One of those games when Arsenal completely dominated, but couldn't stick the ball in the onion bag. Like that one against West Ham in 2007, when Arsenal had 30+ shots, and they had one - a screamer from Bobby Zamora from fully 30 yards out. Result - 0-1. And there've been others, of course.
And so it was. 80+% possession, a series of corners and shots, the Bournemouth wagons fully circled... and yet - twice - they could have gone further ahead as Arsenal went gung ho. One superb piece of work by Ramsdale (Billing was probably offside in the build-up), and the other an amazing recovery run and understanding of angles from Gabriel or it could have been far, far worse.
The loss of Trossard seemed important too. Halfway through the first half, he limped off with what appeared to be a groin injury. With Jesus not that close to being back, and Nketiah out with a knock, options were extremely limited. ESR took his place, but as I remarked at the time: 'There's no way he's going to last until the end of the game. He's nowhere near match fit.'
Plus the time-wasting, of course. Which started almost immediately the goal went in. Keeper Neto the main culprit, inevitably. Referee Cavanagh didn't seem prepared to do too much about it as 25-30 seconds passed at every stoppage. The crowd's infuriation when the fourth official held up the board with three minutes on it as we approached half time. 'Three?!?' I shouted. 'More like seven!'. And so Arsenal trailed at half-time.
I wasn't surprised to see Tomiyasu replaced by White at half-time. He may (perhaps) be a better defender than White, but that wasn't what was required in this match. He and Saka had looked on a different wavelength to each other throughout the first half; but one thing we do know is that White does have an understanding with Starboy.
But things only got worse, as from their only corner Bournemouth went further ahead. Partey lost his man, who had a free header to leave Ramsdale helpless. Arsenal's once-proud record of never conceding from dead balls is long-shattered now. And it left a mountain to climb.
I ought to mention our old pal VAR at this point. Several times - 5 I think - penalty area incidents were referred to Stockley Park. Two in the first half, and three in the second. None given as penalties and whilst one or two may have been harsh if given, the others - two handball appeals and a foul - could easily have seen penalties awarded. Arsenal cannot catch a break there. But there's no conspiracy, of course...
Throughout the match, I'd personally not been that vocal. I've been a bit under the weather, and so I wasn't joining in with all the chanting. And I wasn't even getting to my feet for 'Stand up for The Arsenal'. And at 2-0 my head dropped. Literally. Was this - I pondered - finally the day the wheels fell off? There really didn't seem much hope. Like my pre-match bad feeling had been correct.
But underestimating this group of players was a mistake. If anything, the intensity picked up even more, as the crowd rallied the team - aided, on more than one occasion, by the likes of Odegaard and Zinchenko imploring us to raise the noise levels. And the players weren't giving in - a single spark, a single goal was all it needed. And thankfully it took just 5 minutes to start pegging back the deficit, as from a half-cleared corner ESR's lobbed header was met decisively on the volley by Thomas Partey. 1-2, and still half an hour to go.
I started to get a little more hopeful. A little more vocal. Maybe a draw wasn't out of the question...
I'll digress slightly here, and talk about Partey. Yes, he had been partly at fault for the first goal. And yes, he had conceded the corner - and then lost his man - for the second goal. But he was nonetheless - for me - Arsenal's man of the match. He drove the team on throughout; driving forward at every opportunity and dragging Arsenal onwards. His dribbling, and especially his long passes, were of extremely high and consistent quality. The challenge from Jorginho for his spot in the side had been repelled. Martin Odegaard also had his best game for a while; spending a lot more time on the ball than recently.
Back to the game, which was becoming ever more frantic. And the next notable piece of action was something else I had predicted - that ESR wouldn't last the game out. To be frank, despite his assist, he hadn't been influential enough. Zinchenko was constantly waving him wider as he kept edging infield. Bournemouth needed to be stretched from side to side, and he wasn't quite doing it. And so to Reiss Nelson...
A long way down the pecking order. Often injured. Knocked off the bench by the return of ESR recently, and only back on it due to Nketiah's injury. But - as he had earlier this season against Forest - he got his chance and took it. The instructions were to stay wide and use his pace, and he followed them to the letter. Two minutes after his arrival his driven cross from the left was smashed home by none other than Benny Blanco, for his first goal for the club. He took it beautifully on the half volley, and although Neto got his hands to it to palm it away, even I could sense - from fully 50 yards away - that the ball had crossed the line. It was a bit of a shame for White that the ball didn't hit the back of the Neto (see what I did there), but that was frankly irrelevant. And suddenly, with 20 minutes plus stoppage / cheating time to go, it was well and truly back on. The noise went up several more notches.
And so it continued. Wave after wave of Arsenal attacks. Bournemouth hanging on for dear life, and going down with fake injuries at every opportunity. There was a massive roar as the board went up with 6 minutes - it should have been 10 - as at the same time Smith went down for the umpteenth time with an alleged 'back injury'.
But with every minute that passed, victory looked less and less likely. Just when we'd all - apart from the players of course - resigned ourselves to having to be satisfied with having claw a point back, came the denouement. The full 6 minutes up - although Arteta had been advised by the fourth official that time wasting in injury time meant that there would be more - and Zinchenko's slashed shot from the edge of the area was deflected for yet another corner.
We knew that this was it. Now or never. And now it was. Odegaard's corner cleared to the edge of the box, where Nelson was lurking with intent. He took it down on his right foot, and slashed a left-foot half volley into the opposing corner.
Cue bedlam. Chaos. Madness. I crushed Stuart for what felt like for ever. Next it was on to Sam and Ben in the next seats; our crush almost took us over the seats into the row in front. Then back to the people in the row behind, and the row behind that. I confessed my undying love to Jill. I even told Vic the same thing, as I gave him a kiss. Quite where Animal, in the row in front, had disappeard to after 92 minutes I couldn't say - he's always there until the bitter end. It was utter, utter chaos all around; on the pitch too, of course. Twitter is awash with videos encapsulating that moment.
And the thing is that I rarely - in fact hardly ever - stay until the end. My son Benjamin sits 4 blocks away from me, in the wheelchair section, and somewhere between 88 and 90 minutes I'm off to collect him in order to beat the crush outside the ground. Yet on this occasion we were going nowhere. Hope had been building, building, building. I couldn't drag myself away.
I had people on my WhatsApp - people who knew that I often have to leave early - checking if I'd stayed. And delighted to hear that I had. Benjamin himself was in an amazingly good mood too. Although he'd be late home for his supper, he didn't care. He was still on an Arsenal High at 7.30.
This was a moment to go along with all the others that are slowly building a history in the new stadium. Arshavin's winner against Barcelona was the first. There was Thierry Henry's FA Cup winner against Leeds when he was back on his short-term loan. Cesc's solo goal against Tottenham. Danny Welbeck against Leicester. Jack Wilshere's goal against Norwich. Olivier Giroud's scorpion kick against Palace.
But this?... this eclipses the lot of them. Because this team continues to raise the bar. It never knows when it's beaten. It goes right up to the end. I've never known such resilience; such a will to win. City, watch out; you've got the fight of all fights on your hands this season!
As for Reiss Nelson, there are comparisons to Macheda's vital goal for United against Villa in 2007. But for me it feels - from an Arsenal viewpoint at least - more like Christopher Wreh at Bolton in 1998. If you're too young to remember, look it up. Unlikely heros indeed!
Lisbon next. Then a tricky game at Fulham on Sunday. Let's keep the bandwagon rolling.
Come. On. You. Gunners!!!!!!!
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