14

I had a moment of panic before kickoff yesterday: I was out walking the dog and I noticed that it was 8:45 and I was about 15 minutes away from the house. If I didn’t quit stopping every time I heard a bird sing I was going to be late for the match. And because it was only being aired on ESPN+ (and they don’t let you record games) I would have missed at least part.

You could forgive me losing track of time because it had been an extraordinary birding day. On the way out the door I put on my Eduardo 9 away strip from the 08/09 season* which is kind of gaudy and not something I would normally wear in public but I was feeling it and so looking like a big yellow ad for Emirates Airline I leashed up Porkchop and headed out into the cool morning.

On the way to the park, I found a Steller’s Jay feather: grey/black on one side, cobalt blue with black bars on the other. It’s Avie’s favorite bird so I picked it up and put it in my hat and of course I said to myself “and called it macaroni”.

A little further ahead, as I descended toward the lake, I heard a rustle above and some odd screeches the likes of which only come from raptors. I knew there was a Cooper’s Hawk in the area because I had seen it on numerous occasions but today there were two Cooper’s Hawks. They blitzed through the trees screeching at each other and tangling for a few seconds before resting on a branch and doing it all over again. It’s extraordinary to watch two shy birds come out, openly braving the anger of the crows (who will hound a raptor out of a park as soon as they see it) and do a little dancing. People often think about bird flight as soaring high above everything, effortlessly like an albatross but most birds live among the trees and they have to fly between branches at full speed. These two hawks were pulling that off like Luke and Leia on Speeder Bikes on the forest moon of Endor.

Maybe it was the good birding that set my mood? I don’t know but when I got home I sat down in front of the television and decided to be positive no matter what happened. I promised myself not to criticize the players, the coach, the team, or other fans for having “bad” opinions.

It didn’t take long before my mood started to sour: Christian Pulisic ghosted past the Arsenal midfield, driving forward in the way that a #10 (which is now a dead position from what I hear) does, passing to a teammate and getting the ball back in the box. Credit to the Arsenal defense here: they could have fouled Pulisic and on a normal day probably would have, forcing Anthony Taylor to give someone a red card or award a penalty. But they didn’t. They tried to block the shot without fouling and left the save up to Emi who made himself big but Pulisic was just better on the finish.

My initial reaction was to get angry and say bad words about certain players but when I watched the replay I noticed that it was just a great drive from Pulisic, a nice backheel from Giroud and a tremendous finish. Besides, we knew that there would be goals in this match so better to have them come from some good play by them rather than a disaster from us, right?

And Arsenal continued to struggle a bit after that goal, conceding a few chances but you know, I have to say that referee Anthony Taylor had a great game. He fearlessly gave Kovacic a yellow card in the 14th minute and I think he was calling fouls pretty evenly early on which is a nice change of pace as an Arsenal supporter.

By the 25th minute Arsenal were in the ascendancy. There was a bit of buildup between Ceballos, Maitland-niles, and Aubameyang to set up Pepe for a left-footed curler from outside the box and I have to admit I whooped and hollered when that went in. That could have been one of the goals of the season if it stood but Maitland-Niles was just offside in the buildup.

No matter, though, because 60 seconds later, Tierney laced a left footer over the top of the Chelsea midfield for Aubameyang to run under. It was a golf shot from the Scotsman: high and just drawing back, the kind of pass which Bergkamp would do all the time to create space for the attacker.

Auba beat the pants off Azpilicueta and the Chelsea defender clawed him back in the box . Anthony Taylor pointed right to the spot, and when asked about a red card pointed to Rudger covering. Yet another perfect call from Taylor who was absolutely spot on the entire day.

I’m aware that there is some debate about whether Taylor should have shown a red card. I’m also aware that after the match most of the pundits felt like Taylor had a mare and gifted Arsenal the game. And that Chelsea supporters think he got every call wrong. Oh to be a referee: no one loves you! Well I love you, you bald fuck!

Look, when I see a referee give Arsenal a penalty I am happy. Do you know how few penalties we’ve had in the last 10 years?? Do you know how many times a referee like Taylor has swallowed his whistle in the big game – or worse, got the call exactly wrong??? Taylor in particular has been extremely reticent to give Arsenal penalties: Taylor has awarded 167 penalties in 551 matches (a pen every 3.2 matches); up until yesterday, he’d awarded Arsenal just 4 pens in 35 matches (one every 8.75) and given 9 pens to Arsenal’s opponents (one every 3.9 matches). So, I’m not going to complain one little bit if Taylor thought that Rudiger was there to cover so it wasn’t a DOGSO. Or if he thought Azpi was going for the ball or if he saw a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker that morning and was in a generous mood. Fine. Whatever, he gave us a penalty!

And by the letter of the law it was a good call. VAR reviewed it and if there was some clear and obvious error they would have signaled Taylor to have a second look. Besides! He made up for it later! LOOL! When was the last time you saw a referee give Arsenal’s opponent 6 yellow cards on 14 fouls? When was the last time you saw a referee give a player a 2nd yellow for a dangerous tackle despite the fact he won the ball??? (Winning the ball is irrelevant please read the laws of the game.) Honestly all around I give Anthony Taylor a 9/10 for that refereeing performance. Outstanding, he should be allowed to referee Arsenal in the Europa League final next season!

I got ahead of myself.

Yeah, see Arsenal are going to the Europa League because we won the game and we won the game because of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Bellerin picked up a shoulder pass from Ceballos and charged through the midfield, destroying what’s left of Rudiger’s career with a sweet little shoulder drop near the center circle. Bellerin did lose control a bit and Christensen flew in with a wild tackle to win the ball – which Bellerin had every right to challenge for, bravely – but Christensen only managed to pass the ball to Pepe.

It’s over this point (and the red card) that the punditocracy are having a meltdown: complaining that Bellerin “fouled” Christensen. It’s not a foul! Christensen was out of control and the two players came together challenging for the ball. LOL, the state of some of these folks (like Stewart Robson).

Anyway, Pepe passed the ball to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who shook Kurt Zouma’s entire family tree with a move from right to left and then (with his off-foot) clipped the ball over Willy Caballero.

From there out, I never had doubt. Arsenal won quite easily: all of Chelsea’s attacks seemed to be distance shots (ok, there was one moment with Mason Mount) and Arsenal settled into a rhythm of counter attacking and playing hard. I kept my positivity throughout, never cracking, never worrying and what happened was something strange. Instead of feeling nervous about the result or fretting about every catch I let it all go. It didn’t matter if we won or lost. I didn’t care what tactic Arteta used (though a brief question came over me about why he wasn’t subbing players on when Chelsea seemed to have more energy). It was just fun to watch football again, to see something brilliant for a while. To disconnect from the awfulness that is Trump and the USA right now and just watch a football game, for fun.

Everything that we’ve been through this year has been depressing: COVID, massive job losses, police brutality and the totalitarian response of the state, and those are just the top three, we haven’t even hit forest-fire season here in the States yet, and the US stimulus bill is about to run out which could make millions of people homeless in the next few weeks. And for most of that time, Arsenal didn’t provide us with an escape. It kind of mirrored the awfulness of 2020.

But you know what Arteta did was the same thing that we all need to do right now: he got the team together around a collective vision, they worked hard, and they kept working despite several (recent) setbacks.

And the celebrations afterwards were perfect. Arteta hugging the players and lifting them off the ground. Aubameyang and Lacazette shaking hands with the trophy nearly makes me cry when I think about it or see it. Even Auba dropping the trophy was just another moment which I will cherish. We needed this. And it’s even sweeter that we won the FA Cup and that means that Tottenham have to go into the qualifying rounds of the Europa League a month earlier. HAHAHAHA! It’s like a St. Totteringham’s day!

Meanwhile, chinless Frank Lampard sitting there, his mouth like a slit, having to watch Arsenal celebrate was an absolute joy. That man got to celebrate at Arsenal’s expense many times. He got to gloat in Wenger’s face, he got to make faces at Fabregas, and this time he had to suck it up. This time the referee didn’t gift him a trophy like they did so many times in the past. I know they will probably spend a trillion dollars this summer but felt like the good guys won for once.

We have plenty of time (actually not, because the League starts up soon) to talk about transfers and signings and whatnot but for now I need to just enjoy the moment.

And by the way, I went for my walk this morning and those same two hawks were out chasing each other. I’m pretty sure they are related, perhaps a mother and her young because they flew around for a minute and then both went and perched on a tree near each other.

Qq

*It’s a yellow kit with blue shoulders/sleeves which feature a red stripe down the middle. In some ways the whole kit is annoying because of the clashing colors but the best bit is that the numbering on the back is a luxurious red felt with white piping. Regardless, this is one of my favorite shirts for a lot of reasons, most of which have to do with Eduardo being one of my favorite players and the love I have for him and what he gave to the club during his far-too-short tenure.