It’s been a lively start to the new football season with plenty to talk about.

First, a welcome return to the champions league for Arsenal, in emphatic style on Wednesday September 20th. With their rampant first half display against PSV Eindhoven (who at the time were top of the Dutch league off the back of a 4-0 home win) Arsenal turned on the style with a fantastic first half performance, the first goal coming from Saka who pounced on a parry from the goalkeeper to make it 1-0.

Twelve minutes later, it was 2-0 from the influential Leandro Trossard who took and trapped a ball on the left-hand side of the box that was Bergkamp-esqe, and then from the edge of the box, literally seconds later, drilled in a crisp drive to add the second and some minutes later turned provider with great skill and panache to pick out Jesus who in his own right was causing PSV all sorts of problems and got his reward with a pulsating drive that two goalkeepers wouldn’t have kept out. Making it 3-0.

The second half wasn’t quite the same, but the fourth goal was added in the 70th minute by Captain Martin Ødegaard with some great interchange football from one side of the pitch to the other culminating in a trademark low finish into the bottom right-hand corner, wrapping up a memorable victory after a six-year absence and sending all of us fans home very happy!!! 

Arsenal 4, PSV Eindhoven 0.

On Sunday 24th September honours were even in the first north London derby as Arsenal and Tottenham played out a 2-2 draw in an entertaining match at the Emirates Stadium. After a fairly tentative start, Arsenal broke the deadlock in the 26th minute when Bukayo Saka’s cross was turned into his own net by Cristian Romero.

Minutes later Gabriel Jesus did all the hard work by robbing Tottenham of possession on the edge of the box to blaze his shot just too high and over the crossbar. Then Arsenal were to pay after goalkeeper David Raya, who minutes before made a world class save, could only palm away a deep cross and the ball ended up with Maddison who turned Saka inside out to get to the byline and pick out Son Heung-min to hit home just before halftime to make it 1-1. 

However, early after the resumption, Arsenal were awarded a penalty via a VAR check by the referee for the slightly unfortunate Romero for handball when the bottle of Saka was once again tested but he calmly stroked the ball home right down the middle of the goal for 2-1. 

In this see-saw game Tottenham were level again 98 seconds later after Jorginho was caught napping in possession by the influential James Maddison to find Son all alone in the Arsenal box to confidently slot past Raya, 2-2. Tottenham sensed a famous victory as Arsenal’s shape was all over the place due to injuries and having to substitute both Vieira and the excellent Declan Rice at half time, but they weathered the storm and could have nicked it themselves with 10 minutes of added on time. But the draw was a fair result and kept both teams unbeaten in the premier league. 

Arsenal 2, Tottenham 2.