Mikel Arteta said recently that he has “wild dreams”. For much of this ridiculous night of football, under the Friday night lights, he must have felt like he was living the wildest of nightmares instead. But this Arsenal team — his Arsenal team — is playing by different emotional rules this season, and their fans have learned that nothing is settled until the very end.
Late goals have become Arsenal’s preferred currency this season and they somehow found more of them here, to turn a disastrous loss into a weirdly spriting draw. If they had been offered one point before this night, Arteta would have slapped it away and asked for more. In the circumstances, though, it somehow felt like another step forward.
To be clear, it was not three points. And Arsenal cannot keep doing this. They cannot continue to rescue themselves from the brink of collapse. But somehow the rollercoaster keeps on rolling, and somehow they keep finding ways back into matches.
With two minutes remaining of normal time here, Arsenal were trailing by two goals to a Southampton team that started the day at the foot of the table. Around 120 seconds later, they were level, and everything felt possible once more. Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and the gang were pushing and straining, and 60,000 north Londoners were screaming.
When the final whistle blew, players from both sides collapsed to the turf and the home crowd found their voice. Arsenal have not given up and their fans continue to believe, too. Even after Carlos Alcaraz, Theo Walcott and Duje Caleta-Car had all stuck for Southampton, Arsenal continued to push.
In the bigger picture, though, this was unquestionably damaging. Manchester City are up next. That match has now gone from must-not-lose to must-win, and it is hard to see any way in which Arsenal can claim three points at the Etihad if they continue to defend like this.
