Arsenal Come Back to Down Anderlecht In Dying Minutes

Arsenal needed a kickstart to their season terribly badly and this may have been exactly what the doctor ordered. For 60 steady minutes, there was very little pressure on either goal. The goalkeepers could have literally sat down and had a pint together, it wouldn’t have changed much.

But Anderlecht struck first in the 71st minute on what seemed like a helter-skelter play that was about as perfect (or perfectly lucky, or luckily perfect) as they come. A no-look chip cross found the head of Najar, who nodded it beyond a steady Emiliano Martinez.

The shock began to set in by the 85th minute that Arsenal might be a sinking ship. A disappointing season and another loss to boot would seriously start to derail a club with way too much talent to be derailed.

But the Gunners dug in.

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Martinez made a couple clutch plays to keep them in the game and the constant pressure finally procured a result when in the 90th minute, Calum Chambers came streaking down the right on a counter attack and crossed beautifully to a composed Kieran Gibbs, who simply turned his foot and let the ball see itself into the back corner.

A short celebration later and Arsenal had the ball yet again, brimming with confidence and sure to take home a win and absolutely devastate this Anderlecht crowd.

It was mere moments later, the ball was bouncing around the box and after an Alexis Sanchez shot was tapped away, Lukas Podolski (of all people) looked down to find the ball sitting on his cannon of a left foot, straight in front of goal. He clubbed it into the top right corner and that was that.

What a game to watch. The beginning could have lulled you to sleep but that steady build up produced an ending that was unbelievable. If this doesn’t kickstart the Gunners, I don’t know what will.

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