The Premier League title may well be Arsenal’s destiny

The Manchester City defeat raised a few concerns in the minds of Gooners and rival fans alike. It appeared that the stereotype of Arsenal bottling the league was coming back to haunt Mikel Arteta and his men.

However, it appears that the Premier League title is destined for north London, as fans do not know what struck harder: Jorginho’s strike off the crossbar or Emi Martinez’s built-up bad karma. Saturday’s last-gasp win at Villa Park was huge.

The Premier League title may well be Arssenal’s destiny

Although the wounds suffered on Wednesday night were self-inflicted, worry did begin to set in as the young squad travelled north to meet Unai Emery’s revitalised Aston Villa at a tremendously fired-up Villa Park. The Gunners’ recent results against Everton and Brentford did not do enough to worry the fanbase. A culmination of an off-night and a sackable refereeing performance justified the two disappointing results. The Manchester City defeat meant that Arsenal was in trouble of relinquishing control of the title campaign.

The game started and the young Gunners appeared to be harbouring the emotions of the midweek loss. Ollie Watkins, who seemingly plays his best football against Arsenal, opened up the scoring with a great finish across the goal.  However, led by Bukayo Saka, Arsenal’s mistakes, unforced errors, and miscued passes slowly diminished in frequency. Instead, the Gunners were more intense, offensive, and prone to shoot. Jorginho used lovely skill to get away from Douglas Luiz, playing the ball into Ben White, who darted a cross into Tyrone Mings who headed the ball viciously out of the box. Fortunately for Arsenal, the ball dropped to the Starboy Saka, who proceeded to ruthlessly finish the ball into the top of the net. Arsenal was back in the game, on form and focused.

However, this was not entirely true. Philippe Coutinho, who received an unusual Premier League start, made Emery look like the football savant he is by scoring a lovely goal which caused Aaron Ramsdale to dive the wrong way. Yet again the mindset of Arsenal was tested, and who else other than Oleksandr Zinchenko would Gooners call upon to lead us back into the game?

Since his arrival, Arsenal’s inverted left-back has been influential both in the locker room and on the pitch. In this case, he scored his first-ever Premier League goal to save Arsenal’s title campaign, beaming a shot into the bottom left corner.

The next part of the game can only be described as back and forth, Aston Villa hit the bar on a Leon Bailey attempt, and Arsenal continued to build the pressure. However, it seemed that the universe played a role in this hectic matchup. Since leaving Arsenal Emi Martinez has only had bad things to say about the club. Matchday 24 saw karma strike and destiny appear. Jorginho, uncharacteristically struck a peach of a ball that looked destined for the top right-hand corner, a sigh was let out as it rebounded off the bar, but karma stuck. Hitting the head of the diving Martinez, the ball rebounded over the line to put the Gunners up 3-2 in the 93rd minute.

Five minutes later, and two minutes over the six additional minutes the referee added, Martinez joined his teammate for a last-ditch goal opportunity from a corner kick. The Gunners seized possession, running the ball frantically up the pitch, a pass to super sub Martinelli saw the Brazillian march towards the empty goal celebrating before scoring the kill shot

For fans who worry that bottling the league is in Arsenal’s future, I present exhibit A. If you do not believe in Arsnela’s title destiny now, I hope you shall not need much additional convincing. Karma struck Martinez as hard as Jorginho’s 30-yard missile that rattled the bar. If nothing else, assuming Arsenal reign victorious, Jorginho has already given more than fans ever expected.

Nottingham Forest did the Gunners a favour with a massive draw against Manchester City. The dropped points see Arsenal two points clear with a game in hand. Arsenal face Leicester next with all to play for and a destiny to project.