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In case you missed it, yesterday was a historic day in Scottish football.
The nation qualified for their first FIFA World Cup since 1998 after a dramatic 4-2 victory over Denmark at Hampden Park - which included a goal from a former Arsenal favourite.
The night started perfectly for the Scots after Scott McTominay’s sensational bicycle kick, but Rasmus Højlund equalised for the Danes with a penalty. Lawrence Shankland then prodded in to restore the hosts’ lead, before Manchester United full-back Patrick Dorgu equalised again.
Scotland needed to win in order for their fate to not rely on the March play-offs, and up stepped Kieran Tierney. The ex-Arsenal left-back, who joined Celtic upon his departure from the Emirates in the summer, caressed a beauty of a strike into the far corner to send Scotland all-out through, before Kenny McLean’s sensational halfway line lob secured qualification.
For many Arsenal fans, it draws back memories of the Hawthorns in January 2021, when Tierney curled in a beauty of an effort from the edge of the box into the back of the net in the West Midlands snow.
In fact, Tierney goals for Scotland are a very rare occurrence - with this actually being his first competitive goal for his nation, while he only scored six in his entire Arsenal career.
Due to his summer departure, it means that he is unable to join the exclusive club of Scottish players to have represented their country at the World Cup while playing for the Gunners.
Charlie Nicholas is still the only Gunner to have represented Scotland at the World Cup
Yes, younger readers may well only recognise him from previously being a ‘Soccer Saturday’ pundit on TV in the UK, but Charlie Nicholas still remains the only Scotsman to represent his country at the World Cup whilst playing for Arsenal.
He was part of the Scotland squad for the 1986 World Cup, which encompassed his five-year stay at Arsenal, in which he scored 34 goals in 151 games between 1983 and 1988.
And, when you come to think of it, the list of Scots who have represented Arsenal is actually surprisingly small.
Tierney was actually the first Scotsman in recent history to represent Arsenal - as remarkably none ever played under Arsene Wenger.
Wenger himself is aware of that - famously saying to Sky Sports that ‘Scots aren’t good enough’, and that most of Rangers’ and Celtic’s best players were foreign.
This is ironically caveated by the fact that it took just over a year after Wenger left for Tierney to come through the door, with the left-back coming in from Celtic under Unai Emery in the summer of 2019.