A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.97 for the rest of it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Peter Thomas has, at Arsenal, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Liverpool next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Martin Ødegaard was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Nottingham Forest will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Arsenal were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.94 for the rest of it.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Marked 8.23 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Bukayo Saka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.23. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Jonathan Henderson could afford to be generous.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Kai Havertz obliged against Colchester United. 4‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Arsenal.
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 7.93 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Martin Ødegaard provided it, and the 8.38 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Arsenal hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 12 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Arsenal and Wolverhampton in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Arsenal can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Gabriel Martinelli’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Arsenal.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Bukayo Saka was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
8.40. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Piero Hincapié and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not go to Burton Albion to sit and watch. I want to come back to Arsenal and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 6 matches say the rest.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Jonathan Henderson kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martin Ødegaard signs something — a contract at Arsenal or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Noni Madueke a promise
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Arsenal this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 88. Manchester City had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Arsenal, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Illan Meslier had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The offer from Everton for Kai Havertz was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Arsenal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Arsenal hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
The name of Cristhian Mosquera has come up in conversations Arsenal were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Piero Hincapié and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Arsenal, and both men came out saying it was fine.
$24.3M on the table at Bournemouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Arsenal hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Porto have kept their man, and Arsenal go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Arsenal that is a harder question to answer.