As we were circling the Emirates in advance of the Fulham match, I overheard a conversation between several Arsenal fans walking behind us. They were discussing how they plan to view the last match of the season, which will be played away at Crystal Palace. The conversation took on tones of people imagining winning Power Ball: How would they spend all that money?

The impact of our losing against Bournemouth and Man City two weeks prior had put a giant dent in our title hopes which had been looking great for most of the season. Technically, if Man City were to win all their matches and Arsenal were to win all our matches, we would be tied on points earned. The league winner would then be decided by tie breakers, first being goal difference, second being goals scored. As of the time of the Fulham match, Man City and Arsenal were tied on goal difference but Man City had a higher number of goals scored. And in Arsenal’s match the prior weekend, at home no less and against in-a-world-of-hurt Newcastle, we had barely eked out a winning goal. It was pure torture to watch. And, needless to say, was not a harbinger of needed goals galore. Meanwhile, Man City looked to be turning into a magnificent machine as they so often do in the Spring. Depressing stuff.

So this conversation on which I was eavesdropping outside the stadium seemed particularly fanciful. The most hopeful fan was telling his friends he imagined he would watch the last match of the season between Arsenal and Crystal Palace at a pub in North London so he could experience it with Arsenal fans. And if Arsenal were winning by many goals, he would hop on the Tube and head over to Crystal Palace’s stadium, Selhurst Park. Because, as he explained it, “I know I can’t be in the grounds, but I would have to be there.”

My husband and I hadn’t been successful in the ballot for tickets to the Fulham match but then were eligible to look for tickets on Arsenal’s ticket exchange. I had felt confident we would be able to get tickets for this match and we had done the unthinkable, booking nonrefundable air tickets and hotel before we had any match tickets. With a million clicks I was able to find tickets the day before we travelled to London. Interesting that there had been so much angst online about Arsenal’s prospects for the Premier League among presumed fans (Bottled again!) while at the same time, fewer ticket holders than usual were selling tickets and a greater number of people were wanting to buy them. The market for tickets speaks more softly then the internet but methinks it tells more truth.

I could understand the feelings of my overheard compatriot in wanting to be ready in case the good thing we’ve all be dreaming of looked like it might imminently happen. While I was not quite ready to imagine planning that final day of the season, I was certainly charmed by the sentiment. I could see him outside Selhurst Park in the cool of the early evening, maybe his pint glass still in hand, looking up at the stadium lights, and smiling at the sound of cheers inside the stadium. Dreams fulfilled.

Using the exchange means my husband and I were not sitting together because you really can only get one ticket at a time. Both of our seats were in the club section in the North Bank, but mine were in the West corner and my husband’s were in the East corner. I was in my seat in time to see Arsenal’s pre-match sendoff for Per Mertesacker, our intrepid former defender who’s been in charge of Arsenal’s youth academy since he retired from playing. Always loved that guy. He, Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, and Hector Bellerin formed the last really excellent defensive line I can recall until recent years.

I wondered if the stadium would erupt with the chant we’d used for him. He did reference it in his short remarks, calling himself a “Big friendly German” instead of the word starting with “F” we actually used, very lovingly. Although there usually is no hesitation on our part about flinging out some pretty rude chants, for some reason the one we used for Per only 10 years ago felt a bit culturally inappropriate now. Anyway, if the chant was only sporadically sung during the presentation before the match, he got a big round of applause for the good work he’s done with the Academy.

Three of the Academy’s protégés featured for Arsenal in the Fulham match. Mikel Arteta reached into his wildest dreams and determined that Academy alumnus Myles Lewis-Skelly would start in midfield, something that only almost happened in (I think) an FA cup match earlier this year. On that occasion Myles instead ended up replacing Riccardo Calafiori at left back when he was injured in the warm-up. That replacement was not fully unexpected: Myles made his big breakthrough at 18 years old last season at left back when Calafiori had a long-term injury. Myles was very, very good at left back. But this season we’ve not seen him much in any position even though he’s mostly been healthy. Other players have been preferred even though Calafiori has been injured a lot. Somehow Myles has not been giving Arteta what he wants to see. Football qualities aside, Myles seems to be of very different character than Arteta as well. I wonder if he rubs him the wrong way. A bit of a show boat. A trash talker. New Arsenal player Martin Zubimendi has been the preferred choice in midfield for most of the season, but he was a substitute on this day.

Bukayo Saka is also a product of the Academy and we were pleasantly surprised to see him in the starting lineup after a lengthy period out with an achilles strain. He’s been playing a few minutes from the bench for the last few weeks. We’ve seriously missed his influence in attack. And wunderkind Max Dowman, still a part of the Academy at 16, was on the bench as a substitute.

It turns out that Fulham has several Arsenal Academy alumni as well, which is one of the reasons I have a small affinity for Fulham. Alex Iwobi was out injured for this match but Emil Smith-Rowe was named as a starter. These players left Arsenal at different times, both after playing for a few years in the senior team and both under circumstances that have not damaged Arsenal fans’ high opinions of them. In particular, Smith-Rowe has Favored Son status. He was an integral part of Arteta’s early teams that showed sparks of an exciting future to come. Unfortunately, he’s experienced many injuries and is not the player he once was, or promised to be. Even at Fulham, he is often used from the bench and starts mostly when others are injured. Fulham also have goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who formerly played for Arsenal. The other reason I kind of like Fulham: they long had American star Clint Dempsey before he briefly went to the Dark Side, Tottenham, and then to the MLS.

In any case, I put my “small affinity” aside. Today Fulham is my mortal enemy.

In addition to the surprise of Myles Lewis-Skelly at midfield and Bukayo Saka starting at all, Mikel Arteta had put together an unexpectedly swashbuckling lineup. This match was sandwiched between two Champions League fixtures and it seemed today’s lineup was designed to protect and rest players who would be in the next leg of that competition only a few days from now.

If swashbuckling was the intent, Arteta got more than his money’s worth. This was probably the most exciting and inventive Arsenal I’ve seen for a while. Myles Lewis-Skelly was masterful, kept everything ticking. Riccardo Calafiori and Eberechi Eze were chaos merchants. Bukayo Saka and Leo Trossard brought bite to our attack we haven’t had for a long time. Viktor Gyokeres, who has taken so much shit about his technical skills and goal contributions (which actually are pretty darned good), fought all day and delivered good build up play, better than I’ve ever seen from him. Declan Rice, Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel, and David Raya were all excellent.

And the Emirates was rocking. So, so loud. In these times when the team isn’t doing so well and the fans are a bit depressed, you often hear pundits and podcasters asking something to the effect of “is it the players job to excite the crowd or the crowd’s job to excite the players?” I’m glad no one was navel-gazing on this question when I was there. The players were doing the best they could and the crowd was doing the best they could. Whether they believed the other guy was doing his job or not.

I was sitting in front of an extremely loud fan. He was so off-key and so loud, you just wanted to join him. And maybe cover him up a bit. It was not easy. His funniest bit was in chant commonly sung by Arsenal fans over the past 3-4 years. The chant goes like this:

At some point over the last few years, fans altered the second line slightly: “We won it at the Lane – TWICE!!!”

And this guy behind me added one more new thing. After we sung “We’re Arsenal through and through” he shouts “Where do we sing it?” Well, you know the answer. “We’ll sing it in the North Bank and in the Clock End too.” Such a dumb little thing. It made me smile every time.

Arsenal’s first goal came pretty quickly. A pass from Lewis-Skelly to Saka, and Saka left the Fulham defensive marker on his backside on the grass. He sent the ball across the goal to an onrushing Gyokeres, who tapped it into the net.

There were many chances after that that didn’t produce goals that stood (Calafiori had one in the back of the net that was called back because he was offside) but it was all so fluid and beautiful no one seemed too fussed about it. About beer-thirty when fans need to get out to the concourse before halftime to be in line and slam one before the second half starts, Gyokeres ran onto a through pass from Eze and passed to Saka, who was dividing two defenders with his run toward goal. There was no stopping Saka: he fired it near post. 2-0.

I may be imagining this but I felt that goal riveted many a beer-loving person to their seats. They were quickly rewarded. Trossard broke down the left side and made a looping cross to the waiting forehead of Gyokeres. It’s said he’s not a particularly proficient header of the ball but he did ok this time. 3-0 by the time the first half whistle blew. I had been hugged and high fived dozens of times by my peers in the North Bank.

The scoreline gave Arteta freedom to make subs and get rest for players returning from injuries. As a result, the second half was quieter. There were fewer chances for Arsenal and more for Fulham. Unfortunately, Fulham’s Emil Smith-Rowe went down at some point, injured. But he is really our Smith-Rowe. We sang the chant we used when he was an Arsenal player as he limped around the field back to the tunnel. I feel for this talented player who just can’t catch a break physically. My fervent wish is that he ultimately has a path like Eberechi Eze, back to us in good health and with hard times behind him.

We held on and so did Fulham. 3-0 at the end.

We celebrated with a few songs from the DJ and then I ran out to meet my husband by the Arsene Wenger statue outside. It was a very cheerful walk over to Arsenal station, my compatriots singing at top voice.

As we changed trains at St. Pancras Kings Cross a fight nearly broke out between a few Fulham and Arsenal fans as the Fulham fans sang “Bottled again, Bottled again, Bottled again, olé, olé.” Even people who just saw their team destroyed 3-0 felt free to taunt us. Luckily, peace managed to prevail.

I wish them no ill will in–where are Fulham?–11th place. And these men, probably living in their mother’s basements. Cozy.

Man City wasn’t scheduled to play until Monday, two days on. We would hold the lead in the League at least until then.