The latest science can’t definitively define human emotion. On Sunday, Luke Shaw became the latest left-back to show he can’t defend against Bukayo Saka.

While fullbacks up and down the country struggle to crack the Saka conundrum, fans watching Arsenal’s thrilling 3-2 win over Manchester United on Sunday could definitely describe a fair few of the former.

Hope, expectation, surprise, shock, relief, pride, JOY…there isn’t a comprehensive list of emotions apparently. The term derives from the Latin word “emovere”; a combination of the words “energy” and “motion”. But there is a definition of the name Bukayo in the Yoruba language: “adds joy”.

Our increasingly talismanic number seven certainly lived up to his label, with a display that left Arsenal fans bouncing, but poor Shaw dazed, and with no option but to acknowledge his opponent’s superiority after the game. Like a bloodied boxer who’s just been twelve rounds, taking a brutal beating throughout the bout.

I know him, I know how good he is. He’s an unbelievable player and still extremely young. He has a long, long way to go. But for me, at this moment in time, he’s world-class and if he can continue to be delivering week-in week out then he can reach the top.
The goal in the second half, he cut inside and I couldn’t get over to him and he got past Christian (Eriksen) and it was a great strike.

If Saka and Arsenal were good in the first half, they were the embodiment of emovere in the second. A red and white blur of ball-hoggers and ball-robbers, stirring panic and frustration in their opponents, and drawing a deafening din of approval from their followers in the stadium. Relentless, ruthless, and ultimately, following a short VAR-decision delay, league leaders by five points again. With a game in hand.

Yet United were far from pushovers, with Erik Ten Hag orchestrating the visitors’ game-plan and coming into this fixture off the back of a long unbeaten run. But Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal proved too good for them; Eddie Nketiah’s brace, either side of what Saka called his best goal in professional football to date, securing the win.

Despite starting the game in what has become a trademark fast-style this season, we were actually forced to come from a goal down to go into the interval on level terms. Marcus Rashford provided a stunning reminder of why he’s the closest thing to Kylian Mbappe this side of the Channel, with his sudden, sumptuous, shift-and-shot from outside the box giving United a shock lead after 17 minutes.

But Arsenal, like so often this season, didn’t need long to restore parity. A superb team move culminated in Granit Xhaka’s inviting left-wing cross being headed home by Eddie Nketiah at the back post. With England manager Gareth Southgate watching on from the stands, Eddie showcased the remarkable development to his all-round-game. All-game-long.

He scored two, could have had another couple, but for sharp defending and an instinctive David de Gea save, held the ball up, combined well, and then showed he’s got the pragmatism to go with the poachers’ instinct, by taking the ball to the corner flag to help run down the last few seconds of injury time, as United forlornly chased an equaliser.

We took just eight minutes to take the lead after the break. Granit Xhaka aggressively won back possession from Christian Eriksen, and the ball eventually found Saka in the right channel. He played a leisurely one-two with Takehiro Tomiyasu before leaving his marker floundering as he found the bottom corner with a vicious, low strike from outside the box. Two-one Arsenal and richly deserved. When we needed someone to step up and take centre stage, Saka obliged in emphatic fashion.

There was another shock United goal to come. Lisandro Martinez stooped to score an improvised header after Aaron Ramsdske failed to claim a corner cleanly. In the end though, the vertically-challenged Argentine simply gave United’s fans false hope because this Arsenal would simply not accept stalemate.

Substitute Leandro Trossard, on for Gabriel Martinelli, fed the roaming, rampaging, piss-taking whirlwind that is Oleksandr Zinchenko, to cross into a crowded box in the 89th minute. The ball broke loose for Eddie to deftly flick home the winner. Cue a VAR check and a nervous few moments, before Emirates Stadium erupted as the goal was cleared to stand.

Goodison Park in a fortnight is the next stop for Arteta’s Arsenal as they continue this unexpected assault on a first Premier League title since 2004. Can Saka be subdued? Will Arsenal keep winning? The answers will lie in the emovere at Everton.

We started brightly, but faded quickly, after referee Paul Tierney awarded Sp*rs a 22nd-minute penalty more undeserving than a Juventus Scudetto-win in the Noughties.

A spot-kick award so dodgy, results involving Antonio Conte’s Siena side during the 2010-11 Serie B season, are made to look stainless by comparison.

Having done nothing as an attacking force up until that point, T*ttenham’s on-loan Swede, Dejan Kulusevski, drifted a ball from midway inside his own half, towards the far post. Cedric Soares and Rob Holding saw off Son Heung-min, as defenders combine to routinely, and legally, do all the time, in seeing the ball safely behind for a goal kick.

Except, calorie-enthusiast Tierney, pointed to the spot. For handball apparently, as his gesture immediately after blowing his whistle, signaled.

But there was no handball, just the softest penalty award you’ll ever see, for a slight nudge, we were eventually told, by Cedric (or maybe it was Holding, someone in the box anyway, might have been the ghost of the family-sized pack of Krispy Kremes Tierney devoured for his pre-match snack) on the seemingly pole-axed South Korean.

A decision so atrociously harsh on the visitors, that any sane observer, or any sane observer without any semblance of a professional or personal stake in protecting the perception that top-flight football on these shores could ever be anything but holier-than-thou honest, would be conspiracy-theorising their b*llocks off.

Inevitably, Harry Kane dispatched the ball into the net from the spot and drooled wheeled away in open-mouthed delight. One-nil Sp*rs.

But Tierney wasn’t done with his Toilet Bowl appeasement, and Son wasn’t done with his amateur dramatics.

When Holding blocked off the south Korean’s run, as he began to chase a ball so over-hit, Kylian Mbappe wouldn’t have reached it, Son went down clutching his face like he’d been on the receiving end of a sly elbow, a bit like the one he’d dished out to Holding minutes earlier.

Tottenham die-hard Tierney, couldn’t have produced a second yellow for Holding quick enough, as England captain Kane’s screams, jolted the unprofessionally-portly, gremlin-faced official into action.

With Arsenal still reeling from that Tierney-powered double whammy, Kane found himself free at the far post to head home his, and the hosts’, second from a Bentancur flick-on following a corner. Two goals down, a man light – game done.

We conceded the third moments after the break when Son poked home, a little surreally, with Mohamed Elneny appearing to shy away from committing to a block in our box.

Later in the half, Gabriel was substituted after suffering what looked like a hamstring strain, as a costly night saw us lose both starting centre-halves to injury and suspension, as well as the three points which would have secured Champions League qualification.

After the game, Mikel Arteta was visibly raging at the officiating but refused to elaborate when asked directly by Sky, saying only that he was unwilling to discuss the matter because he didn’t want to be banned for six months.

And he was right not to. What’s the point? Every single individual on the football gravy train, from ex-players, pundits and presenters, to radio hosts, journalists, bloggers and beyond, will publicly tow the party line – that Premier League football is irrefutably clean.

That it’s impervious to any semblance of corruption, despite the billions of pounds, euros and dollars at stake in the game, and related economies, like gambling and the various media outlets. Some will go a step further and contradict the undeniably obvious when analysing on-field incidents. Gaslighting at it’s most hideous.

Because if the English top-flight is somehow truly a bastion of integrity, as un-corroded by corruption as T*ttenham’s trophy cabinet is bereft of trophies, then refereeing standards in the Premier League have to improve dramatically. Or cynicism borne of inexplicable on-pitch injustices will only grow among the ultimate lifeblood of the sport. The fans.

On to Conte then, who in his post-match press conference, decided to urge his counterpart Arteta, to “complain less”.

Classic projection there from the Italian, clearly irked by the younger man’s immaculate, natural head of hair, while his own locks have been artificially induced like the results of too many Italian league fixtures over the last couple of decades.

Meanwhile, Sky rejoiced at the newly-prolonged race for top four, as Gary Neville reveled in Arsenal’s defeat. Probably because he’s still a little upset at how Arsenal, by the admission of Manchester United’s manager, ended his former side’s own top four hopes with a 3-1 win at Emirates Stadium a few weeks ago.

So Newcastle away next, and it’s a must-win game now. I can’t say I’m confident, but it’s still in our hands and this season has seen tangible progress for us as a team, and in terms of squad development, wherever we end up in the final table.

Thoughts on squad players Holding, Cedric and Elneny can wait for another day but in short, if we can upgrade them as squad options, we ought to as soon as possible.

Particularly Cedric, who seems to have to strain every sinew just to make a five-yard pass. Which he’d probably misplace. Before falling over.

Anyway, as always, f*ck T*ttenham and COYG.