September 18, 2022 | Awake & Dreaming

Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest ever Premier League player aged 15 years and 181 days as the Gunners defeated Brentford to return to the top of the table. Mikel Arteta sent on the schoolboy midfielder in the closing moments with his side leading 3-0. Arsenal’s travelling fans greeted Nwaneri’s appearance by singing: “He’s going to school in the morning.” William Saliba set Arsenal on their way to a sixth win in seven top-flight games this season after the France defender climbed high to head Bukayo Saka’s corner in off the post.

It was 2-0 inside the opening half an hour as Brazil forward Jesus, a £45m signing from Manchester City in July, headed Granit Xhaka’s measured chip past David Raya. Portuguese midfielder Fabio Vieira capped a dominant Arsenal display by marking his first Premier League start since joining from Porto with a goal from 25 yards. Brentford were unbeaten in their previous three games and could have climbed to fifth in the table with a win, but they rarely threatened as forward Ivan Toney, who has been called up by England for the first time, struggled for service.

Arsenal had started the weekend top of the table but dropped to third after Manchester City and Tottenham won on Saturday. Arsenal were bullied in the corresponding fixture last season and tamely went down 2-0 against newly promoted Brentford on the opening day of the 2021-22 campaign. After that game, Brentford striker Toney made a slight dig at the Gunners by tweeting ‘nice kick about with the boys’, something Arsenal defender Gabriel was quick to revisit after Sunday’s win. This win, however, put the Gunners on 18 points, one more than their nearest rivals before their next match against Spurs in the north London derby at Emirates Stadium on 1 October.

Certainly doesn’t look like it at this moment. At the rate we are going, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we end up in another World War within the next 3-5 years. And the results will probably be catastrophic. The immature human race will need to be taught a lesson and that lesson, ladies & gents, is gonna be a very painful, terrible and sad one.

We will probably have to hit rock bottom before waking up en mass and realizing that they are just on the path to annihilating themselves to oblivion. In the fictional future that I have created in my head we have one or two more global wars that will see a lot of death & destruction and possibly with a huge chuck of the population wiped out and perhaps even a whole country or two! And in the aftermath the human race will wake up. The horror & shock of seeing the damage caused will awaken the senses of humanity and finally the first steps towards finding a permanent solution will take place.

I think it will take something like that for us to truly wake up and realize thee futility of man killing man. Once the damages are cleaned up and the healing can begin, then hopefully humans will realize that we shouldn’t be fighting with each other. The safety, security and well being of every individual will have to be top priority. Religious differences, border disputes, monetary affairs – all these will have to be set aside and chucked away. The focus will have to be shelter, proper food & water, healthcare, education – those kind of things. No more sick, no more hungry or homeless and no one dies of pain.

Then we can think of world peace which will come naturally. When everyone human sees their fellow human being as a friend or neighbour to be honoured and loved then and only then will be truly advance as a race. World peace is not impossible but highly improbable now. It will take a lot, with everyone contributing to make it happen and we’re no where near that level of maturity yet.

Prompt from 30 Thoughtful September Writing Prompts (List #1) at Journal Buddies