April 24, 2024 | Awake & Dreaming

Arsenal suffered last week with a home Premier League defeat by Aston Villa and a Champions League quarter-final exit to Bayern Munich but the manner of this win demonstrated the title momentum is now back with Mikel Arteta’s team.

Leandro Trossard settled any early nerves when he beat Chelsea keeper Djordje Petrovic at his near post and while the visitors occasionally threatened in the first half, Nicolas Jackson missing a clear headed chance, Arsenal simply ran riot after the break. The second goal Arsenal craved came as Ben White turned in after Chelsea failed to clear a corner before former Stamford Bridge forward Kai Havertz struck twice in eight minutes, the second a quite sumptuous finish from Martin Odegaard’s magnificent pass. As Chelsea subsided in embarrassing fashion, White looped his second over Petrovic. It pushed their goal difference up to +56 – 13 better than Liverpool’s and 12 ahead of Manchester City – on what was pretty much the perfect night for Arsenal.

Arsenal supporters may have viewed this meeting with capital rivals Chelsea with a degree of trepidation after they slipped badly and were outplayed by Aston Villa in their last league game at Emirates Stadium, when it looked like the tension of life at the top got to them. The Gunners needed a fast start, which Trossard’s goal gave them, and after that they slowly but surely rediscovered the fluency and threat that looked like it had deserted them. Arteta’s side found hapless Chelsea compliant opponents but the swagger they displayed as they piled on the goals in the second half will have done wonders for self-confidence before Sunday’s crunch north London derby at Tottenham Hotspur.

At the heart of it all was captain Odegaard, composed and oozing class throughout, his delivery for Havertz’s second goal an elite moment as it allowed the German to run on and fire high past Petrovic.Every game is seen through the prism of a test of Arsenal’s character after the manner of their late collapse last season, along with recent setbacks, but the win at Wolves and thrashing handed out to Chelsea here showed the resilience that has grown in this season. They could have actually made this a more convincing scoreline such was their superiority, and the fact that Havertz was on the scoresheet twice against his former club, after a first-half performance that can be politely described as lacklustre, only added to the sweetness of victory.

The game at Spurs on Sunday will have huge ramifications for both teams and the Premier League title race but Arsenal’s spirits will be soaring after this result and performance.

Terry Carter, who portrayed Pvt. Sugie Sugarman on The Phil Silvers Show, the sidekick of Dennis Weaver’s character on McCloud and Colonel Tigh on the original version of Battlestar Galactica, has died. He was 95. Carter died Tuesday at his home in Manhattan, his son, Miguel Carter DeCoste confirmed. Carter appeared three times on Broadway early in his career and produced and directed a documentary on jazz legend Duke Ellington for PBS’ American Masters series in 1988. As Col. Tigh on one of my favourite tv shows of all time, he was the no-nonsense, loyal to a fault deputy to the show’s patriarch Commander Adama (the late Lorne Greene).

The Brooklyn native, born John Everett DeCoste, appeared on all four seasons (1955-59) of CBS’ The Phil Silvers Show (also known as Sgt. Bilko) as Pvt. Sugarman, the only Black regular on the comedy. He then played Sgt. Joe Broadhurst alongside Weaver’s Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud on NBC’s McCloud from 1970-77 and Tigh in the 1978 Battlestar Galactica movie and 1978-79 ABC series. From 1965-68, he served as the first Black news anchor on a New England TV station, WBZ-TV in Boston. Carter formed his own production company in 1975 and made documentaries, including one on dancer-choreographer Katherine Dunham that premiered in 2013.

His acting résumé included the films Parrish (1961), starring Claudette Colbert and Karl Malden; Benji (1974), written and directed by Joe Camp; and Foxy Brown (1974), starring Pam Grier. He also had TV gigs on Naked City, The Defenders, Combat!, That Girl, Bracken’s World, Mannix, Julia, The Jeffersons, Falcon Crest, The Fall Guy, Mr. Belvedere and 227. Survivors include his third wife, Selome; his children, Miguel and Melinda; and his stepdaughter, Hiwot.