It was the pivotal moment of last season, Bacary Sagna’s header hit the back of the net with Arsenal two goals and at that moment, thirteen points behind today’s visitors, Tottenham Hotspur. Four further goals and the combination of a relentless pursuit by Arsenal along with Harry Redknapp’s doomed bid to become England manager, buried their confidence in the coffin marked “Here Lies Another Attempt By Tottenham To Finish Above Arsenal“.
Neither side comes into the 255th meeting between the two sides in form but the repeated message is that form goes out of the window in these games. It doesn’t but never deride a football cliché. Which Arsenal will turn up? Who knows and frankly so long as it is a winning one, I don’t care. There is an element of bragging rights involved but more crucially, a season which started off in a promising manner has faltered and is danger of spiralling downwards. By equal measure, a win today might reinforce the belief in the squad, proving that the spirit which the manager asserted yesterday was so ‘tremendous’.
The manager bemoans international football and the usual gripes have emerged since the final whistles blew on Wednesday evening. Cazorla is tired, Giroud has returned with hamstring twang whilst Arteta is so hip it hurts. Well, the last obviously never went anywhere last week nor did the other players subjected to fitness tests yesterday. So the internationals weren’t actually that bad. With Villas-Boas reporting a similar level of injuries, this has all the hallmarks of an Under-21 fixture.
Arsène spoke of recent problems,
[Our attacking fluidity] has been there because in some games we had that very well at the start of the season. We lost it a little bit at Norwich, against Schalke at home where we were a bit flat and against Manchester United. Of course, then you wonder is it down to our potential. Is that down to the fact that we are just flat at the moment, physically? That’s what we want to show now; that maybe we have come through a difficult patch, physically.
Recent years have shown more than ever not to take his comments at face value since it would drive you to distraction to think that professional athletes are tired a quarter of the way through the season. I guess it’s easier that saying the complacency displayed at Carrow Road got its due reward and since then, well, we’ve been a bit rubbish and I don’t know why because they are training well.
He knows exactly what is wrong with them, why they are under-performing. Resolving those issues is a tougher job, something which the manager has experience of doing; delivery of those solutions swiftly can return the ship to the course it was steering prior to the trip to Norwich. Will it happen today? Proving that it will is difficult, the current run is not offering evidence of a quick return to winning ways. I guess that establishing two-goal leads offers the view that the attack is sorting itself out, the dropping of those leads supports the opposite; the Arsenal quandary. Winning today will not only keep the supporters happy but offer a genuine hope for the remainder of the season. There are crucial games ahead with tricky away games at Villa and Everton following the coming pair of home matches. Swift wins would make all the difference.
All of which adds to the intensity of the fixture. The changing nature of football, its globalisation, has altered bragging rights. Years ago, we could live for weeks or months on the back of a derby win. Years of differing fortunes have diminished that to an extent with more emphasis on results against title rivals. With such heights not being afforded Arsenal in recent years, the intensity of the match is returning; perhaps because Tottenham are considered a genuine rival for the top four. The fates and self-inflicted wounds denied them a place at Europe’s top table last season, surely something they will want to put right.
It’s a strange one for me this year, I don’t have any Spurs fans at work to banter with – a first for a number of years – but there has been no shortage of evidence of the meaning of the match for players; Lee Dixon told of how Adams & Co told the outsider what was expected through to Jack Wilshere’s DNA apparently having the Arsenal gene firmly embedded. Amy Lawrence captured the spirit of the occasion with the phrase, “seething and prolonged emnity“. Circumstances never undermine the local rivalry, even with the diminished status of the neighbours from Middlesex.
The team I expect Arsène to field is:
Szczesny; Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen; Arteta, Cazorla, Wilshere; Walcott, Giroud, Podolski
This is fifth time the two sides have met on 17th November, a win apiece and two draws in the previous four. Adding to Arsenal’s tally of 101 in this fixture would set the weekend up rather nicely.
Enjoy the match wherever you are watching it. ’til Tomorrow.
All you can say really is: Norwich is really kicking ass this year. To have both Arsenal and Uniteds scalps under your belt before xmas???
Seriousley if those player do nothing els this year atlest they have sunk two of britains biggest teams.
You can only take your hat of…
Also this was a much needed victory for the spirit. It atlest gave me the belife back. And belife and faith is after all the strongest human forces. if you belive enough, you can do the impossible
Just now, this night, today i think we can win anything! atlest one cup is coming to Emirates this season. Thats my beliefe anyway….
(and how do you spell beliefe? Im sure all my attempts to write it are wrong…)
Watch us now
And Nowrich was the better team by a bit.
The season just start!
What a difference,
A day makes…
9 point gap to the top. I remember us closing a 12 point gap in about 5 weeks, was it 2009? This is why talk of 4th place annoys me.
And Kompany on MOTD just said we were the best team City had palyed this season. Said it again I mean.
would we have won the match, let alone 5 2 against spurs hadn’t adebayor gotten himself sent off..that match was clearly going against us till then, apart from the fact that we won againt spurs, there is nothing positive to take from that game..come next week (or the week after) and we will be dropping points against nobody’s.
Arshavin23- Yes we would have won. That said now bugger off!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kfVpPWBC678
You are the epitome of positivity, Arshavin23.
Thanks for your enlightening contribution.
Apologies for not scrolling back enough, but I haven’t heard a thing about Vermaelen’s performance. Does that mean he did well this time?
Rk- I thought he did okay. I didn’t notice any mistakes unlike the previous games.
Sahil. That’s great news then. Hopefully playing his way out of a bad patch – maybe with a bit of coaching. From what I’ve seen of Bale’s goal though, defence remained a little bit scrappy in 2nd half. Still some things to tighten in that department.
A few points that seemed to have been missed:
Giroux’s contribution in defense at corners and other set pieces is being overlooked.
When Santos came on he was superb. The through ball for Walcott was exquisite.
Arshavin23
You must have a very feeble mind. You can NEVER judge the outcome of a game by the performance of a team after just 20 minutes. Arsenal were poor during that period. However, are you implying that Spurs were really so much better than us with 11 on the pitch and would have remained so? Is Adebayor that good that he would have prevented a 5-2 drubbing?
It is so easy to be negative.
You sully the name of a great player. Change your name to something like ‘Feeble no1′ or ‘No balls no.1′ and f**k off to Le Grove….
great win.. i agree with georgyaki… yes they were better the us when we both had 11 but hard to say it would have stayed like that all game.
Is it just me or is there somebody else who feels that Cazorla seems to be more effective than Fabregas was?
Who knows, but I like what I see.
Both in the same side would have been better G4E!
He is very good.
my head hurts
I agree with Bob,and Cesc was on the bench last night for Barca.
We should give them 20 mill and have the lad back.
Arshavin23,change your name you twat.Having him linked to a prick like you turns my stomach.Its bad enough to be so depressingly negative,but in his name?
I agree old man
but we have Cazorla so he’s better in my eyes.
You are in New York now, G4E?
Do you ever go to ‘The Blind Pig’ that Irish inhabits for the games?
PG, what a dream!
RK
I thought the defence generally had a good game. When they scored their first there were those around me moaning that the BFG hadn’t tracked Defoe’s run, but having seen the replay a few times it looked like they had tried to play him offside and Sagna wasn’t up with events and played him on – happens sometimes. For their second goal I think we just switched off a bit and allowed them to cut straight through our midfield unopposed. We were 4-1 up at the time so maybe a little disappointing, but understandable.
MikeSA
You are not wrong, Giroud’s work at set pieces is very impressive and his general work with knock downs and holding the ball up is fantastic. I’m glad we are playing more to his abilities, I don’t think I have seen us fire so many crosses into the box for a long time. Still need to give the wingers a few more options sometimes, a run to the near post as well as somebody in the centre. With the number of players we can have lined up just outside the box with a good shot as well, the goals will really fly in.
We need to keep the pressure on at Villa next week, as a quick look at the fixture list suggests the teams around us should all be expecting three points.
A win against Montpellier in the CL should see us over the line there as well.
theo destroyed them..
yep again JJ, what are we going to do when we replace him with another rookie like aoc or gnarby.
I have seen that video of Santi trying to drive his (posh) car out of the car park, surrounded by fans singing ‘Ohhh Santi Cazorla’. Very nice, but can’t we think of something more personalized? He was brilliant last night (yeah sorry it was past midnight).
I’m watching the game again this morning. Arsenal were becoming dominant for around five minutes before Adebayor was sent off. They were really looking promising….I doubt that he was the difference….
its a concern dukey..
girouds a great striker..a proper striker..we all knew this from the beginning and we all new he needed service and theos giving him it..
Zaragoza probably not a great team, given the state of La Liga, but Barca website today hailing Puyol, Messi and Song as their ‘standout’ players of the match.
And for any other doubters or feeble minded negative t**ts, we went 2-0 down last time and came back to win 5-2.
And, Wilshere was way off the pace….when he starts firing on all cylinders he WILL offer a similar drive as Diaby…
And when Gibbs is back expect more of the quality we saw against Liverpool, ManShitty….
And to those to whom this applies….f**k off with your negativity….
the red card was the difference..
it was the momentum swinger, cazorla didnt touch the ball until they went down to 10 men..
have to make it count though..
we did..
we had shitty pants in the second half though..switched off and gave them too much space..if bale passes to defoe instead of shooting it could have been so much different but fortunately that didnt happen and we wrapped it up..
Boy am I f**king angry this morning after reading that shit from that feeble f**kwit shaming the name of Arshavin…..
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10003
Today’s post
JJ
You still depressed I see. You CANNOT interpret limited passages of play they way you do. I’m sure that if we were not 4-1 ahead we would have been far more careful and shut Bale down sooner. Most teams are guilty of complacency when that far ahead….I still hope they can become more ruthless and cut that out….but spare me the negative shit…
JJ. Cazorla HAD the ball when Adebayor tackled him. Get your effing facts straight.
People harping on about the red card changing the game, of course it did but it is part of the game. They were one nil up and had a great chance to go two up, but last season they were two up and still lost by the same margin.
Hopefully this win will give us an upturn and we go on a run. In the last few games we have lacked balance and there is frailty that is evident where we inevitably concede avoidable goals or lack maturity to control games when we are in front.
I think the midfield would be greatly enhanced with a robust pacy defensive midfielder. Arteta has done a great job but with his skill he would be better deployed higher up the pitch. I suspect we’re theo to leave we could see carzola more on the wings with diaby if he ever gets fit in the middle with jack and arteta.
January will be interesting, top of my list would fellaini but he would be way out of our price range.
It’s funny how you can watch something one time and get a totally wrong understanding, JJ. Spurs were not even close to being as dominant as we think. After the Ade goal there was one Lennon shot on goal, that’s it. They got a spurt after 9 minutes and at about 15 minutes we were starting to dominate the match. One way traffic actually. Ade was sent off around 17 minutes.
Yes the red gave us an advantage but we were on the front foot at that point.
In other words it is bulls that we were dominated for the first 20 minutes, total bulls actually.