Monthly Archives: April 2017

Tottenham 2-0 Arsenal—Vote for Player-Ratings/MOTM!

It’s a scoreling that might flatter the visitors, to be honest, as Tottenham looked livelier if not more lethal throughout the match. Arsenal found chances few and far between, and the only real question left to ask is what the result signifies: have Tottenham moved above Arsenal not just now for the foreseeable future? They seem stronger at most positions. They seem to have a sharper, stronger vision. And now, courtesy in part of this result, they may now have a mental edge, a belief in themselves, that they’ve lacked in the past. We’ll ponder the imponderables later. For now, get down to the poll to give our lads what they deserve…

Open Letter to Tottenham: Get Bent. Literally.

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It’s been twenty years since we at our end have had to contemplate the horrible, awful reality that is about to come to pass. Not only are Tottenham about to finish above Arsenal for the first time in a generation, there’s still a sliver of a chance that you could win the Prem. Doing so would allow Pochettino to match Arsène for number of Prem titles won at White Hart Lane, so good on you for that. Yes, this has all come about only because you’ve been playing out-of-your-minds-football while we’ve stumbled and stuttered. Ahead of Sunday’s clash, then, who are you to dare trying to out-Arsenal us?

In all honesty, I have to hand it to you. You’ve learned from our mistakes. When we committed to financing a new stadium, no one really had to worry about the financial steroids that would soon follow. We soon found ourselves hamstrung by Arsène’s vision, clinging rather desperately to relevance as free-spending clubs like Chelsea, Man U, and Man City battered us. In the absence of actual relevance, we inflated the idea of the North London Derby and the top-four finish. We revelled. We lorded it over you each time we finished above you. Yes, there was something in it—Champions League play does after all entice players to sign for a club in a way that Europa League does not.

However, we convinced ourselves that we had emerged from our stadium-debt and were better-prepared to compete by buying superstars instead of sanctimoniously making them. Speaking of which, Gareth Bale. You did well on that, and good on you for that. Selling him for £85m and then reinvesting in the squad? Genius. If nothing else, that makes a mockery of our sales of van Persie (£26m) and Fàbregas (£29m), to name a few. True, some of them didn’t quite make the cut. However, the broader trend has been positive, productive, even powerful.

This North London Derby represents something very, very deep. We ourselves left our own historic home at Highbury for the larger, lusher Emirates. That last season was something special. Your own final season at White Hart Lane is something similarly special, if not more so. Let’s all admit it: 1919 was a bit dodgey, to put it mildly. It’s added an edge to our 1913 move, an edge that made this derby much, much more intense than perhaps any other derby in England.

The emotions around kissing good-bye to White Hart Lane must be massive. You’ve been there since 1899. It’s one of the oldest—and smallest—stands in the Prem. That you’ve been able to compete with us and our 60,000-seat stadium (and our expensive season-ticket package) is remarkable and, frankly, a slap in the face to those who continue to insist that Arsène knows how to manage finances.

At our end, we’re hoping that this season is a one-off similar to the one West Ham enjoyed last season as they bid adieu to the Boleyn Ground. We’re praying that that the inspiration that has fuelled your fire will extinguish itself as you move to Wembley’s somewhat-larger environs (figuratively if not literally). In the longer run, we do have to worry about whether there will be a longer-term storm to weather.

As it turns out, you at your end might be better at this Arsenal-thing than we ourselves are: finding, signing, and nurturing young talent; punching above your financial restraints; buying and selling with an eye to the long term; impressing opponents with tactical nous…

All in all, it’s enough to encourage me to advise you to get Bent. Literally. Could you bring Darren Bent back? Yes, he’s under contract with Derby County until the end of June, but, given how things are going, we wouldn’t mind looking the other way. Think it over.

Oi, Tottenham! What do we think of you? (This could be an epic derby…)

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They’re 14 points clear of Arsenal. They have a glimmer of a chance of winning the Prem. They havn’et lost at White Hart Lane in 15 straight matches, having scored 49 an conceding just nine. With a win on Sunday, they kill whatever last embers of hope we have of finishing above. They’re undefeated at home in their final season at White Hart Lane. It’s looking more and more like Tottenham will end Arsenal’s 21-year run of painting the town red. Could there be any more storybook elements to this derby? After all, all the stars seem to be aligning for Tottenham.

On top of all that charm, good fortune, kismet, and whatever else you might want to call it, we at Arsenal are clinging rather desperately and none too convincing to the tattered remnants of our pride. We know that we essentially have to win each of our remaining matches to protect any hope of finishing in the top four. There’s the secondary matter of the FA Cup final, which, though wonderful to win, wouldn’t do much to improve our fortunes going into the summer and preparing for the next campaign.

However, I digress.

Though it is not our birthright to forever finish above Tottenham—that ship has all but sailed for this season—I have a feeling about Sunday. I’m not basing it on any of the usual “anything can happen in a derby” folderol. To paraphrase the great Tom Waits, the higher that the Spuds do climb, the more they show their tails. After a tremendous run in which they battered several opponents by scoring four or more goals four times in six matches and keeping clean sheets four times to boot, they’ve lost a bit of of momentum not to mention motivation. There’s no shame in losing at Stamford Bridge, but their desultory bounce-back to squeeze past Palace suggests flagging confidence. Despite that run, Chelsea remain four points clear, and the manner of that FA Cup semifinal loss shows that Chelsea are still a cut above Tottenham.

For as young and as impressive as Pochettino’s squad is, there’s little experience in managing the pressures of a title-tilt. They wilted at this stage last season, and when you add in all of the fairy-tale melodrama of trying to defeat your hated rival to give your stadium a proper send-off, the pressure only grows. The collective weight of expectations built up over a generation can be massive, and they’ve got to be as nervous as a long tailed-cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Pardon my French, but they’re probably so tense over there that if you stick a lump of coal in any Spud’s arse, you’d have a diamond back by Sunday.

14 points clear, did I say? Fine and dandy like sour candy. Let’s be clear: we need a win, but even a win on Sunday doesn’t really stop Tottenham from preparing their “North London is White” parade. Let the babies have their bottle. While I’m spouting heresies, let’s admit that they have been the better squad for most if not all of the season. It’s taken their best season in club history combined with the worst in ours in a generation to allow them to reach this point. Aside from an admirable display against Man City, we’ve been atrocious. So be it.

Should Tottenham somehow win despite my optimistic take, the sun will still rise on Monday. Birds will still sing. And Tottenham? Well, they’ll still only be the second-best club in London.

LAST 3
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham (06.11.2016)
Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal (0.03.2016)
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham (08.11.2015)

FACTFILE
Neither side has kept a clean sheet in the last six derbies (four draws and one win apiece).
Harry Kane has scored a goal in each of the last three.

INJURIES
Cazorla, Lucas, and Ospina have been ruled out; Koscielny and Mustafi face late fitness tests.

POSSIBLE STARTING XI
Čech; Gibbs, Koscielny, Gabriel; Monreal, Ramsey, Xhaka, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Alexis, Özil, Giroud.

PREDICTION
It’s hard to know how this one will play out, to be honest. Given the emotions and history of the moment, it’s anyone’s guess.

Tottenham 1-2 Arsenal.

Arsenal 1-0 Leicester: Vote for player-ratings and MOTM!

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For 86 stultifying minutes, it looked as if Leicester would escape the Emirates with a well-earned point. For close to an hour and a half, it looked as if Arsenal’s hopes of scraping into the top-four were done and dusted. Then, along came Nacho. He sluiced a pass into the box for Alexis. He tip-toed around the scrum. He caromed a shot off of Huth’s chest. He scored. Score, Nacho; score. And so on. The process was a bit tetchy, but I think we can all live with the result. After all, it keeps alive the hope that we can still find that mythic, legendary top-four finish. Along those lines, we have a tense, taut trip to White Hart Lane to prepare for. In the meantime, let’s get down to the player-ratings poll!

If you have any deeper thoughts, by all means, weigh in in the comments-section below!

Shakespearean tragedy: can Arsène out-fox foes to finish top-four?

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Let’s face facts: defeating Man City this weekend does little if anything to change our fortunes in the Prem. That said, there has to be some kind of boost in confidence and determination from having won. For those inclined to wonder about these things, Arsenal have now defeated Guardiola at Camp Nou, Allianz Arena, and Wembley, surely, the only club to stake that claim. However, if there’s no carry-over to the Emirates, well, we’re whistlin’ past the graveyard. Enter Leicester. After a brief resugence under new skipper Craig Shakespeare, the Foxes have risen from the relegation-fray for now. Their Champions League adventure came to a cruelly close ending. Waste no time lamenting their losses, though; we simply must take maximum points from here on out.

If our win over City proved anything, it’s that this novel 3-4-3/3-4-2-1 formation can work, given a few tweaks. Playing three center-backs against Boro and City meant we were without pace in the backline, something that can and should be remedied by deploying Bellerín as a wide midfielder. After all, this represents only a minor tweak from the customary 4-2-3-1 and suggests a compromise in which the wide midfielders are more defensively-minded, getting forward to join the attack rather than being central components of that attack. Then, instead of a deep-lying defensive midfielder or two, we can send on some combination of Xhaka, Ramsey, and Oxlade-Chamberlain, who are eager to get forward as components of the attack.

Ahead of all of this, pairing Alexis and Özil behind Giroud should create chances. Giroud’s physicality will come in handy against the brutes that are Morgan and Huth. Alexis in particular seems to enjoy playing against Leicester: he’s the first Chilean to get a hat-trick against them (in the 5-2 win last season), and he’s the fourth Gunner to do so (joining Bergkamp, Henry, and Anelka). Bad news for Leicester: Alexis, having endured a bit of a dry-spell across three matches, has now scored in back-to-back matches. He looks hungry.

As for Leicester, one has to wonder whether the hangover has set in. Under Shakespeare, they went on a nifty six-match win-streak, overcoming Sevilla and Liverpool along the way, but they’ve since stumbled, failing to win in their last four, getting dumped from the Champions League by Atlético Madrid (no shame in that). The dream, however, is well and over, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how they’ll approach the rest of the season. They’ll have had eight days to process that Champions League disappointment; they’ll also know that they’re all but free from relegation. They’re currently six points clear with two games in hand over Hull, Swansea, and Boro.

Much as I hate to engage in such dismal science as this, we know that we have to win out to have any chance of a top-four finish. As it currently stands, we could catch Liverpool, currently nine points above us, thanks to our three games in hand over them. We can overtake Everton’s one-point lead courtesy of those same three games in hand. However, this only sees us climb to fifth, which is only good enough for a Europa League spot. If we’re to climb into the top four, we’ll need Man U or Man City to drop points.

Man City host Man U on Thursday; we’ll have to see how that turns out. Before that result can mean anything, however, we simply have to win on Wednesday. We have to keep the pressure on them and on Liverpool. We’ve shown that we can batter Leicester even when they’re at their best; we won across both legs by a combined 7-3 scoreline. This, even more than Sunday’s FA Cup semifinal, is a must-win for Arsenal.

LAST THREE:
Leicester 0-0 Arsenal (20.08.2016)
Arsenal 2-1 Leicester (14.02.2016)
Leicester 2-5 Arsenal (26.09.2015)

FACTFILE:
Arsenal have won 63 of 136 matches against Leicester.
The two sides first clashed in 1895, a 3-1 win to Leicester.
Arsenal have scored at least one goal in seven of their last eight matches agaisnt Leicester.

INJURIES:
Cazorla, Lucas, Ospina, and Reine-Adelaide have all been ruled out. Mustafi and Oxlade-Chamberlain face late fitness-tests.

PREDICTED STARTING XI (3-4-2-1):
Čech; Holding, Koscielny, Gabriel; Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Bellerín; Alexis, Özil, Giroud.

SCORELINE:
Arsenal 3-0 Leicester.

What do you think? Can we build on the momentum seized from defeating Man City, or will it be another case of one step forward, two steps back? Share your thoughts in the comments-section below!