Hello folks. It’s derby weekend, and so I’ve invited my Spurs-supporting pal (contradiction in terms, I grant you) Adam Nathan along to have a quick chat.
If you’re still not satiated after reading through this, them head over to arseblog and listen to today’s arsecast, on which I join a couple of other more eloquent bloggers to discuss derbies, defending, and other delights.
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SELECTION HEADACHES
GS: Arsene has been spared a major headache with the admittedly worrying news that Kieran Gibbs is not available. That means he’ll be able to field all three of his first-choice centre-backs, with Thomas Vermaelen again being shunted out on to the left. There have been some suggestions in the media that Arsene could switch to 3-5-2 imminently, but I’m dubious about that story. Even if he was contemplating a switch, I doubt he’d make it ahead of such an important game. Aside from that, the team picks itself. If Wojciech Szczesny is fit he simply has to displace Vito Mannone, whilst Bacary Sagna ought to continue at right-back, despite a touch of fatigue. Jack Wilshere will return from suspension to join Arteta and Cazorla in midfield, whilst the front three of Podolski, Giroud and Walcott should continue after a relatively impressive showing against Reading.
Adam: Sadly, the selection headaches all Spurs fans will have wished upon Boas have been eradicated by a lengthy injury list for Saturday’s game. In addition to long term absentees like Ekotto, Parker and Kaboul, Dembele’s chronic hip injury could not have come at a worse time for us, with our form seriously suffering since the Belgian’s injury flared up again in the last international break.
In terms of the decisions AVB will have to make, I would expect him to again, wrongly, go with Brad Friedel in goal in place of Hugo Lloris, whilst Huddlestone, Carroll, Livermore, Dempsey and Sigurdsson will fight it out for the two centre midfield spots along side the Brazilian Sandro, who has probably been our most consistent player this season. Up front, whilst some will call for a strike partnership of Adebayor and Defoe, I would expect us to again go into the game with one striker. After an impressive full league debut in Manchester last weekend, most Spurs fans will hope that Adebayor is given a chance to line-up against his old team once again.
RECENT FORM
GS: I don’t want to talk about it. Ok, fine… after a positive start familiar frailties have been exposed. The clean sheets with which we started the season now appear anomalous rather than indicative of any kind of improvement. Arsenal seem stuck in their painful annual cycle. Traditionally, November is when the wheels come off. So far, it’s brought us the comprehensive defeat by United, and the surrendering of two two-goal leads against Schalke and Fulham.
Adam: Quite frankly, we have been pretty poor all season. Aside from a good 90 minutes at Reading and decent halves at Old Trafford and St. Mary’s, we have looked like a very average side thus far under our new management regime. Naturally it will take time for Boas to impress his ideas on a squad that not only suffered a terrible end to last season but has since been dismantled and put poorly back together by Daniel Levy, but in order for our season to end with any degree of success, we will really need to buck our ideas up, hopefully starting on Saturday.
HEAD TO HEAD
GS: My impression of Spurs is that Sandro and Huddlestone aren’t the most mobile of defensive midfielders, so I’m hoping the fleet-of-foot provided by Cazorla and Wilshere could be the difference. Moussa Dembele will be a big miss for Spurs.
In recent weeks, we’ve looked very vulnerable on our left flank, and Spurs have the players to exploit that. They tend to line up with Kyle Walker and Aaron Lennon, but they also have the option of switching Gareth Bale to give Thomas Vermaelen a different kind of problem to tackle. Or attempt to, at any rate.
The major worry is the horrible habit players have of scoring against their former club. It’s not hard to imagine either William Gallas or Emmanuel Adebayor returning to haunt us.
Adam: In terms of where we can actually hurt Arsenal, I can’t see past our one true match winner, Gareth Bale; if we are to leave the Emirates with three points, it’s fairly safe to say that he will play a crucial role for us, with his well publicised pace, power and finesse. On the other side of the pitch, Aaron Lennon has had a decent season so far, although continues to deliver the goals and assists that would see him classed as a top player. That said, Arsenal have seemed to struggle at left back this season, so perhaps the England winger will be able to put in a big performance on Saturday afternoon.
With regard to where we can be hurt, the centre midfield area looks like a worrying proposition for Spurs fans. In all likelihood, we will continue with a three of Sandro, Huddlestone and Dempsey, the latter two who have in truth had terrible seasons thus far. If Arsenal are able to press us high up the pitch and maintain possession in the centre of the park, I worry that we will get overrun and ultimately punished by Arsenal’s attacking flair, which doesn’t seem to have been the reason for your dropping of points thus far.
PREDICTED TEAM
GS: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Arteta, Wilshere, Cazorla, Walcott, Giroud, Podolski
Adam: Friedel, Walker, Caulker, Gallas, Vertonghen, Sandro, Huddlestone, Dempsey, Lennon, Bale, Adebayor.
PREDICTED SCORE
GS: Arsenal 2 – 1 Spurs – I can’t see Spurs not scoring. In fact, I think they may even take the lead. However, this game is so big for Arsenal that I believe we’ll pull a result out of the bag. The likes of Podolski, Giroud and Cazorla have the chance to make themselves a hero. My money’s on the Frenchman to do just that.
Adam: Arsenal 3 – 1 Spurs - Ultimately, we have not played well for a month now, and seem to have too many injuries to stand a serious chance of taking anything away from the game this weekend. Whilst many have pointed out the frailties in Arsenal’s team, your players always seem to raise it more than ours do on games like this, with last season being a great example, and as a result I expect you to come through fairly unchallenged. That said, we live in eternal hope!
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A little over 24 hours till game-time now. Come On Arsenal.
Top gun.
Arsenal will not win this match…. its either a loss or a draw.
GS, I prefered a proper review, not something like an interview.
That’s positive.;)
I like this interview/opinion particularly from a Spurs perspective. What a good idea.
I really enjoyed this, always good to get the perspective of an opposition fan. Admittedly, Adam is one of the more pessimistic Spurs fans I’m familiar with as I follow him on twitter, and I while I think we’ll win, I think it’ll be closer than he does!
Have a thought for cockhunter and True Cunt GS. They’re always complaining on here about Spurs trolls, and here you have one actually writing the blog. Great stuff. While you had the Spurs mate on here, I’d have been more interested to hear what he had to say about the Arsenal players. It would be nice to hear what an outsider makes of some of our dross instead of the impassive .con rhetoric.
And I thought the whole idea of a manager having ‘selection headaches’ with a near full strength squad was a good thing. In Arsene’s case, the headache is not deciding who to pick on best form from a squad of talent, but trying to decide which players deserve dropping with pub player performances. Do we leave our only fit left back out because he can’t play for toffee, and replace him with our worst performing centre back? Tough one that. Do we keep Mannone in goal, or will last week’s return to his usual form mean he deserves another chance? If Wenger’s selection on form is anything to go by, can we expect Giroud to be benched?
Anyway, once Wenger is gone, I’m sure there’ll be a lot less headaches for the fans to suffer.
…or maybe more headache.
Liverpool.
3 seasons without CL. They can no longer attract the sort of quality players that we can.
be careful for what you wish for.
Likely, if Wenger does not qualify us for CL and struggles in the same fashion following year, then it will be time to visit this topic. Not just yet.
Fair point. But I’d say we’re on par with Liverpool this season. So which mid table team do we compare ourselves with next season to make ourselves feel better? Liverpool have rightly been ridiculed on here for their demise. They’ve even managed to buy in more dross than us. However, where you think they can’t attract the same kind of players as us (and I’m not too sure what quality that is?) what they can do that we can’t, is keep hold of their top players. They’ve managed to keep hold of their best player and captain through all of this. Kept hold of a proper keeper throughout while we’ve had the pleasure of rotating Almunia and Fabianski. Be interesting to see if they can keep hold of Suarez. But they don’t have the predictability of naming which players will leave every summer.
And now that City and United have finished their rich pickings with us, maybe Liverpool will be in for the leftovers like Walcott. So where they fail to attract players, they’ll make up with the players that we fail to hold on to. I’m sure our board will be delighted if that is the case.
are you on the board ?
that was meant for santori by the way although I am sure you will see the funny side lol…………….lol
Do we leave our only fit left back out because he can’t play for toffee, and replace him with our worst performing centre back?
it really is that bad isn’t it but I think and dread the problems will be compounded even more with wenger also playing ramsey lol……………….lol i really hope i don’t see that
Agree with you and the lads on the recent Arsecast that a change of ‘formation’ may not be the best idea at the moment and may not necessarily fix our problems with focus.
That said, I do think as you say its the little things that make a difference.
1) Utlising our assets available to the best has not been Wenger’s forte at the moment.
Would probably start Podolski with Vermaelen but there should also be space for Arsharvin to come into the game ealier particularly if we are chasing.
Another option up top (with due respect to Giroud who has been finding form and should start), could be to push Podlski in as striker with Arsharvin coming on (if we are playing mainly on the break. If we need to break things down, then a straight swap with Podolski and Giroud retained up top.
2) Substitution timing. This needs to be executed quicker particularly if we know there is a problem overall in the team (be it if they need a spark) or if one particular player seems shone of confidence. Also as mentioned, someone like Andrei who has been good coming on should be introduced way earlier.
3)LB. Quite obviously, it isn’t rocket sciend at the moment to target us there and with Walker/Lennon, Adebayor drifting wide, they have the ability to hurt us badly.
OTOH, i do think we should see every possible negative having a possible opposite positive effect. Likely, the team will have to shift bias left a little when necessary with Santi coming left to support Podolski when springing forward or Arteta/Koscielny in reinforcing Vermalen.
But this will also leave us good space for Walcott and Jack to exploit on opposite side. Thereby whenever we do win the ball back, we should be looking toward our transition and playing the ball across and RW quickly to shift focus of attack when need be.
Last game against Fulham (partially bc of Coquelin) we were a bit bereft in the middle and unable to play through instead opting for long punts from the keeper to little effect.
We need to recognise that at any time when we are defending deep on set pieces or against pressure, it is an opportunity to catcth them out of position at the back.
Therefore we must think a step or two ahead as to how to transition quick and utilise Walcott’s pace/Giroud’s hold up play as efficiently as possible to translate from defense to attack quickly.
I expect Spurs will put us under the cosh on a number of occasions for long spells so we must be ready for the counter where we can be very effective and hurt them.
Here’s to a victory against the cocks.
11 games played, 16 points, we need to start picking things up now.
Over two 12 game stretches following, if we want any chance of finishing with dignity, we will have to win 9 each and possibly drop 6 games (maybe come in with 4 losses and 2 draws). That should give us 75 with two games spare.
But it starts with Spurs. Take the 3 points there first. Get ourselves back in order. Wenger remind the lads who we are and who they fight for.
Impressive analysis, and not the first time you’ve gone to these lengths. However, you’re basically pulling Wenger’s players, team selection, formation and tactics to pieces. It could all be summarised in one sentence: Wenger is hopeless. But seriously, excluding gimme’s like Coventry and Southampton, has Wenger got much right this season?
nice one
Chesa
Sagna mert kol tv
Art Santi. Jack
Jenk giroud poldi
Theo for Jenkinson on 60 or before. Jenkinson to run bale into the ground and keep vertongan and bale under control
Wenger out. Let today be the day where awfc is sacrificed on the NLD alter. Hate losing to the spuds but the irony of them whipping us leading to the sacking of wenger leading to the recovery of AFC does have a certain lasagna flavored symmetry
I remember the night of the 4-4 draw against Tottenham a four years ago, I made the comment that the North London derby had lost its appeal because the two teams were so far apart. In the age of national/international rivalries, and local derby was obsolete. We were competing against Man Utd and Chelsea for the league, and Tottenham were in the Sisyphean of building a CL-worthy team on a mid-PL level budget. It was an unequal rivalry.
It seems now that Tottenham are again our legitimate rivals (both slugging it out in mid-table mediocrity), whereas Man Utd have reinstalled themselves are the greatest team in the world.
What happened to us?
How did we slide so low?
Wenger must still be paying the whore!! Hilarious. Bosnitch says the whore is not a malicious player. Tell that to rvp cheek. Wat a twat. Cazorla is on fire. But we looked shit 11-11
Hmm Munitionsman admit ur a spuds fan trolling here… you must be miserable now…
4-1 ROTFL
The spuds troll are silent today?
5-2 spurs trolls enjoy!!!
Hmmm they deserve adebayor… and AVB as well.
true cunt you are hillarious stick that peice of plastic in your mouth and shut up any true arsenal fan knows the only reason we won that game was adeybayour and his madness and getting sent off .wenger still tried to fuck us over witrh his clueless substitutions .we need a frigging left back , ramsey is gone as far as i am concerned santos is clearly shite , theo is playing well and with the true english spirit just like wiltshire ….that’s for you drunken cunt …the ox came on and played well but for me wenger should have started with gibbs but not sure what the deal is there but we sure as hell needed his speed as without the sending off we would of got fucked again and for me we still have major problems and wenger is the biggest of them and i sure as hell don’t by this crock of shit about if we loose wenger we will slide down the table we will do a lot better with a manager who demands and expects top performance not some frigging love in when players are being paid that amount of cash ….”sagna i love it at arsenal it is easy as there is no pressure we are like a family i am completely relaxed and it is not like that at any other big team” that is a big problem the managers attitude but that said a good win and diaby comming back and wilshire getting in the flow of things we do have a good midfield but the defence is still shocking as the first goal showed and what the fuck has happened to varmalon sorry for the spelling but can not be bothered
I think we need to fire Wenger and replace him with AVB and also sell all our players and replace them with the spurs players!!!! Totally worth it yes?
good call true cunt lol…………..lol
Ahh the spurs trolls show there shameful heads finally… only took a couple of minutes to recover from their big egos destruction… they are used to loosing after all.
like anyone would show there head to you fool …….you would be on your knees in seconds
so come on then true cunt what are you talking about now …ego destruction
I can’t understand what the trolls get out of going on Arsenal sites and writing s h i t maybe is therapeutic or something.
lol…
anyone who thinks Wenger is past it, must clearly be a spurs fan!
You know what’s coming nexst… after United’s defeat, we’re back in the title race!
Wegs. Your point about the United fixture. For United fans/manager/players, their fixture against us has plummeted to about 10th in priority. They’d get more pleasure beating a Championship Leeds team in the Carling Cup than the regulatory 3 points they get against us. Beating Stoke gives them more satisfaction. I think even beating Bolton is a better feeling.
The Spurs game is now our cup final. It is on par with the Newcastle/Sunderland derby. Two teams with nothing to play for, but local bragging rights. But while finishing above Spurs is deemed ‘working miracles with such limited resources’ then I suppose we ought to get on our knees and start worshipping Wenger too.
Using your logic Norwich are the champs they beat Arsenal and Man United so they should celebrate… much better than either huh? Oh yeah there is no cure for retardation is there?
No. Using my logic, Spurs is our biggest game of the year. United’s biggest game is probably against either Liverpool or City. That doesn’t equate to Norwich being champions?
Using your logic and inability to read to come to such a conclusion, makes you a bigger cunt than I originally gave you credit for. Huh?
You are retarded, logic does not compute does it? Sorry I have a feeling I have a better job explaining to an amoeba.
True bummer do you think we looked like winning before the whore got sent off?
Keep saying that to yourself I know your a spurs troll in denial at the result you see.
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