Spurs vs. Arsenal: Fan-to-Fan Preview

237 comments March 3rd, 2013

Hello one and all.  I’m back from a brief holiday in time for the biggest game of our season.  To help me preview it, I’ve called upon the services of Tottenham fan @adamdnathan.

TEAM NEWS

AN: Aside from the long term injuries to Sandro and Kaboul, both of whom would be massive additions to the side, Spurs should be at full strength. Defoe may return in time for a place on the bench, but in spite of Adebayor’s recent poor form, it seems generally accepted that we play better as a team with the Togolese leading the line.

GS: Arsenal will be without Bacary Sagna and Kieran Gibbs, meaning Nacho Monreal and Carl Jenkinson will continue at full-back.  Abou Diaby is apparently facing a fitness test, although even if he passes I’d consider starting him too great a gamble.

PREDICTED LINE-UP

AN: Most of the team picks itself, with Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Parker, Dembele, Bale, Lennon and Adebayor certain to start. AVB’s only decision will be to play Ekotto or Vertonghen at left back, with Caulker inside if he takes the latter option, and Holtby in the attacking three or perhaps Gylfi Sigurdsson, who finally looked to be an £8 million player on Monday.

GS: Arsenal’s back four picks itself – it’s ahead of that where Arsene Wenger faces some tricky choices.  I’d opt for the work-rate of Aaron Ramsey alongside Mikel Arteta at the base of our midfield, with Jack Wilshere in the number 10 role.  That means shifting Santi Cazorla wide, which unfortunately drops Lukas Podolski to the bench once again.

MATCH-WINNER

AN: Bale is pretty much the only answer to this question of course, but Hugo Lloris could be as much of a match saver as a winner. He has been exceptional since taking the reigns from Friedel in the reverse fixture, and is regularly winning the team points with big moments between the sticks.

GS: Santi Cazorla has scored Arsenal’s last three Premier League goals, and my gut says he could be the man to unlock Spurs once again tomorrow.

DANGER-MAN

AN: In terms of dictating the game, it will be vitally important for us to limit the time we allow Wilshere, Arteta and Cazorla on the ball, but the player who will always scare me when in an Arsenal shirt is Theo Walcott. I’m firmly in the camp of him being a top Premier League player, and his goals and assist stats over the last few years certainly suggest that he will be the man to watch tomorrow.

GS: There’s no doubt that Gareth Bale is the man in form.  Few players in Europe are producing those match-winning moments on such a consistent basis.  Arsenal fans are quick to knock Bale down (not the hardest thing to do, after all), but I suspect that any criticism masks their genuine irritation that Tottenham have a player with that kind of ability.  In recent games he’s been deployed in the centre.  I’d be happy to see him there again, as I do worry about what he might do up against Carl Jenkinson, who is currently lacking both experience and match practice.

STAKES

AN: It’s going to be a crucial games for both teams’ aspirations of getting into the Champions League next year, with a win really boosting either sides’ chances going into the last 10 games of the season. Should the game be a draw with 15-20 minutes to go however, it wouldn’t surprise me if both teams were happy to play the rest of the game out and back themselves to finish above the other with a good run of form going into May.

GS: Arsenal simply have to avoid defeat.  A draw keeps things open going in to the final stretch, but a win for Spurs would hand them all the initiative.  As for what a heavy defeat would do to the club… well, I’d rather not think/write about it.  A win would be fantastic, but a draw would be enough to give us a fighting chance of finishing fourth.

PREDICTION

AN: If, as alluded to in his press conference, Arsenal don’t go into the game with a plan for Gareth Bale, there is a strong possibility that the Welshman could run riot again against a shaky defence. I don’t see him being the sole protagonist though, and arsenal clearly have a number of players who could hurt us. In truth, I can see the game being a bit of a topsy-turvy 2-2 draw, which both sides ultimately settle for at the final whistle.

GS: It strikes me that a draw would suit both sides, and on such occasions I’m always inclined to plump for a stale-mate.  I’ll follow Adams lead and plump for an entertaining 2-2.

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Arsenal 5 – 2 Spurs: History Repeats Itself

1,544 comments November 18th, 2012

Arsenal's scorers against Spurs | Image via @ShahrizanDB10

Arsenal 5 – 2 Tottenham 
Highlights | Arsene’s reaction 

Yesterday, Arsenal came from behind to thump Tottenham Hotspur 5-2.  History, it seems, repeats itself.  At the heart of matters was the controversial figure of Emmanuel Adebayor, who scored a significant goal only to become the perpetrator of a violent and crude act that will grab the headlines.  History, again, repeating.

Some say that Adebayor was a little unfortunate to be sent off, and that his fate (a sending off for a thigh-high lunge at Santi Cazorla) could have befallen any player on the field.  That would be easier to believe if we hadn’t seen it all before.  Adebayor’s previous conviction was, you’ll remember, whilst playing for Manchester City.  On that occasion, a goal against his former club fuelled him with such a rush of adrenaline that he stamped on an Arsenal player’s face and celebrated distastefully in front of our fans.  On that occasion, punishment was belated, requiring an FA disciplinary panel.  Yesterday, retribution was swift and immediate.  Howard Webb pulled out the red card, and the game was turned.

Spurs had started so well.  They fielded an ambitious 4-4-2, and looked sturdy at the back, confident in possession, and threatening on the break.  Their goal typified their direct style, borne of a lofted ball down the left that exposed our defence as horribly muddled.  Per Mertesacker stepped up while the rest of the back four remained in position, Jermain Defoe raced in to the chasmic gap, and his shot was only palmed in to Adebayor’s path for the simplest of tap-ins.

It would be a slight untruth to say the game hinged entirely on Adebayor’s moment of madness.  There was another incident, just a couple of minutes before, that was almost as significant.  A lightening Tottenham break led by Gareth Bale ended with Aaron Lennon receiving the ball just inside our penalty area.  He fizzed a shot across goal, and it escaped the far post by a matter of inches.  Had that gone in, Arsenal would have been two down, and the whole shape of the game may have changed.

As it was, Lennon missed, and Adebayor followed up with an even greater aberration.  Immediately, Arsenal came to life.  Santi Cazorla suddenly found the space he’d hitherto lacked, and the game turned in our favour.  We were helped, too, by Andre Villas Boas’ selection of the inexperienced Karl Naughton at left-back.  He struggled against Theo Walcott all day long, and it was Theo’s perfectly clipped cross that found Per Mertesacker.  The big German leapt and planted a beautiful header in to the far corner for his first Arsenal goal.  It was a goal that had all the game-changing thump of Bacary Sagna’s in this fixture last season, and Per’s celebration showed just how much it meant to him.

Suddenly, Arsenal were flying.  In the two minutes before half-time they all but put the game beyond Tottenham.  First Lukas Podolski capped a hard-working display by squiring a deflected shot past the otherwise impressive Hugo Lloris, before Olivier Giroud put the icing on the cake.  He was helped in no small part by Santi Cazorla, who in one dribble overcame both a foul and a tackle from one of his own team-mates to get to the byline and square for the Frenchman to fire home.

At this stage, the half-time whistle brought welcome relief for Tottenham.  I turned to a friend and said that with our defence, I wouldn’t be confident until we got a fourth.  Fortunately, soon after the restart I got my wish.  The goal was possibly my favourite of the day, as it involved all four of our attackers.  Olivier Giroud nodded a goal-kick to Theo Walcott, who in turn played in Lukas Podolski.  The ruthlessly efficient German squared for Cazorla to slide home a well-deserved goal, and with that the game was pretty much done.

Spurs did put a few jitters up us when Gareth Bale fired home from the edge of the area with twenty minutes to go.  I have to say, I don’t get many opportunities to watch the Welshman up close, but he’s clearly some player.  Fortunately, he’s also far too good for Spurs, so I can’t imagine we’ll have to worry about him there for more than a season or too.

With only ten men, Tottenham weren’t ever able to put us under serious pressure.  All that was left was for us to replicate last season’s scoreline, which we did in added time.  Theo Walcott had been given a four minute cameo in the central role he craves, and he used the opportunity ably to grab a goal, sidefooting home after an impressive burst from substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.  It is genuinely frustrating to watch Walcott in such a rich vein of form, knowing all the time that we are creeping closer to his likely departure.  At the moment, however, pragmatism dictates that we must continue to play him.  He is simply too valuable to the team to relegate to the bench.

So there we have it: 5-2 again.  Same result; different sensation.  Because of the sending off, I feel like this game won’t have the same seismic impact on either of these teams’ seasons as the previous 5-2.  Last time, Spurs’ collapse came from a greater position of dominance, and was more complete in its cataclysmic hilarity.  This time, they have mitigating circumstances.  They can blame Adebayor’s stupidity rather than their own inadequacy.  I expect their wheels to wobble, rather than come off entirely.

For Arsenal, however, there are still plenty of positives.  Arsenal’s front six were excellent.  In midfield Arteta was solid, whilst Jack Wilshere had arguably his best game since returning from a seventeen month lay-off.  Santi Cazorla recaptured his spectacular early-season form, admittedly helped by the holes in midfield left vacant by a fast-tiring Tottenham side.

I was particularly taken with the performances of our attacking trio.  Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski could both feel justified in laying claim to a centre-forward role, but both put in real shifts on the flank and reaped the rewards with a goal apiece.  Olivier Giroud’s adaptation continues apace – whilst he occasionally lacks pace, his aerial ability and movement generally make up for that.  It was notable how many crosses Arsenal put in yesterday – as long as Giroud is in the side, we have a genuine plan B to our conventional ‘tippy-tappy’ style.

The truth is that the long term repercussions don’t really matter.  In the immediate term, the here and now, we thumped Tottenham 5-2. Feels pretty good, doesn’t it?  Just, you could say, like last time.  Let’s make this an annual thing.  Enjoy your Sunday.

North London Derby: Fan-to-Fan Preview

298 comments November 16th, 2012

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.

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!

A little over 24 hours till game-time now.  Come On Arsenal.

If I were giving today’s team-talk…

146 comments May 13th, 2012

At around 2.50pm this afternoon, Arsene Wenger will look out at his Arsenal team, and attempt to cajole just one more performance out of them. Fortunately, he’s a man steeped in experience, who will doubtless know just what to say to his men. The situation is clear: win, and third is ours. Fail, and we’re at the mercy of others, and quite possibly locked out of the Champions League. As supporters, we can only imagine what words we might summon up in such circumstances. Imagine it, and then write it down. Like this.

I’d start be spelling out what’s at stake. Champions League football is a massive thing for Arsenal. It maintains our status among Europe’s elite clubs, significantly boosting our reputation and our bank balance. That’s vital. It’s easy to say that you wouldn’t mind dropping out of it, but it’s less easy to accept the possible consequences. Falling out of the top four would make it far harder both to sign new players and keep our current ones.

Even putting aside our practical concerns, every player in the squad should want to be in the Champions League. Being a sportsman is all about pushing yourself as far as you can, and testing yourself against the best. As far as European football is concerned, the Champions League is that arena. The likes of Tomas Rosicky must recognise that they won’t get many more chances on that stage. At the other end of the spectrum, lads like Kieran Gibbs and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain surely know that competing at that level is vital to their development.

For a long time this season it looked impossible. Following our 8-2 mauling at Old Trafford I was roundly mocked for saying I still felt we’d finish in the top four. Chelsea’s success in reaching the Champions League Final has meant that even the top four did not provide the requisite security: it had to be third. And that, for such a long while, looked out of reach. Spurs were flying, until Bacary Sagna launched himself at the ball and powered home a header of such force that in that one moment it flipped the North London hierarchy in our favour.

Everything that followed – our tremendous run, Spurs’ collapse – was to try and claw us in to a position where third place was in our hands. We have attained that. We have ninety minutes in which we are masters of our own destiny. When fate contorts itself to hand you that kind of opportunity, you simply do not pass it up.

The mention of Spurs is important. As much as this is about European football, it’s also about local rivalry. Do this group of players really want to be the first to finish below Tottenham since 1995? Especially when it’s so easily avoided?

All we have to do is win one game. I’d make it clear to the players: we’re not asking them to run through walls. We don’t face a Herculean task. On paper, this is a game that Arsenal should win. We simply need to do our jobs. We need to be focused and switched on for ninety minutes, plus every second of stoppage time. We need to take individual responsibility for marking our men and tracking runners. West Brom have nothing tangible to play for: we have no excuse for not showing more desire in every fifty-fifty. The Baggies aren’t a hugely physical side, either. This isn’t a match in which we need to drastically adapt our game. We simply need to do what we spend every day drilling over-and-over again: touch, pass, move. If we control the possession we will create the most chances. And we have the league’s best striker on the end of them.

If we do the simple things right, we will win. And if we do we will be able to reflect on ending this traumatic season on a relative high. Defeat would bring a summer of uncertainty and cast a shadow over the forthcoming campaign. And, after what we’ve been through this season, the fans don’t deserve that.

The players must recognise that the supporters have stuck with this iteration of the Arsenal team through quite a lot in this long campaign. Early on, the majority of supporters recognised the limitations of the squad and realised that negativity was not helpful. Better Arsenal teams would’ve been met with jeers and boos for some of the performances we’ve seen this season. This term, everyone has stuck together to try and drag us out of a self-inflicted hole.

Now it’s time to reward the fans. To allow them to celebrate something – not a trophy, but something: a place on the European stage, and getting one over on a rival. It’s time to reward Pat Rice for 44 years of outstanding service to Arsenal with a good send off. It’s time to put down a marker for next season, and show that despite the loss of key players, terrible injury problems, humiliating defeats and plenty of bad luck, this club will not be broken. We are Arsenal, and winning this one game is well within our capacity. Keep focused, keep fighting, keep the faith, and get this done. Come on boys.

Let-offs, leaks & livery

21 comments May 8th, 2012

Does anybody want to finish third? After we made a right royal mess of our game with Norwich, we found ourselves needing favours from elsewhere. Thanks to an abundance of dark prayer and a good degree of fortune, we got them: City beat Newcastle to set themselves on course for the title, and Aston Villa managed to hold ten man Spurs to a 1-1 draw. It is somehow back in our hands.

It’s a reprieve that I’m not sure we deserve. Arsene was clearly furious with the performance on Saturday, and fiercely critical of our play at both ends of the pitch. Of the defending, he said:

“Again we made the mistakes at the back which were absolutely unbelievable. It is a big disappointment because when you come back into the game like we did from 2-1 and then give a goal away in the way that we did.

At the back everybody was absolutely horrendous for the third goal. It is just not acceptable.”

The forwards didn’t escape criticism either:

“When you look at the chances we created, it is absolutely unbelievable that we scored only three goals.

Again we are punished because Robin had to score and many times we do not get enough goals from elsewhere. We had so many obvious chances that you would want somebody else to score one. That doesn’t happen enough.”

Even Robin could have been a little sharper. Everyone – from Szczesny to the skipper – will have to be markedly better at West Brom on Sunday.

It is now devastatingly, heart-stoppingly simple: win at West Brom, and third is ours. There’s no trophy on hand, but in many other respects it resembles a cup final: ninety minutes that will determine if this season lives in the memory as a blessed relief or a painful disaster.

It’s a fantastic opportunity, and one which we really shouldn’t have. One can only hope the players recognise their good fortune and seize the second chance that’s been afforded to them. However, after taking just three points from the last four games, a degree of doubt among supporters is more than understandable. The bad news is that if results go against us on Sunday (and in tonight’s game between Liverpool and Chelsea), we could end up as low as sixth. Anyhow, there’s time later in the week to discuss what is sure to be a massive day for the club.

If you listen to the chatter on Twitter and forums, many supporters’ minds have already turned to next season. The winds of change haven’t yet blown the transfer window open, yet already the rumours are whipping up a frenzy. The two names cropping up most commonly are those of Yann M’vila and Jan Vertonghen. As far as I’m aware, stories suggesting a deal for either of these players is imminent are somewhat premature. Whilst I don’t doubt Arsene admires both, competition for their signature and the limitations of our 25-man squad and wage structure make their arrivals far from a certainty. Vertonghen, for example, is far closer to signing for Spurs, and I understand that: we have plenty of centre-backs.

There’s also been debate about just who will replace Pat Rice as Arsene’s assistant manager next season. Le Grove say it will be Steve Bould. If that turns out to be the case, I’d welcome the appoint. Bould has done a fantastic job with the U-18s, and I’m sure will carry that work over to the first-team. However, expecting him to drill a back four to match the one he played in is probably unrealistic. Only recently Bould spoke about the impossibility of replicating that sort of unit:

“You could not step up with your arm out and scream offside like we used to. That is not an area you can really coach any more. Also, you cannot get away with going to ground or any real aggressive tackling the way we used to nowadays.

So, while there are some principles that persist, passing on what I used to do as a player has to be adapted.”

Certainly an internal appointment would make most sense, and if Bould is the man chosen I expect we’ll hear something about it in the days following the West Brom game.

Another change for next season will be our home strip, with the club unveiling Nike’s latest offering:

It doesn’t seem to be particularly popular, particularly compared with this year’s classically simple 125th Anniversary effort, but I must admit I don’t mind it. The regularity with which we change our kits around means that there will inevitably be arbitrary changes introduced, like the blue trim, and I’m happy to put up with it for a season or two.

Right. This is going to feel like a long old week.

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