On the Arsenal History site today: 20 years ago today – the greatest moment in Arsenal’s history.
- Arsenal agree to 11 women’s games at the Emirates next season
- What might the rest of the Premier League do if Man C are found not guilty
By Tony Attwood
To be more precise I should say, “So now we know a little more for some people,” as we saw that some of them would sooner their team lose if it meant Arsenal could not take another title. Of course Arsenal could still take the title in the final game but it seems very unlikely indeed, as it has done through the run-in.
But given that earlier in the season some “fans” were calling for the Arsenal manager to go, the current situation is not that bad. As things stand Arsenal are the second highest scoring club, have the best defence in the league and the best goal difference.
Of course what actually matters is the number of points, and we are now two points behind, with 115 charges against Manchester City still being investigated. It might all still change.
I doubt that many Tottenham supporters bothered to notice that Arsenal are also 23 points, and 18 goals above Tottenham, and have conceded 33 goals fewer than Totttenham giving Arsenal a 51 better goal difference. In fact I’m sure they havne’t noticed.
But still they have their new stadium, even if there is a disagreement as to whether it is the most profitable in the kingdom or not, and who is paying for the cost of the building.
Tottenham will finish fifth, although we might note that even if they win their last game they will still end up with fewer points than Arsenal got when Arsenal finished fifth two seasons ago.
So while there’s a lot of sadness here that Arsenal are not winning the league, there is recognition of the improvement this season on what was a wonderful season last year. But was there really anything for Tottenham to celebrate last night?
Well yes, they have three points more than last season, and a three-goal better goal difference with one game to play – against Sheffield United. So yes I suspect they will win that and call this season of moving from eighth to fifth progress.
And that’s fair enough. Arsenal made the same journey although with slightly more points each time. It will be interesting to see if Tottenham can now make the leap to second next season in order once more to emulate Arsenal. I’m doubtful but we shall see.
For they will also need to improve their goal difference by 35 and their points total by 21 next year to achieve the emulation, but we shall see.
So assuming matters play out as expected in the final game Arsenal will remain with 13 titles, Manchester City with ten (pending the outcome of the FFP enquiries) and Tottenham with two.
But there is something else to be taken away from last night. The headline in the Telegraph this morning reads “Postecoglou is right to be furious – Spurs fans showed their small-club mentality“
The article begins, “We saw the Poznan. Except it was coming from Tottenham Hotspur fans inside the stadium; not from Manchester City. Those Spurs supporters turned their backs on the pitch and bounced up and down in unison celebrating the first goal during their 2-0 loss.”
And I think we should remember that. Arsenal this season had idiots claiming that Arteta should be sacked because he didn’t rotate the team, thus resulting in a home defeat to Villa, but that walkout was not quite on the same planet as what happened at Tottenham.
To care more about another team (and that team being under investigation for 115 alleged breaches of the rules) beating your rivals, than about your own team, reveals a lot about the mentality of some supporters. And I do say “some” because obviously, not all Tottenham supporters reacted like that.
But let us not forget that these people are season ticket holders at Tottenham. Postecoglou said of the events, “I think the last 48 hours has revealed to me that the foundations are fairly fragile, mate.”
And that is interesting. Here is a club that has spent more than any other club on a stadium and has, as far as I can tell, either one of the biggest debt burdens in football, or the oddity of being a Premier League club that doesn’t own its own ground, and the manager says, “the foundations are fragile” while not talking about the finances.
As he added later, ““Maybe I am just out of step.” Although it could be argued that maybe that applies to some Tottenham supporters. The belief is constantly propagated by them, the club and indeed much of the media, that Tottenham are Arsenal are two equal rivals. The media suggests that Tottenham have now overtaken Arsenal because they (Tottenham) have a newer bigger ground.
But as we noted, no one mentions exactly how the debt on the ground is being handled. No one mentions the historic difference between the clubs. And just as last season no one mentioned the 24 point gap between the two clubs, so this season no one seems to want to talk about the 23 point difference between the clubs.
Still I suppose Tottenham can claim they reduced the gap … by a point.
The reactions of those TH fans who celebrated their defeat were disrespectful of their own club, manager and players. Celebrating a defeat is worse than complaining about it and seeking to apportion blame, however unreasonable that also can be.
The Spurs manager is right to condemn it.
Well, Postecoglu did say that he did not want players who come to Tottenham for CL games…. he said he’d be more happy in the EL, so guess that is what happens when you lower ambitions.
However, in the guardian there is a piece that basically is turning its back on Sp*rs… basically calling them a fraud… so their PR operation is coming unstuck… https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/article/2024/may/15/ange-postecoglou-spurs-project-tottenham-manchester-city-failure-football
That being said, I feel sorry for the Sp*rs fans and on a human leval can understand them. They already have to take the ‘we’ve won the PL twice at WHL’ all the time, imagine that now how it would feel if it were 3 time thanks to you !
And finally…well if Arsenal were such a failure and bad club… they wouldn’t be jealous, would they ?
PS : there is still one game to go. Football is football. Dortmund lost the Bundesliga last year pretty much at the last minute. Happened to Bayern too 3 years ago. City wont it a the last minute or so as well a few years ago. So this is going to be an interesting Sunday afternoon….
This isn’t supporting. These kids are fans. Even as a grown up you can be a supporter, but this is children, living in a world far from grown up life. For an adult person football isn’t important. It can never make you behave like this. First of all it’s a tragedy for Tottenham Hotspurs. How can the club ever attract talented players with fans like this? Okay, the season started well for them, they were fooled to believe that they all of a sudden have become a title contender. But their squade are far to weak for a long EPL season. That was obvious from the beginning. Now they are 30 points behind and feeling bad about it. And if nothing else they can always hate Arsenal.
@Jack,
well I concurr with your statement that these are fans not supporters. But I think more adults are fans then you think.
And at Arsenal, we’ve got our own idiots with the AAA.
We should create a ‘True Supporters of North London Football’ supporters’ club…TSNLF
Or maybe LOTS: London True Supporters
I thought the same last night when I watched the last half hour of that match. How terrible that must be for a real supporter of Tottenham. Celebrating your club losing…. how low can you get. That sure is not done by supporters. But alas we have our own AAA who come above water from time to time….
My feeling is one of pride. We are the only club that seems to able to fight Man 115Charges over the last two seasons.
The difference is small. If we beat Everton this Sunday we will the amount of points that last year won the title. I think only some 115 charges are standing between us from winning the league.
And well this is football and despite the chances being very small one never knows what could happen. Maybe the WHU players want to run the extra mile for their former captain? Maybe Moyes wants to do his former player Arteta a favour and comes up with some brilliant masterplan…. LOL forget that last part….
If you look at the table you can see there was only 10 matches we dropped points. Some could have been avoided because of players making a terrible error (Jorginho against the totts comes to mind)… if only one of the draws would have been a win… we would be level…. the margins are very smalle and I hope that next season our players will be extra focussed to not make errors that cost points.
There is a video of Ange reacting to a “fan” to throw the game. Wouldnt that get Spurs investigated for match fixing?
Sp*rs were never going to get a result last night. Put simply, they are not good enough to compete with an in form Man City side with evrything to play for. I truly think that their players tried their best; they were simply not good enough. And, they will never compete for a league title unless they can lift their eyes higher than cannons at the other end of Seven Sisters Road. It was an eye-raising, if somewhat sad spectacle to see that many Sp’rs fans cheering the defeat of their club.
Maybe someone can start a movement of utter contempt and derision , highlighting this unacceptable behaviour of shooting themselves in the foot !
Problem is , that they do it regularly and consistently ! Please check out their last game of the season at Newcastle , where all they had to do was not lose .
They ended up losing 5-1 ! https://www.espn.com/soccer/match/_/gameId/422293/tottenham-hotspur-newcastle-united
Well , you never know , we may get them docked points and get kicked off the European places !
Any takers ?
Both Arsenal & Spurs have FC after their names. One stands for Football Club the other Financie Corporation. One goes after winning trophies the other making profits. The Finance Corporation is the most profitable in the Premier League and according to Forbes magazine the third most profitable sporting enterprise in world sport. Unlike Arsenal, who had a 12 year head start on them they have fully exploited their new stadium for making profits. They have planning permission for flats and an hotel on land adjacent to the stadium. Meanwhile Arsenal are way down the league tables for profits in the PL & world sports. It seems the Arsenal ‘s finance side has been unable to keep up with the footballing side and are sorely lagging behind them.
The Spurs fans have a very low opinion of Daniel the CEO but the majority shareholder ENIC headed by billionaire Joe Lewis must be very pleased with his business acumen which puts Arsenal’s finance team to shame..
No doubt Arsenal fans would choose the football model but surely Arsenal’s finance team should be taking much more advantage given to them by the footballing side led by Mikel Arteta ?
LOTS – London True Supporters
Good idea. I assume only Chelsea fans who could demonstrate attendance at games prior to 2003 BA (Before Abramovich) would be permitted membership!!