- Tonight’s game: Why Tottenham’s manager’s “my way” approach doesn’t work
- Two defeats in two games: what can Arsenal learn from this?
by Tony Attwood
And so if we had to have a run of results as we have had, and it had to end at a particular match, I’d say, let it be this one.
The atmosphere was electric, exciting and actually not very nerve-racking even when Tottenham scored first – it was a pleasure and an absolute delight to be there, and it is an evening that will stay in my memory for quite a long time.
And yes of course I know that we are four points behind Liverpool and they have a game in hand, but that did not take one second of joy away from last night. For if I may take one sixty thousandth of the credit, unlike the nay-sayers, the crowd utterly did their part. We are 19 points ahead of Tottenham.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 20 | 14 | 5 | 1 | 48 | 20 | 28 | 47 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 21 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 41 | 19 | 22 | 43 |
| 3 | Nottingham Forest | 21 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 30 | 20 | 10 | 41 |
| 4 | Newcastle United | 21 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 37 | 22 | 15 | 38 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 21 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 41 | 26 | 15 | 37 |
| 6 | Manchester City | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 38 | 29 | 9 | 35 |
| 13 | Tottenham Hotspur | 21 | 7 | 3 | 11 | 43 | 32 | 11 | 24 |
And just in case you hadn’t noticed, despite all the remourceless attacks on Arsenal across recent weeks, Arsenal are second in the league, with the second highest goals scored, and the best defence in the league.
Meanwhile, as the website Breaking the Lines put it, “Entering the 2024-25 season, Tottenham Hotspur fans were riding the wave of optimism sparked by Ange Postecoglou’s appointment. After a transformative first season under the Australian manager, the club appeared poised for further ascent.”
And perhaps we might be permitted to say “poised indeed.”
Meanwhile in the Guardian there is the article, “What’s the reality of this Tottenham team, supremely unlucky or unforgivably naive?” and one might be tempted to replace the phrase “this Tottenham team” with “the words “these journalists”. How can they get it so wrong so often? Well, I have to admit, I’ve no idea unless it is blindness and/or unmitigated bias. Arsenal went through 11 games from 3 November onward and won nine, drawing two, scoring 29 goals – that is just a fraction under three goals a game. And they still didn’t get it.
True, we then had one of those incredibly annoying dips that the club doesn’t seem to be able to shake off, with two defeats and a draw in three games. Annoying is, I know, hardly the word to use, but there it is. It happened.
But maybe the media and its camp followers didn’t notice that two of those games were cup matches, and the Big Prize is the League, And when we come back to the League we win again.
I wonder if any team scoring this many goals, and placed second in the League, having come second in the League twice running, has faced the continuous level of abuse and negativity that Arsenal has had?
But really, Arsenal and all supporters not regularly attending matches should give a huge vote of thanks to the people who keep going and keep supporting the team, no matter what.
For the crowd reaction last night was not a reaction just because of the win. The noise and positivity outside the ground, and indeed all the way back to Finsbury Park, was extraordinary. And yes of course I know supporters don’t play, but I think we do play our part.
If we had taken note of the gibberish being quoted about Arsenal we would have been at best silent until Arsenal scored. But no, the crowd gave the team total and absolute support from half an hour before the game (as my pal and I walked from the station up to the ground) until long after the final whistle. And that is what support is about. We didn’t wait for Arsenal to score – we were there supporting the team unreservedly. Quite honestly I am not sure that the Tottenham team knew what was hitting them.
Still, Tottenham can take some solace from this. They are, after all, above ManU. And Ipswich, and five others. In fact they are eight points clear of relegation so they should be ok for another couple of knockabout games next season.
Both the Telegraph and the Guardian have the same picture of the Tottenham “manager” (I use the word lightly) with his hand over his face and that seems about right. Their headline is, “‘Are you not entertained?’ No, Ange, your record is indefensible.”
The piece continues, “Forget what Tottenham manager has claimed about needing to entertain fans – his approach has simply led to sustained relegation form”
What is so desperately sad however is that even with a fine win like this, the media can’t give proper praise to Arsenal, the players, the management, and if I may say so, the supporters. In fact so keen are the media not to praise Arsenal at all, the Guardian even has this statement
“Well, we know that right now Tottenham are very bad. How bad? On their current trajectory, they’re on course for 43 points, which would be their worst-ever Premier League season in the 20-team Premier League era. Worse than the Christian Gross season, worse than the Juande Ramos season, worse than the season where they fired Glenn Hoddle and basically forgot to replace him.”
And yet, the Guardian and its crew, didn’t see this BEFORE the game. What is wrong with them?
So for the media there is nothing to celebrate then for Arsenal. They beat one of the worst teams ever.
Maybe, except somehow we really did manage to celebrate. And how we celebrated. We won, even though “this referee doesn’t do home wins”.
From the television coverage, my observations on the game:
Arsenal, as so often the case, were totally dominant on a scale not reflected in the scoreline. Frankly, I almost expected Tottenham to score with their first attack. Pleased at our response, but disappointed that our second-half superiority did not produce more goals, so that the latter stages were unnecessarily anxious, particularly as our players had started to look weary.
Although we still had a couple of slack moments from Partey, including when he simply jogged back during a first-half Spurs attack, I thought that he had a very good game and, with Rice, helped dictate the midfield action. Much has been said about the brilliance of Lewis-Skelly, Gabriel and Saliba. I agree, but feel that all our players were good. Sterling seemed to lack the confidence to take on opponents, as we have seen him do throuighout his career, but he did not let the team down.
Great, once again, to see Tierney taking part, showing what a dependable and true professional he is.
Finally, but for dubious yellow cards to MLS and Gabriel, I thought that for the second game in succession, the referee, whilst not perfect, was certainly not biased against us. I do wonder, however, how Bergvall, who escaped a red card against Tamworth, was not booked for his repeated aggression thoughout the game.
John L
At the back I thought Gabriel and Lewis-Skelly were imperious.
In midfield it was great to see Odegaard back to his majestic best. Well, except his finishing of course.
And up front the same can be said about Havertz who was brilliant, except for his finishing. It is such a shame because his all round game is exceptional.
Because of our current problems in front of goal I can understand calls for a striker, to a degree. But I still believe people are short sighted. This is about ‘form’, not class.
These are the same players that have been setting Arsenal goal scoring records all over the place these last couple of years, and , as I have shown in previous articles, scored at a rate exceeding, often by some distance, the amount of goals we used to score with our legendary strikers.
We may now need another ‘striker’, but not because these current players are not good enough to score the goals we need, but because we are short on numbers up front.