Arsenal v Tottenham: find the mystery speaker

By Bulldog Drummond.

“I was days away from becoming an Arsenal player in the summer of 1996. When Bruce Rioch called me at home on an August night, I expected him to tell me what time to get to London Colney for my medical. Instead he told me he’d been sacked and the deal was off. They ended up signing some lad called Patrick Vieira.

“Three years later I joined Tottenham Hotspur and went back to my north London roots. To my mind, there was nothing like the north London derby. They were the most intense games I played in. When I scored the second goal from a free-kick at White Hart Lane in a 2-1 win over Arsenal in November of my first full season, the place shook. It was electrifying.”

Guess who said that.

Trouble is, if I give you a clue and tell you that he was manager of Tottenham for a while, that doesn’t really help much does it.  Everyone was manager of Tottenham for a while.

“As manager of Spurs last season I faced Arsenal twice, in the FA Cup and the league, and lost them both.”

That doesn’t help much either.  Everyone managed Tottenham last season.  But as for

“we loathed the Arsenal players as much as our fans loathed theirs.”

Well, that’s too much.  I mean!  We’re not the Bosch you know.

But let’s keep going.  He also said, “I would do my best to get under the skin of the Arsenal players for 90 minutes. I had to – they were a better team than us.”

So he’s an honest fella.   And yes it was of course manager number 15 (in the schedule since Mr Wenger signed).

Tim Sherwood 2013-2014

So where are we now in the build up against the Very Tiny Totts?

Mesut Özil: does he play at number ten or wander.   Looking at the Villa game I think he wandered there – as he did in the earlier games.   OK he wanders less or more, but I think we’ve got a bit fixed on the “where does he play” bit.   He plays where he wants.

Cue the song.  He plays where he wants, he plays where he wants, Mesut Özil, he plays where he wants.

Ah well, suit yourself.

Meanwhile, Theo Walcott told the press that “People had to tell Alexis to take it easy.  That just sums up how much everyone wants to be around the squad and training, and I think he knew we had a massive game coming up this weekend.

“Obviously everyone else that’s been here and been involved in a north London derby knows how big it is, so that just proves the intensity goes up in training and everyone just wants to be around and pushing for a start.”

And since this is the day when everyone wants to say something Arsène Wenger told Tottenham that they need a new stadium if they want to get into the top four.  But stadiums are like busses.  You wait for one for ages and then…

[Actually I don’t think this metaphor works at any level – Tony]

“You cannot turn down 15,000 or 20,000 every week,” said Mr W.  “If your competitors have more financial power than you, at some stage, you have to make a decision. If you stay in a smaller stadium it’s difficult.”

And yes it is true.  Arsenal’s accounts for 2013/14 showed revenues of £301.9 million. Tottenham’s, for that same year were £147.4 million.  That’s why we call them the Tiny Totts.

The latest delay to the ground of the old Middlesex club means that the earliest day for a move to a new ground is August 2018 – and that’s pushing it a bit.

Mr Wenger also had another bash at the loan between New York and The Works Team of the International Petroleum Investment Company of Frank Lampard and the “moral questions”.  How many other managers speak about moral issues?  How many know what a moral issue is?  Not many, I’ll venture.

“You always have two judgements, one is moral and one is legal and it just depends what you consider.  I don’t really know what is behind all that. Was it always his plan to go to New York and go to Man City? I am not sure….”  I just love the way that man will not let go of issues that everyone else ignores.

On the injuries we have Mathieu Flamini back from the dead [I think you mean from a dead leg –  it is Liverpool who employ vampires not us – Tony] Kieran Gibbs and Per Mertesacker are available.   Nacho Monreal and Yaya Sanogo are out and we all know about the long termerrs: Theo Walcott, Serge Gnabry, Mathieu Debuchy, Olivier Giroud.

Emmanuel Adebayor is likely to play for the other side.  I use the word “play” in its non-technical sense.

Since today is a tea time kick off, the Untold team has a bit more time than usual before heading down the M1, so the rest of the team news follows in a bit.

And don’t forget we’ve got the live Arsenal Tottenham coverage coming up.

And the regular look back in time.  Today it is “Tottenham in September”