By Tony Attwood (and a grin).
Well, what more could we have asked for? More goals I suppose, but that might have been a bit greedy. As it is the league table after two games has a somewhat familiar look after last season, and in my normal pre-season nervousness I have imagined worse. A slow start. Difficult referees. A fluke goal against… all that sort of thing. But for now we have the table below and yes, I am showing it all, yes, after two games, because yes, I really couldn’t believe that the Tiny Totts could actually begin with the opposite of our results.
Four goals scored by Arsenal and non conceded. No goals scored by Tottenham and five conceded. I mean, who predicted that? (And yes I will shut up about them shortly, but this is just how I feel, and we live in a world where the media make excuses for Tottenham.)
But first, forgive me if I offer a league table because, well, you know….
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 2 | Arsenal | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Hull City | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | Brentford | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| 6 | Newcastle United | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 7 | Everton | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 8 | Leeds United | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 9 | Brighton and Hove Albion | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 10 | Manchester United | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 11 | Sunderland | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 12 | Ipswich Town | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | -2 | 3 |
| 13 | Liverpool | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 | AFC Bournemouth | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 1 |
| 15 | Nottingham Forest | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 1 |
| 16 | Fulham | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 0 |
| 17 | Coventry City | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 0 |
| 18 | Crystal Palace | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | -5 | 0 |
| 19 | Aston Villa | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 |
| 20 | Tottenham Hotspur | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | -5 | 0 |
Of course I have the inherent wish for Tottenham to have a troublesome season as always – for me as an old time Arsenal fan, that is part of the package inherited from my father and grandfather. But there is more to it than that.
The smile on Declan Rice’s face near the end showed me that he felt it too. Arsenal were in control, but not over doing it, saving themselves for the months to come, knowing they were the Champions, knowing they were the best. Villa were the pesky upstarts, trying to get one over on the established masters – the team that won the league by seven points. Tottenham are the team that spends a fortune and still can’t buy a win.
And let us be fair, maybe Jan Paul Van Hecke, Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali and Savio will show that they are worth a third of a billion pounds between them, but with Tottenham 20th (ok 19th if you are being pedantic) in the league it doesn’t look like that at the moment.
Of course what could happen is that the directors will once again sack their manager and bring in another man who will then decide these players are not up to it and let them go at a massive loss in January. Then the club will find they can’t pay the bills on the new wonder stadium and… but no I am day dreaming again, and really there is no need, since we are top of the league. And they are somewhere else.
As for Aston Villa, who spent a quarter of a billion pounds on new signings this summer and are 19th in the league – but only because I put them in alphabetical order. Actually to be fair to Villa they are equal with Palace and Tottenham.
Sadly of course the media doesn’t share my utterly biased via and the Guardian calls Aston Villa “work-in-progress” although they do have the grace to add that they left “David Raya untroubled”. In fact I wouldn’t have been surprised to find him reading a book there was so little for him to do.
And it is very important that we should (sorry, “that I should”) not get too carried away. After all Aston Villa are really awful. They are only the second team since records of this sort of thing started (which was actually in 2003/4) not to have a shot on target in either of their first two games in a Premier League season.
With last night’s performance they equaled the record of Swansea City in 2017/18.
It is becoming apparent that much of the media, including the traditional Spurs favourers, may be transferring their affections to Chelsea. Expect to see much evidence of this in relation to our fixture next Sunday. They are now being referred to as the most likely team to beat Arsenal to the title in 2027
At Tots, the manager will be blamed for every loss when surely the fault lies with the Tots directors who arranged (in a year with a very short summer break) excursion to New Zealand and Australia! Thereby giving the manager little chance to properly prepare for the new season.