By Walter Broekx
The question that Tony asked this weekend was answerd by Wenger. Koscielny did start in the team for this Norh London Derby. For the rest no changes for this last math before the interlul. On the bench we saw Ospina back for the first time since his injury he got in the previous interlul.
The team that started was: Cech, Debuchy, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Cazorla, Coquelin, Ozil, Alexis, Campbell, Giroud
Arsenal substitutes: Ospina, Arteta, Gabriel, Chambers, Gibbs, Flamini, Iwobi.
A Last Post was blown in remembrance of the victims of the World Wars. As the grandfather or my wife has been one of the fireman who have been blowing the Last Post in Ypres at the Menin Gate all these years a special moment also for us over here who live in Flanders Fields.
Both team trying to attack but the defenders on top at first. Alexis with a ball over the top of the Tottenham defence but Campbell cannot get the ball under control. Both team losing the ball a lot so no real fluent moves and both keepers not much to do in the first 15 minutes.
Arsenal then with the first good attack but the shot from Alexis was blocked in to a corner. Tottenham then with a corner when Per blocked a shot but on both occasions nothing came from it. A very close match with too many interruptions for little fouls and niggles. Atkinson waiting to be able to give a foul to Tottenham in order to put some pressure on Arsenal but Vertonghen headed wide. Still 0-0 after half an hour.
Out of nothing Kane was suddenly found free and onside and he put the ball in the Arsenal goal to put Tottenham in front. 0-1 after 32 minutes.
Giroud and Verthongen with a battle off the ball that went unnoticed by the ref and assistant. Cazorla a bit later with a ball to Campbell who crossed it to Alexis but he was offside but not a good finish anyway. Arsenal losing the ball and Kane with a shot just before half time but Cech parried it. Arsenal not at their best in this first half with too many lost balls and bad passes. The tempo being too low and it will need the whole team to increase that to cause Tottenham problems.
One change for Arsenal Santi Cazorla who looked very tired was replaced by Mathieu Flamini. I wonder if Santi was sick cause he really looked slow and deflated during the first half. Campbell with a good low shot but Lloris with a save. Believe it or not but our match reporter reads from Tony his article about winning twice against Wenger as Tottenham manager. Eriksen with a shot that took a deflection and just wend wide. Some Tottenham pressure after a few corners as a result.
Özil with a free kick but the header from Giroud crashes on to the crossbar with Lloris beaten. Lamele goes in the book for a late challenge on Coquelin. Cech and Mertesacker with a mix up but luckily Arsenal can clear before Tottenham can capitalise. Another free kick but the header from Koscielny goes wide this time. Arsenal pressure another corner from Özil but the header from Giroud goes inches wide.
Arsenal then being a bit careless at the back but Cech on hand with a good save. Tottenham then with a few corners, one wrongly given to put Arsenal under some pressure. Cech with an excellent save to stop a header from Alderweireld.
Gibbs coming on for Campbell after 71 minutes. Gibbs almost with a shooting chance but he couldn’t produce a shot, Arsenal recover the ball that ends up in front of the left foot of Özil who crosses to Gibbs and GOAL!!!! Gibbs puts the ball past Lloris at the near corner to level the score. 1-1 after 76 minutes. Arteteta comes on for Debuchy who looked hurt after a tackle a few minutes earlier. Flamini as right back I think.
Arsenal continue to attack but Lloris can prevent Gibbs from scoring again. The corner from Özil is driven over hard by Giroud. Another header for Giroud but Lloris again with a save. Atkinson then stopping the Arsenal momentum by inventing a foul on a Tottenham player with 2 minutes to go in normal time.
Atkinson now trying to stop every Arsenal attack by giving fouls against Giroud or any other Arsenal player nearest to a Tottenham player now.
So the match ended at a 1-1 final score. Arsenal playing a bad match most of the time with some players in need of a breather. In such top matches it is clear that we need to have our best players completely fit. This wasn’t the case today.
But the final score means that Arsenal is still top of the league with Manchester City. A position I gladly take at this point of the season. Let’s hope our wounded players are back completely fit for the next part of the season in 14 days. And lets us keep our fingers crossed for no more injuries to any of our players.
Amen to the last paragraph.
Looking to the report on the ref as I think it will confirm my suspicions.
Thank you for this.
Carzola must be ill he was awful the worst I have seen him well done Wenger for changing it. Glad for the point when Gibbs scored but then got greedy because we had the upper hand but overall happy. We were always going to struggle with our 3 fastest player’s injured so we couldn’t stretch them and they knew it so they could press the ball high up the field. Should be in a better shape by the time we play the Arabs
Overall. I think a point was fair , yes disappointed but at least we didn’t lose we certainly miss some of our injured players and I think that shows .
Still top of the league and a long way to go , how’s that for optimism !
Nice one Walter. We were jaded, lacking creativity and far from our best, especially in the first. Was mid week playing on minds and tired limbs?
But this bunch are made of stern stuff, they don’t give up and usually finish strong.
Gibbs does have a habit of doing the vitally important, great to see him do so again, a versatile player I would like to see more of, whilst not wishing injury on the excellent Monreal of course.
All things considered, I will take that, we looked vulnerable, so many injuries, poor in midweek, and we are still joint top.
Atkinson was what many expected, especially when we equalised and went for the winner, unbelievable phantom fouls against Alexis and Giroud when attacking. More subtle than mike Dean was, but clearly reading the same script.
Not our finest performance, but sometimes, the more dogged qualities are needed in adversity, we showed that today. And for that, they deserve immense credit.
As the old maxim goes, if you cannot win , make sure you don’t lose, especially against them.
A bad weekend for the WOBbles, Another loss for their team of choice, and our late equaliser. Must be confusing for them, just who do they big up to slag off Wenger now? Leicester City?
Hope Caz is ok whether sick, injured, or just knackered. But surely Spain won’t call on him? Alexis looks like he needs a bit of a rest, but doubt if he will get that with Chile
But Liverpool lost, City drew, Utd look far from convincing, the meltdowners …..well, what can be said…..and as the article says, some of our players now get a well earned break, hopefully players coming back.
So what could have been a very bad week……doesn’t look too horrendous after all
Lots of hacks not called by the partisan PGMOB representative.
Most obviously the foul not called for the hack on Debuchy which led to him going off. I look forward to those trolling the injury article the other day acknowledging the obvious and unbalanced lack of protection for AFC players today, when they were the Home team. If the trolls are confused they can simply watch the match again. But of course, they won’t.
Towards the end a bad foul on Coquelin, no cards of course as predicted in the preview for this official.
Think he gave Dembele a love bite during one of multiple ‘chats’ with the player. How many times did he give him a “stern talking to”? Three, four? It is indeed remarkable. Therefore we remark upon it.
A transparent performance from Riley’s puppet.
Of the six English teams playing in Europe in midweek only one won. That can not be a coincidence.
It has been a very tough run of games since the last interlull so hopefully the international managers will go easy on players in the CL. The issue will be the players playing competitive games. Off the top of my head, that definitely includes Alexis.
The point was definitely fair- Spurs were the better side for large portions of the game. We came back into it and edged the last quarter of an hour where we could have won it. The way they pressed and harried our players reminded me a lot of the Dortmund game at the beginning of last season. And this is the same team, more or less, that played on Thursday!.. Sure, they looked vulnerable to set pieces, but apart from that, a Campbell shot and the Gibbs goal were our only real chances from open play.
The Cazorla substitution really helped- we needed Flamini’s engine. Of course, with a shorter injury list, everything might have been different. Glad to have an international break for once. Let us come of the other side stronger!
Almost forgot to mention…..another crap substitution from Wenger!
And I like this habit of Gibbs’ to score equalisers in games that we are not doing particularly well. It was Anderlecht (away) last season and now this. We went on to win that one though …
AW said he can’t speak to every national manager, but obviously someone’s been in contact with the German FA (fitness management, plus 48 hour recovery windows etc. were key to Germany being the first team from Europe to win in S.America).
I hope Bouldie has got the speed dial for the Chile manager ready! 🙂
More BBC Babbling: Apparently Cazorla was dizzy in the firsthalf, which probably means sick.
I’ve no words to describe Atkinson… He certainly knew when to stop our momentum. I also lost count of the number of times Tottenham players kicked the ball away after he’d blown for a foul or offside in our favour, with nothing done, not even a warning. Today was a classic example of, is it type 3, match fixing. We were never really allowed any sort of momentum, and it skewered the view of our performance.
Well done Arsenal! Playing against 12 men again.
Congratulations to former Gunner M.Garde for his first points with Villa.
City drop two points against a team that only had four after ten games.
Spuds have been defending well since their opening game, though they needed the twelfth man to help out there towards the end, not least to bring about six extra minutes down to only three (six subs equals three minutes minimum, but then, such lame chicanery was predicted in this PGMOB officials Untold preview).
Thank you very much brummies!
Al
The tilting was just a little bit obvious!
The extra time allowance was the final giveaway. I guess Atkinson chose to believe that people watching the game can’t count the number of subs that have been made?
It’s unfortunately not possible to defend this officials performance, you’d like to try but you can’t. I wonder if any lame trolls will even bother to try and waste their time? Looking forward to the ref review.
Well played the Gunners.
Al,
Wouldn’t Atkinson have used the Giroud chest-butt on Vertonghen better if he was their twelfth man?Or the Campbell poke on Rose?
Let us give credit where it’s due. Spurs were good tonight and, looking at out injury situation, we did well to come back into it.
Thanks Walter.
Thanks Mandy, Al and fins. (and others). It was rather blatant, what?
The old 12th man thing. Just wait and see what happens if we go 5 points clear, though needless to say, today’s shenanigans are just part of stopping Ars reaching that position.
Vertonghen was at his dirty best, along with Rose and others. At times it was outrageous.
So well done Arsenal. Great spirit!
Frimpong celebrates:
https://mobile.twitter.com/IAMFRIMPONG26/status/663409634150084608/video/1
No Hrishi, Atkinson should’ve given Arsenal a penalty for what preceded that chest buff.
More comments from Wenger (interview).
Cazorla is apparently not sick. He became dizzy, and Wenger thought it would go away. It didn’t, and so he was substituted. He is apparently fine now.
What causes such a dizzy spell?
I think Wenger mentioned twice that Giroud is angry with himself for not scoring.
—
I wonder, if a person might find something in the length of time between when a foul occurs, and when the whistle blows? In the normal course of play, a foul is probably in some sense predictable, and so I would expect the whistle to be heard shortly after the foul.
But, with rigged calls, I can see reasons for whistles to be much quicker than usual, or much slower. Hence, I would think there are 3 distributions of whistle delay likely.
Having a tired team and against a permitted fouling approach by the Spuds, aided and abetted by a cynical misrepresentative of supposed unbiased enforcement and fairplay, it was not a bad result.
AW indicated in his post match interview that Cazorla was unwell & feeling dizzy – a further handicap – Cazorla plays a major part in our control of midfield & his illness today meant that the media muppets (who could not see fouls or the ref incompetence) could ulogize about the Spud midfield.
But well done AW in manipulating his slender resources to turn the game around.
Well done the tired team and manager!
Happy to hear Santi was sick. this was so unlike Santi as we know him. Played the first half with 10 man in fact so not really a surprise that we were not at our best
As soon as I read the names of those on the beach, my heart sank. After a hard midweek game on the Continent, the team ravaged by injury and facing a NLD, could only call on young Alex Iwobi should an attacking substitute be required.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before delayed reaction set in. Both sides were understandingly sloppy and eventually it took a single careless defensive error for Spurs to be gifted a goal.
The scantiness of the Arsenal beach was emphasised when, late on, searching for an equaliser, Arsene Wenger was forced to send on Gibbs, a one-footed left back. And as so often happens with Lucky Arsenal, a high ball from the right came over and unexpectedly landed on his left boot and he bundled it over the goal line.
Now, we have two weeks for our injured to further heal, during which England play a meaningless friendly against Spain. It’s a mixed blessing that players like Walcott, Chamberlain and Welbeck won’t be called on. But Gibbs will not be immune!
Unless we are better able to manage our sick list, I fear that, as in other years, we will fall short of any real attempt at the league title. 😉
Rantetta,
The ball was not even played into the box.. good luck getting a penalty for that. Vertonghen and Giroud was a good old-fashioned grappling match between centre-half and centre-forward- and Giroud went down a little too easily there. Not a dive, but just trying to get the referee on his side before things get out of hand. All that is part of the battle.. The chest butt, however, is another story.
John Hartson 5Live BBC plundit on the clear yellow not given for the tug back on Sanchez by Dier as he was breaking free – just another heartfelt chat from the upstanding PGMOB man.
“That’s a booking…I can’t believe it, I like to see the game flowing and I praise the referees for not booking players but you can’t do that..pulling Sanchez’s arm back, that’s cynical (as in cheating therefore an easy yellow). HOW CAN HE NOT BOOK HIM FOR THAT? (Good question John, it’s a very good and fair question!) He’s pulled his arm back?…”
Yet it was too much to ask to expect the PGMOB representative to give this easy and simple yellow card. Clearly, such simple calls easily spotted are too much to ask for from Riley’s Crows.
As said above: a transparent performance from this crooked crow. You could say it was very revealing, being transparent and all…I’ll get me coat! 🙂
Good report Walter. Too bad the comrades didn’t see it the same way. I wasn’t at the game, so defer to those wise people who were actually there, but thought the result was about right but disappointing considering that we had the chance to go clear.
The fact that we pulled it round with three forced substations (all defensive), speaks for the character of this squad and proves we have the players to continue our challenge.
It was not a great game with very little quality football from either side, but there was some light relief from Giroud & VT and later Per & Cech.
Oh yes, it looks like we may have eventually succumbed to a contact injury which will please the statatitions as well as the comrades.
Hope the interlude sorts the pulls, strains etc out.
First of all, a few things about Atkinson.
I really, really think that he doesn’t understand football as a game. I have always had that feeling and it didn’t leave me after today.
That being said, Campbell got away with a rather foolish use of arms. If Dean had been in charge, Campbell would have been sent off. Same goes for that Giroud’s reaction. I understand that when you play against dirty defenders, you want to give them a piece of their medicine. However, we have had two Giroud’s red cards that were totally avoidable (against QPR last season and Dinamo this season).
Speaking of Giroud, I thought he did well today. He didn’t have luck in front of the goal but he was doing things right apart from finishing. Also, we shouldn’t forget it was his fourth game in less than a fortnight.
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I would just like to make a comment on a manager that the fans of his previous club had wanted him out of the club so badly. I know that some Arsenal fans don’t like Alan Pardew but in the last couple of years you can find very few managers better than him. He has done it again with Crystal Palace today by beating Jürgen Klopp. He has also beaten The Moaning One three times since his return to English football (no other manager has done it). All those points he had collected with Newcastle before taking over at Palace saved their bottoms from relegation.
A penny for thoughts of an average Newcastle fan when he sees Pardew’s results with Palace and then sees where Newcastle sit on the table right now.
Just back home from my day in London. Walter thank you for writing up the report – I do hope you are feeling a bit better than you were earlier in the week – I told you to rest!!!!!
I’ll write a little about the game tomorrow, but I would like to say that the Armistice Day commemoration was, to my mind, excellent. We have had so many minute’s silence it loses its meaning a bit, but this was excellently arranged, deeply meaningful, and original – at least at Arsenal.
I’d really like to congratulate the club on what it arranged, and also every single supporter at the ground – both of Tottenham and Arsenal. The silence throughout the playing of the last post was absolute.
Gary Neville……..wtf!
We did well to get a point but they were punching well above their weight and we looked tired. Based on the season to date, St Totteringhams Day around the second week in March.
Regarding the refereeing, what really stood out for me was the continuous shirt pulling and general jostling from the Totts defenders when we had a corner. Surely it should have been a penalty every single time? Watch the struggles Giroud had to undertake to get clear for his headed chances – no wonder two were off target!
Tony I was there and was impressed to well done to all the fans on both sides. .
Tony Attwood
November 8, 2015 at 9:26 pm Spot on Tony all who were there showed due respect.
On to business – the Gooner has an article about the Northern Reffs that PGMO are full of.
The game today was full of pure unadulterated PGMO cheating. The assistant on the East was so unsure of what to do with his cheating he waited for Atkinson to decide & then pointed his flag. He did that several times. He didn’t give an off side because he was under instruction. He didn’t even give a blatant sissor trip on Ozil. There were leg breaker tackles that drew nothing or perhaps a talking to. The cheating was obvious & without shame.
There was a clear penalty when Kos was pulled down in their goal area – not seen selective vision in operation. Giroud pushed down off the ball in their goal area – a penalty according to the Laws not seen. Giroud retaliates but then a stiff talking to for Giroud a few minutes later about the incident.
Potatino & his Spuds getting special favours from PGMO (following on from Dean’s celebration)
Josif – I like your reasoning & Pardew has done a good job. I however don’t like him because of his arrogance against Wenger & the special treatment he got from the FA when at West Ham.
I don’t like Pardew either, but think Newcastle fans might just be feeling they got him a bit wrong. Southerners can be decent managers too
We were battered, bruised. Dizzy, absolutely knackered, and they had a ref on their side, and they still couldn’t beat us. Bet Adrian Durham starts going on about balance of power shifts tomorrow though.
@Menace – I understand your point. However, throughout my life I have learned to respect people that I don’t see things eye to eye with. Pardew’s case is a good warning for those who think Arsenal would improve if Wenger gets sacked.
Speaking of which… How should an average Arsenal supporter judge Chelsea fans who want Jose Mourinho to leave because of bad results this season? I mean, Mourinho is a skunk, a total disgrace for football, anti-propaganda for the sport…but he has also won three out of five Chelsea titles in the history and they are still reigning champions.
I would understand a Chelsea supporter/fan who says: “Jose Mourinho is the most successful manager in our history but he has given this club a bad name, he is no role model for the kids and his siege mentality has turned Chelsea into the bad guys for everyone. That’s why he has to leave.”
Just,scanning the net,,arch Arsenal hater Gary Neville seems so excited by Tottenham, he might well end up calling out Pochettino to his wife in the throes of passion. But I repeat from the last post, despite all that was against us, they couldn’t beat us.
Now, to improve things as our players get rested and come back. November can be a bad month for this team, hopefully this can be put in the past.
@Mandy – check Carragher’s comment on Özil’s assist but I warn you that you might want to throw up afterwards.
Imagine if someone had guts to write this:
“Tottenham did a Tottenham. Just when you thought they had a knackered Arsenal side, decimated with injuries that left them without viable attacking options on the bench, on the ropes, they had to settle for a draw. And, it should be said, they should feel lucky about it as Olivier Giroud should have put them to sword in at least two occasions. If you want a definition of Tottenham, it’s this one: “A team that lose just one game in the opening twelve and yet stands five points behind Arsenal.” Some things will never change and it’s a shame that such a sharp striker like Harry Kane will spend his best years playing for a club that will never win the league in the era of colour TV.”
HaHaHa Josif I love the era of colour TV! Chelsea fans who do not respect their Jose are probably not glory hunters. Jose is a glory hunter without consideration who he steps on. He does not know how to handle loss as cheaing does not always work. The ‘block’ in free kicks & the dives are now passe so poor Jose is learning how to shake a rattle. Roman has little patience & lots of roubles so he might get himself another mouth to manage his team.
Potatino has had a fair rub with PGMO on his side so his spuds look good to pundits. They are corrosive & will be hacked by the Stokes of this world. How Vertongen didn’t get sent off for his fouling of Giroud is a surprise. Even more of a surprise is how Giroud didn’t get sent off for retaliation. Selective vision has its moments!
Excellent Josif! What is it with Tottenham and the media?
Poch sets them up to play at a hundred miles an hour, but they lose steam, in the second half of games and seasons.
For all the bluff and bluster, we untimately could, and perhaps should have won that game.
Nice shots in the press of Verthongen grabbing Girouds Crown Jewels. Whatever does it for him I guess, but I bet there is no retrospective action from the FA.
Onwards and upwards, we have some games coming up we should win, then there is City, when we will inevitably get Dean Atkinson or Taylor.
But despite the cruel ravages of the gods of injury…… and the machinations of the pgMOB, we sit joint top , I would have taken that season start.
So Giroud reacted , most of us would have ,obviously Atkinson didn’t see it but doubt anything will be done to the instigator.
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/jan-vertonghen-did-a-vinnie-jones-on-olivier-giroud-during-arsenal-1-spurs-1/
I had heard about this and found it.
Is this the team we should have fielded against the spuds?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/arsenal-momentarily-plan-beat-tottenham-6792833
Nice picture anyway. 🙂
WOO HOO , HOO ! Only a draw ,but after the treatment by the Spuds and the ref , it feels like a goods win . We were out of sorts with many a mis-layed pass.
Spuds being given’ Carte blanche ‘ to abuse our players. They didn’t really have to resort to it as they were playing some good football at the start .Rose , Dembele , and Verthongen being the biggest culprits .
Santi and Alexis were clearly not in form , making quite a few mistakes .Our second half performances was considerably better and with more composure could have stolen all the points.
I though that the Gibbs substitution was inspired ,as Kyle Walker was getting the better of Alexis on our left and was running free to double team with Erickson. When Gibbs came in ,he straight went on the offensive , pinning Walker back and he went on to score.
Was happy to see both Famini and Arteta play as just before the match our ‘local ‘ expert commentator was very dismissive of their importance to the team and that we should, “…. forget about them – they are out of their way from the club !” , really ? Did AW tell you this ?
Made the mistake of tuning in early !
Gibbs is not a bad player. Nacho Monreals excellent performance this season, I believe, is because of Gibbo. Sadly for Gibbs, the other side Debuchy is not at his best yet. Hence he cant get enough game time.
Excellent report Walter!!
Unlike these idiotic pundits – first and foremost blinkered tot-fan Redknapp – who couldn’t stop all game telling us what to think; the game evened out. IMHO we had a very good first 10 minutes, then we lost our way somewhat and allowed those chickens in the game. We suffered for this.
Redknapp making similarities between both us and the tots having the same work load during the week is outrageous!! The tots played home games. Their Europa League game was against mighty Anderlecht whilst we were away on both games and one of those in Munich with tinny Bayern – this argument in itself indicates the level of difficulty, coupled with the tots coming to the Ems with us having almost half our starters OUT with injury.
This was the tots only chance to take all 3 points and they blew it – simples!
Not a word about no-tactics-Wenger; who blew me away with his two subs!! The game turned on its head instantly and had that Attkinson given the correct added on injury time (at least 6 minutes) we may have come away with all 3 points – now that would have made Redknapp cry!
ohhh and we had by far the clearest chances to score, and in the end the match stats show exactly that the game was even more or less (advantage possession to Arsenal)
Three things:
1. Atkinson definitely “missed” a lot – maybe a call for retro punishment(s)?
2. Mesut ran the game, especially in the 2nd half. How Neville gave Alli MOM is beyond me – I only noticed him when he was fouling.
3. I’ve met Pardew – he actually is a really nice guy. Like Arsene, he is passionate about his club(s) and that is probably why he sometimes comes across as a bit arrogant.
I agree Norman14 I remember him praising Wenger