It would not be right to let the week pass without some form of casual reflection after the 5-1 pasting that we took at Spurs on Tuesday. However I will try and keep it short, partly in order to keep things in persepective, but also because so many column inches have already been devoted to it this week already. For example, Henry Winter of the Telegraph shows his true colours in this over-the-top drivel.
So, here we go:
1. Spurs were the better side in both Carling Cup games and were unlucky not to win at the Emirates as well. In fact, Spurs were unlucky not to get at least a point at the Emirates in the Premier League game in December.
2. Before Tuesday, Spurs have not beaten Arsenal in any competitive game since 7 November 1999. That is a ridiculously bad record for Spurs against their biggest rivals. 1999 is also the last time that Spurs won a trophy - the (then named) Worthington Cup. Also, these last two achievements were only achieved with George Graham at the helm, so its bittersweet for them in any event.
3. The period 1998 to 2008 has been the greatest in Arsenal's history, so far. In this period, Arsenal have won the league 3 times, the FA Cup 4 times, reached the Champions League Final and the UEFA Cup Final. That is going to piss every Spudder off a lot.
4. The same period has seen Arsenal generally regarded as playing the best football in the country, if not Europe when the press gets really excited. However, "sexy football" used to be the saving grace for the Spudders, but they didn't even have that accolade any more to fall back on. Indeed, Spurs' chaos in the boardroom has been often reflected by chaose on the pitch.
5. The result on Tuesday was better than any Spurs fan could possibly have imagined. Beating Arsenal 5-1 is like finding a winning lottery ticket in your pocket that you don't remember buying. Plus, I reckon a healthy number of die-hard Spudders would take Tuesday's result over a poxy lottery win. Well maybe not, but it definitely means a lot to them, and who can blame them?
6. The Spudders will not be put off their stride by Gooners saying that it was the reserves, we don't care about the Carling Cup etc etc. It was a competitive game that no Gooner wanted to lose and it only makes us look like bad losers by making excusses. Instead, we have to stand up and take it on the chin. Plus it was only the reserves and we don't care about the Carling Cup.....
7. If Man Utd stuff Spurs this weekend in the FA Cup and we do the double over Newcastle, then no-one will give a shit about last Tuesday.
8. Spurs record against Chelsea is only marginally better than their record against us, so the chances of Spurs actually winning anything since 1999 are still not good. I am also quite happy to say that I will be supporting Chelsea in the Carling Cup final and I hope they win at least 100-0.
There you go - feel better already?
2 comments:
wasn't very angry, was expecting defeat but not in such a routish manner,
Wenger got it badly wrong tactically and we were exposed in several key areas as being rather lacking in quality,
we lack quality cover at centre back,
Diaby has the pace, the skill, the strength, but his decision making is woeful and he is not progressing, I fear he won't make it at Arsenal now,
Gilberto is over the hill,
Walcott needs games and games, send him out on loan to get some experience of playing up front week in week out,
Traore is also not up to the first team standard yet, he looks very suspect defensively,
It also didn't help that Wenger played a bad set of cards, we we far too attacking and left ourselves very exposed on the counter attack,
to be honest the first leg was fairly even, we dominated the first 30mins and the last fifteen mins,
the second leg was poor, however if Jenas had not scored early I think things could have been very different indeed,
time to concentrate on the Geordies for saturday,
Rosicky, Big Phil, Flamster, Clichy, Almunia all back I hope,
just another point, we don't have many players who hastle and press the opposition anymore,
Flamini and Toure do it, but we need to recreate the workrate and bustle that has got us to the top of the league, we cannot become complacent and lethargic
Good article Ted and agree with the comments. I thought Bendtner and Hleb were the only ones who came out with much credit.
Harsh lesson but hopefully will stand the young ones in good stead.
Important to beat the toon both on saturday and tuesday now.
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