Match Preview: Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur
Bragging Rights Are At Stake
These are the matches that make English Premier League Football so much more enjoyable than any other sports matchup you can conjur up. No other sport has anything close to derby days. And this week’s North London derby promises to be a scorcher as Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur come calling to the Emirates.
Tottenham are off to their best start to league in their long history. They have played 10 matches so far, winning 6, drawing 1 and losing 3. Their last match was a surprising 1-0 loss to Stoke. They currently are tied in points with Arsenal with 19 but are in 4th since the Gunners have a superior goal differntial. Their is a lot of pride in the team at the moment as Harry Redknapp, has given the players the drive to believe in themselves and their ability. This has resulted in a change of fortunes so far.
However, Tottenham are fighting a rash of injuries suspension and a long history of losing against Arsenal. Sprus striker Jermaine Defoeis serving the last day of a 3 match suspension, Aaron Lennon is out with an Ankle injury and a whole slew of others are riding the trainers bench. Throw in the fact that Tottenham haven’t beaten Arsenal at home since 1993 and won outright at either location since 1999, and the Spurs seem to have a steep climb.
Prodigal Spur Robbie Keane, threw gas on the already blazing rivalry when he proclaimed that this current Spurs crew and their reserves are equal to Arsenal’s starting XI. While the Gunners haven’t risen to the bait, pundits alike are having a jolly laugh at his proclamation, because Robbie seems to forgotten the likes of Eduardo, Fabregas, Arshavin, Vermaelen, Gallas, Nasri, Song and the reserves are pound for pound better all around players, then Keane, Crouch, DeFoe and Lennon.
All that said though, there is still some concern at Ashbourton Grove.While , the youngsters sumarily dispatched Liverpool’s reserves in the midweek – holding on for a 2-1 win in the Carling Cup, the senior squad had to suffer through a Sunday battle that saw West Ham claw back to gain a draw against the Gunners. If the Gunners are to gain the 3 points from this match, the will instantly need to develop a killer instinct that provides some spine to the sharp attack they have been showing.
Surely this week, Wenger has stressed the importance of holding an opponent down when you have a lead. Arsenal are going to need to do this and learn it well, especially as more difficult ties against, Chelsea and Liverpool approach. Letting a stronger, more disciplined opponent back into a match will likely see a loss rather than a draw. The red and white army surely have the talent necessary to do well in all their competitions. They have a set of centre halfs that are playing as well as any in the top 6. But they are lacking the focus required to lock a game down once they have a lead and that is going to be an issue unless they address it.
The Gunners should be bouyed by the return of Samir Nasri to the squad. Nasri saw all 90 minutes of action against Liverpool and while he didn’t score his presence was felt throughout. He looks strong and s0lid on the ball and the addition of him playing with Fabregas and Song in the midfield will likely go a long way to solidifying the middle. Sadly, Lukasz Fabianksi who also returned on Tuesday is out again for the next 3 weeks. His first match back saw him go right back to the training table with a thigh injury. Nicky B also returned this week scoring a goal in the match against Liverpool and with Eduardo back as well, the clubs striking options increased as well. Our usual cast of characters remains with the trainer with no time table set for the return of Tomas Rosicky.
With Fabianski out and Mannone seeming to lose some of his steadiness, look for Manuel Almunia to feature in goal for the first time since his dreadful show at Manchester City. The hope here is that Almunia has seen enough of Mannone from the bench that he feels inspired to play like he did when he was challenging Lehmann for the number 1 goalie spot. Arsenal are in need of one of the goalies to step up and start playing with some metal or this could be a season that sees the gunners let in almost as many goals as they score.
The attack is as prolific as ever. Even in drawing against West Ham, the boys added 2 more goals to their league leading tally. With the exception of the Fulham and United matches, Arsenal have not scored less than 2 goals per game.
Whoever loses this match will likely see either Liverpool, Villa, City or all three overtake them in the standings. Three points is essential and with local bragging rights at stake this will be a dandy match to watch. With DeFoe out of the lineup for Spurs look for the away team to have a central attack that tries to take advantage of Crouch’s height. However, I still think Arsenal’s attack are too much for the Spurs.
How it should play out:
The Gunners are at home and have yet to lose on their own turf. They want to continue to make the Emirates a fortress and not drop points here. Given the overall feelings the team had coming off of last weekend’s loss, they will likely come out attacking early to try and establish their game and see what the visitors have in terms of fight. Robin Van Persie is on a nice consecutive goals run and should be able to add to it this week. With so many options out for Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham, they are going to be one dimensional and not provide too much of a threat.
Players to Watch:
Arsenal: Andrei Arshavin was rather adamant in his feeling that Wenger has every right to be ticked off about their letting West Ham back into the match. Based on his interviews this week, it seems the diminutive Russian wants to make a point that Arsenal have arrived this season. This lad has all the cajones needed to be a leader on this squad and I definitely think he is going to try and dictate the game. He has already shown this season that when he wants to score, he can.
Spurs: David Bentley. He scored an amazing goal last season at the Emirates but he quickly faded and lost favor last season. With Lennon sidelined, he stands to get his first start of the season and will want to show that he should play regularly.
Injuries:
Arsenal: Denilson (back), Djourou, Rosicky and Walcott (all knee), Fabianski (thigh), Wilshere (ankle)
Spurs: Giovani (ankle), Lennon (ankle), Modric (broken leg), DeFoe (Suspended)
Possible Starting XI:
Arsenal: (4-3-3) Almunia, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Sagna, Fabregas, Song, Diaby, Bendtner, Arshavin, Van Persie
Spurs: (4-4-2) Gomes, Corluka, Bassong, King, Assou-Ekotto, Bentley, Palacios, Huddlestone, Kranjcar, Crouch, Keane
Final Score:
Arsenal: 3
Spurs: 1
Match set to air on ESPN 2 at 8:45AM EST.
Apologies for the delay guys. Bad internet today as well as feeling under the weather made writing this a little arduous today. Not one of my better attempts. Hope you bear with me. ;-)
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Surprisingly, these are our first points against a team in the top half of the table. We have played only three games against top half teams, but the other two were losses in Manchester.
“We deserve credit for this performance because winning a derby game is never easy,” said Wenger. “We took advantage of the chances that came our way just before half time and that changed the game. There are still a lot of improvements we can make, but we are in a strong positions in all the competition now and that is a better start than last season.”
Unusually balanced comments from Wenger. It’s almost like he realizes we didn’t play all that well, at home, against a wounded Spuds side. Thankfully, they fell apart defensively (and mentally) at the end of the first half, and we maintained sufficient composure in the second.
I appreciate that he’s not getting all blown up about it. Just stating the, umm, reality.
Just for the fun of it. An animated GIF of yesterday game (click on the image to get the full effect):
Impressions from the derby….
Glad to have Almunia back in goal…despite his limitations he handled the situation and communicates well with his back four. You could argue that he was fortunate that Spurs are so, so bad but he more or less knew when to come and when to stay and you can’t argue with the clean sheet. Our undersized back four played very well and stayed well organized and I think just having the “regular” keeper back there had to be a factor.
In MF we rather fell into their game (slow and sloppy) and a lot of that is down to Diaby. I think the criticism of his overall game is a bit harsh, because he’s got good skills and his moves (and his defensive picks) come off at about the same rate as most of the others. The problem is that he’s been given an inordinate amount of freedom (and playing time) and still nobody knows where he will be or what he will do so he rarely helps with the overall fluency or speed of our attack: when Diaby gets it you have to wait and see what will happen unlike the expected conservatism of Denilson or the reliable quality and probing we get with Rosicky or the burst of speed that Theo would give us. Of course they’re all injured as is Bendtner now (who looks crap when he drops back too far, but at least he works hard and is a threat in the box). It’s time to give Nasri more minutes.
Likewise we shouldn’t gloss over the fact that Eduardo is very badly off his game and seems barely fit. Fortunately RVP is rounding into form and the other forwards are figuring out how to play with him (as is Sagna who has now played several balls to him for goals or shots that should have been). Given our injuries I’d love to see a front line of Merida/RVP/AA23 rather than trying to make Eboue a forward.
My overall feeling is that we did the job and that Spurs are terrible. Without Modric, Defoe and Lennon they can’t even try to play on the ground and the pace of the group out there yesterday was as bad as what we’ll see next weekend at Wolves. That match (and the CL game midweek) should be straightforward opportunities to run a few other players out and restore our offensive fluidity before the next (hellish) int’l break.
Also, I meant to mention something about Mark (hair plugs) Clattenburg. He’s bad news for the more technical, better teams (i.e., us) as he tries to “let ’em play” by keeping cards in his pocket (until arbitrarily showing them later)and trying to wave play on (much to our benefit for the 3rd goal). We showed a lot of discipline not getting aggrieved at Bentley’s two obvious early yellows (second could’ve been red and TV5 was lucky to walk away). Spurs were such crap that the game never degenerated like the last time Clattenburg worked one of our matches (Man City), but it could have been ugly.
HtS I agree with you on Al it was good to have him back. Far better than anything else we have at our club presently. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope he is in good form. If he isn’t and he plays like he did prior to the “chest infection” then we are in the shizzizle.
As for Diaby, I have been his biggest critic of late. Diaby was obviously poor 1st half. In the 2nd half he did have a few touches that weren’t errant and did win one or two balls on his own. However that was too little too late. If you watch the first half again you will see why everyone is being so “harsh.”
I don’t think Spuds wer that terrrible really, they had a spell when they were on top whilst Diaby was doing his disappearing act. I just think they looked a little flat without Lennon and Defoe. Defensively they were missing Woodgate and Dawson too, that was bound to have an effect. I t will be interesting to see how we cope with a full strength team at WH Lane.
Fred Reply:
November 1st, 2009 at 1:21 am
To be fair to Bentley, he aint an oaf. He is far more useless than that.
LOL! Can’t agree more.
As a comment I read from a Spurs fans on 606, he was surpised why anyone would have paid more than 5 mil for a player like Made It Big.
He is very much a “half trick” wonder. Not even one trick. Doesn’t have pace, doesn’t have workrate, his left foot is utterly useless.
That 16 mil Spurs paid of him gotta be up there among the most expensive flop list of all time.
Darren Bent at least got pace. And when the pressure is off (for playing with a so-called BIG club), he has proven that he can score.
If Spurs want someone who can only CROSS. A 34 years old David Beckham is still twice a player than Made It Big.
Bendtner out for 4 weeks according to Arsene’s interview on the official site. His first 11 replacement had better be Eduardo over Eboue
I was pleasantly surprised to see Eduardo come on for Bendtner instead of Eboue. So I hope he will keep his place. And if Nasri replaces Diaby, we will have the first Diaby & Eboue less starting 11 since the Celtic away game.
Yup and apparently Wenger’s coat flinging rage was partly because we were giving the ball away too much, and Diaby was the major culprit in that department. So maybe…
In fact Eboue has played quite well in all the games he has played so far even at RF! The problem is he has not got the confidence to be a clincal or even a good finisher, Bendtner and Edu’ have. Eboue is certainly a more competent RB than RF. But on form there are few players in our squad than Eboue for running at the opposition and putting them in disarray and bringing a bit of unpredicatability in to game as a result.
I think Eboue deserves a little more credit and respect than he is given.
He is one of the best we have in terms of taking on players. I have said as much in this or a previous thread.
But that lack of confidence after doing some of the ‘hard’ work ends up breaking many of the attacks down. It’s a bit of a catch 22 because playing time and good performances would help build confidence and understanding with team-mates but we would suffer until (if) that happens.
Very pleasantly surprised. Hopefully it’s the start of a trend.
In a completely unrelated topic:
Curious to see how much of a role Jens Lehmann gets in this film coming next year:
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann is following in the footsteps of football star-turned-actor Eric Cantona with his first acting role in Stefanie Sycholt’s Themba.
Lehman, who now plays for VfB Stuttgart, has been cast as football talent scout, John Jacobs. The film is currently shooting in South Africa.
This article is a few months old but from this week’s Champions league preview show, in an interview with Lehmann, it seems that he has finished filming.
By the way, what about the crossing by Sagna the last couple of games? It’s gone way up in quality. Been working on the training ground perhaps?
Good to see anyway. One more attacking threat for us rather than the usual pass/hit the first man with a bad cross routine. Hopefully it will spur Clichy to push on and do the same on the other flank.
David Bentley is the most pathetic player I have ever seen.
Given a rare chance to actually start, he proceeded to do blatantly unnecessary flicks losing possession each time and ofcourse shooting at every turn … no matter how far from goal he is. Hilarious.
I dont know, most players when they leave Arsenal, they just leave. But for a few like Bentley and now Adebayor, they have a complex, that makes them desperate to “prove a point” indefinitely for some reason.
Bentley has been gone 5 years. He is not a starter at Spurs or close to England squad. And next week he wont even be in the Spurs squad. He really needs to “let it go”. LOL.
I think our old boy Hleb could be added to that list of players with a complex who think they have to prove a point or something.
Others are a class act all the way, like most of the invincibles (minus Cashley).
And then some just seem to fall off the face of the earth… I’m looking at you Flamini and Reyes.
Bentley is an oaf, nonsense player no better than Gomis, that Lyon lump.
Utterly classless fellow. Why we are talking about him on here I do not know.
;)
That’s it for Bentley at Spurs I think. Redknapp is NOT going to be pleased and from some vague memories I think he is fairly quick dumping players into the reserves. Not sure who they’d use to cover for Lennon’s absence though.
To be fair to Bentley, he aint an oaf. He is far more useless than that.
And with the addition of the Edit feature, MP has finally finished stomping AA’s d*ick into the dirt.
YARM gets better and better, DAG. Thank you, once again.
Hey Vibe,
You seem to have big chip on your shoulder ;)
Regardless, agree that DAG is doing a great job.
Great match. Didnt exactly play that well, but we got what was needed.
The Emirates is gradually turning into a fortress.
Positives: Fabregas, RvP.
In fact, there is ONE way to know if the team is alright – if Fabregas is scoring. It is that simple.
Great to see that RvP has finally come to terms with his new role. I like that he usually stays central rather than roaming around too much.
Hopefully he can be our “Eto’o/Van Basten” sorta striker. I think he can hit 20 this season.
Negatives:
Diaby: There is no point wasting time with him. He claimed he was training through the summer, yet he is the LAZIEST guy in the team. We are literally playing with one man down in midfield. He does nothing defensively or offensively.
I really, really, really wish he would just go away. He and Denilson ofcourse. (Sorry, had to sneak in Denilson’s name somewhere ;-))
Nasri SHOULD be partnering Fabregas with Ramsey and Merida as backups. Sure Nasri can do the Rosicky job upfront, but he is less mobile, plus we already have Rocky and Walcott in that position.
That assumes rosicky and walcott can stay healthy.
7 goals in 9 starts. Does seem like the season of the striker doesn’t it? Torres has 10 in 10, Dropba and Bent have 9 and 8 in 11
The Carling Cup tie should be interesting as Arsenal’s kids will get a chance to set things right. You can be sure Adebayor will be counting down the days. Although, this time around he might be too busy thinking of his post-goal celebration so he might briefly pause before he shoots (or heads the ball) so Arsenal should be able to clear the danger :)
It is amazing he is still going on about the Arsenal fans as if the Arsenal fans gave him the Eboue treatment or did something like what the Barca fans did to Figo. I do wish that Ade goes to Spain soon so he can how get the proper treatment from the home fans when a player isn’t doing well. And this is something that Madrid or Barca players know very well. Even Henry had to justify himself in his first season at Barca repeatedly. Did Ade ever have to justify his poor form or those infinite offsides? Nope. He turned around and blamed it on the fans. Ok, fine maybe one time some fan was swearing at him so he might have been distracted and caught offside, but what about the other 963 offsides? or was it 971? I lost count :)
I stand corrected. If I am putting a number, then it must not have been infinite.
Adebayor is an oaf, nonsense player no better than Gomis, that Lyon lump.
He won a lottery getting to Arsenal from the Monaco bench and managed to feed off a terrific midfield while missing 1 in 5 clear cut chances in ONE season.
Utterly classless fellow. Why we are talking about him on here I do not know.
I can’t always talk about the great players :) I have to mention the dirt to realize that Arsenal did the right thing of purging themselves of that oaf.
Art started it ;-)
Thrilled to see Arsenal keep a clean sheet against the mighty team with so much depth that one loses count of how much greatness exists :)
Also, great to see Cesc continue the tradition of scoring memorable goals against those jokers. The kind of goal that Cesc scored should not happen at this level and that too against a team which is supposedly great. Ha ha.
The Vermaelen block in the 35th minute to prevent Crouch from scoring was better than I first thought. On the reply, while running back, he looks up to see where Crouch is going to be moving to and then runs into that position anticipating the cross. It may be a simple thing but it showed signs of smartness, something that could have caught out Arsenal on other occasions.
TV5 is a class act. There were at least two occasions on which Diaby screwed up but TV5 saved the day.
Yeah, he was the sort of defender that Arsenal were missing for a long time. So glad that he was signed, but ofcourse, Arsenal had to suffer for a while before they got him.
Will see the game again for those Diaby mistakes as I missed them.
Sachin, Diaby mistakes!? there were a few but I don’t think those mistakes were really that bad everyone makes the odd mistake throughout a game. Look at Ramsey’ two near gifts in the late stages against ‘Pool, far worse than anything Diaby did today. The problem with Diaby especialluy in the first half was that he was nonexistent, we were playing with a player down in MF. He left Song to run around like a headless chicken a lot of the time, so it seemed they (spuds) were in control of the MF at a stage.
He lacks desire or the capability to read the game enough to put pressure on in the right areas. He was really bad, when he did get a touch of the ball in the 1st half I would bet more often than not he gave it away.
He was really bad, just coasting all game no real attempt to have an impact .
I had such high hopes for this guy, but I have given up. We have the likes of Denilson, Ramsey, Merida, Coquelin and Eastmond waiting to displace him, he needs to fix up or ship out.
yes arthur (of Diaby). What annoys me most is this is the North London derby. If you can’t gear yourself up for a North London derby against our most hated rivals, and while playing in front of your home crowd too, you do not EARN the RIGHT to be a first teamer.
I can accept players making mistakes, but I can’t accept players who don’t work hard.
So true the Derby and all. If you watched Arshavin in the first half he worked so hard , maybe too hard as he clearly seemed to run out of steam and had to sacrifice his defensive duties. This is Arshavin’s 1st NL derby I think, but he showed he understood the importance of this game to the fans. Diaby is just so pathetic at the moment. He appears to lack mental strength particularly. He is also disappointingly week in the tackle for such a big guy. I think he needs to work on his legs and his aggression.
Watching ManU at the moment in the hope they will mess up. 0- 0 at present but ManU look like they will score Blackburn defending well but no threat on goal at all really.
Yeah I once had high hopes for him as well. After his return from that long term injury, I cut him some slack figuring he needed time but that was ages ago and since then he has had enough time. Still, no matter what he does or doesn’t do, he knows he won’t get benched so he has no reason to show initiative.
That was nice! Cesc now carries the torch the Dade left behind.
Ade would have scored a hat trick ;-) he loved to play Spuds.
TV5 is a utter monster especially in the air, Crouch did not get a sniff.
Top top quality. I just hope he doesn’t have a dip in form next season like Sagna did in his 2nd season.
Fabregas wouldn’t have scored that goal because that big oaf would have taken the ball on himself and been whistled offside.
Notice he hasn’t scored for a while. Knew the big lump would find his level :)
Aaah not scored but some lovely assists I might remind you. Dade Blue is doing just fine.
It is going to be interesting to see how he reacts when he come to the Emirates in the CC Cup though. The haters will have a field day.
He has two assists. He’s doing just crap.
LOL.
Whats his motivation for playing well against a team not called Arsenal? lol.
He and Bentley have a lot in common ;-)
Hmm, I thought you were not talking about him. So why bother with this comment?
Like I said, “I do not know”! Get it? ;-)
Hater ;-)
CC tie is in Manchester.
Oh yeah! what a shame I was looking for a bit of drama :-D
LOL! I was waiting for the knives to come out :-D
Doom Mongers and Haters! Art rattled your cages aye? :lol:
The Fabregas goal very much reminded me of Reyes goal against Boro in 04/05. The replays from the previous goal were playing and the camera only went back to the action for Reyes to score. Annoying in a sense but it does add to the drama in some ways.
The game was similar to our 3-0 nil win against them in 06/07. Not a great performance but we got the result.
I just plead with Arsene that he finally wakes up over Diaby. Do we really want to lose Merida because of Diaby?
I hope Wenger is just giving him enough rope, but I doubt it.
HE was non esistant in the first half not making any effort to close anyone down and left Song to look bad. He improved a bit in the 2nd but he seems deviod of self belief, strength and desire in general.
I do not think the other players have much confidence especially Arshavin, who tends to use the harder option than pass to Diaby.
Although I do not think Merida is the best option we have I would expect we would have got a lot more from him than what Diaby gave today.
What happened to the confident penetrating Diaby that almost single handedly bought Chelsea to their knees in the CC Cup final? I it so said to see him desecend into a level that doesn’t even adjacent to mediocrity.
But on a positive note I am a HO after all, we have shown what we can do against a big team, no jibes about us bottling it today :-D
As you could see by Wenger’s body language today, he obviously believed what he said in midweek about our inability to keep leads not being a problem.
Sure Arsene, whatever you say!
Yeah you have a point about the body language. When I saw it I was thinking he wants us to hammer them, score 5 maybe!
The announcers mentioned thet were trying to put spuds in their place.
7 red cards in the league today. Unfortunately, not one for that c**t from Spurs.
Saw Liverpool lose today. Rafa is the complete opposite of Arsene when it comes to subs.
At 1-1, he takes off Torres and keeps Voronin. Not sure if Torres was injured. Then at 1-2, he takes off Benayoun and puts some kid you have never heard of. And no, Yossi was NOT injured. Promptly, Liverpool get two people sent off and concede one more to lose 1-3.
Amazing!!
Fantastic win! Beating spuds and keeping a clean sheet. They were missing a few attacking players so who knows how it could have turned out – even when they controlled the game in the first half they were clueless in the final third. Arsenal were awful in the first half but once Gomes screwed up on the first goal everything came together and the attack was much more menacing. Even Diaby played much better although be still held on to the ball too long. Cesc’s goal was fantastic and Vermaelen and Song were everywhere. Getting up at 6:00 am has never been more worth it!
Sorry, Diaby was absolute SHIT today.
He wasn’t great but he provided an attacking threat and was more agressive in the 2nd half. Far cry from shit in my opinion.
Watching Everton-Aston Villa right now. 2 things:
1. Makes me appreciate what I’ve got w/ Arsenal. These teams aren’t bad, but Arsenal are so fun to watch in comparison.
2. There was just an Eduardo-type challenge (note quite as bad but close) by some guy on Everton, not sure who. I commend the referee for reaching for straight red w/o hesitation, no questions asked. That’s what you need to do. And of course the announcers were saying it was harsh, but believe me it was not. Luckily no one was hurt.
I told you guys that the wheels had fallen off the Liverpool wagon. The Man United result was an illusion.
Soooooooooooooooo happy!
Of course, the ESPN2 was still showing the first goal when Cesc began his epic run, but still – what a corker.
Quite right, Robbie Keane, Sp*ds have a great bench – but the players sitting on it are shiatsu.
We really gelled in the second half, only marred by some off-the-boil finishing. Very un-Eduardolike, that miss when he was one on one.
After last year’s 4-4 nightmare – which I had to watch surrounded by Sp*d fans at the Fox and Hounds in Studio City – this was just the ticket.
MOM – Wenger
It was refreshing to see him so animated on the sidelines; NOT ALLOWING ARSENAL PLAYERS TO EASE UP ON THEIR PRESSURE on Sp_rs.
High marks for:
Sagna – Vermaelen – Song – Cesc – Bendtner – Arshavin – RvP
Eduardo is still showing signs of being off for the few weeks.
Nice clean sheet for our defense and Almunia made good decisions – nice deflection from the Bentley free kick. I still believe Fabianski has better fundamentals.
Very positive 90 minute performance.
Ecstatic!!!
We were pretty poor in the first half. Seemed to be a case of nerves but we couldn’t get a series of passes going and if Tottenham were any better they may have had us on the backfoot by half time. Our passing got immensely better in the second half. But lets not focus too much on the negative and enjoy the win.
Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham
At one point, I really wanted give Diaby a kick in the ass.
Not only he kept giving away possessions, be it by his poor passes, or holding on the ball for too long. If you look at the WORKRATE, Song has been doing two men’s job by himself.
That’s why Song was again my MoM.
nipuna, here’s the 3-0 win! :)
Bet Harry and Keane must be wishing they had kept their stinking mouths shut now.
They wouldn’t have looked that bad had they not talking so BIG prior to the match.
yeah, i am happy. Only thing missing was a red card to Bentley. Damn, how did he not even get a yellow, that c**t.
man, u should have asked for a 5-0! cos we should have really won at least by 5-0!
yup Made it Big was lucky. intentional handball is an “automatic booking”. it’s beyond argument.
Dammit, Cesc scored his BEST EVER goal for Arsenal, and we only got to see it on replay.
Now don’t blow it now Gunners. Remember, remember, Christmas is still two months away.
ONe more note – Diaby gotta be the WORST passer of Arsenal since Gilberto.
Andez, get on gameday chat, we are having lot of fun there.
i can’t nipuna. cos when I m watching the game, I m completely focused! I wouldn’t know what i m typing should i doing the gameday chat at the same time! :)
I used to be like that. but once i got on it, i love it!!
I’m going for basketball score: 6-5 to Arsenal ;)
Good post DAG…..
Key today: the steadiness of our defense, especially Almunia.
Who controls midfield?
1st team to score controls momentum.
Go Gunners….
3 points – no injuries.
NEWS FLASH: Arsenal have drawn Man City for the Carling Cup next round. Away at City of Manchester Stadium
Blackburn v Chelsea
Portsmouth v Aston Villa
Manchester United v Tottenham
Manchester City v Arsenal
Ties to be played the week commencing 30th November 2009
Arsenal Starting XI: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Vermaelen, Clichy, Song, Fabregas, Diaby, Bendtner, RvP, Arshavin
Subs: Senderos, Nasri, Eduardo, Ramsey, Mannone, Gibbs, Eboue
As usual Game Day Chat will be open
http://www.youaremyarsenal.com/gamedaychat
So here’s a positive take on this:
After giving up one goal and two goal leads, the senior side have learned their lessons and won’t give up a lead. Plus, they want to put last year’s fiasco behind them.
Da negative take:
The senior side will now try to give up a 3 goal lead, just to set a new record and drive the fans crazy.
—————
Ok, I can’t fathom a negative take for sat. It has to be positive and it has to be convincing. Rub it in to Spurs and especially Keano.
I would like a shut out but that won’t happen because Keane will surely score. I figure if Keane does not score, he might retire from football on sunday as life would lose meaning for him as he seems to only care for 2 games in a season, much like the Spurs fans. I think if Spurs won only 2 games against Arsenal all season and lost all their other league games and got relegated with the worst ever EPL record, some Spurs fans will still consider that as a good season :)
So after last year, Arsenal have to stop giving gifts. They have to take an early lead and continue to put pressure on Spurs and then importantly hold onto that lead. No premature smiles and hugs until the job is done.
Who’s going to be the new derby hero for Arsenal? After Henry and Ade, Arsenal need a new go to guy for the derbies. I think Arshavin fits the bill. Would love for him to score and shut those away fans.
Come on Arsenal!!!
Good article DAG.
Interesting point about our performances nip.
Hopefully Eboue will not play, and to be honest… I’d rather have Ramsey or Merida in MF than Diaby.
All the score predictions everyone has made thus far have Arsenal allowing only 1 or 0 goals… I tell you I don’t see that happening with our current form, and our recent history in North London Derby matches. And Spurs don’t have what you would call a rock solid defense either… those factors should combine to make for a pretty exciting game, on top of the intensity.
I will say 3-2 Arsenal.
If I were Arsene, I would put this up in the dressing room
08-09 season – Arsenal played Spurs on 28/Oct
09-10 season – Arsenal play Spurs on 31/Oct
08-09 season – league record before Spurs game P9 W6 D1 L2 GF18 GA6
09-10 season – league record before Spurs game P9 W6 D1 L2 GF29 GA13
08-09 season – CL record before Spurs game P5 W4 D1 L0 GF16 GA3
09-10 season – CL record before Spurs game P5 W4 D1 L0 GF11 GA4
Despite the much improved football this season, we have the same number of points as last year!! And it was exactly against Spurs, that our season started to fall apart. If we fail to beat Spurs again, all the old questions about Arsenal’s inability to win will be raised all over again. We need to win and win big. It is that simple.
I want nothing less than a 3-0 win. :)
Please beat these bastards.
Nice article.
Really looking forward to this. Our home record this season has been exceptional. Tottenham are the strongest team to come to the Emirates yet, and I really hope that it doesn’t cause our players to play with the handbrake on. If we go out onto the pitch without inhibition I am confident of victory (hopefully with some better defensive positioning from us so as not to get exploited on the counter).
Agree with the possible starting 11 you’ve mentioned:
GK- I expect to see Almunia back, and like you said, hopefully its a revitalised inspired version of the spaniard.
Defence picks itself.
Mid- Song and Cesc are a no brainer, probably with Diaby (though I wouldn’t be disappointed with Ramsey starting).
Attack- NO EBOUE pls. I’m not a hater of the guy, in fact I quite like some of the things he brings to the squad, but far too many attacks break down when he is playing up front. Hoping to see Arsh and Vp partnered by bendtner (would give us added height and he’s playing a very motivated game judging by the CC performance)
Nasri whould make the bench and would be a good option to have coming off. Same with Eduardo. Vela apparently has a knee injury which prevented him playing midweek. Merida, Eboue, Ramsey. Silvestre, Mannone, Gibbs on the bench and our substitute options aren’t looking half bad.
Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham