We beat Spurs one nil to record our third straight victory at the Toilet Bowl. It is one of the good days.
Spurs began with a lot of possession whilst we looked compact in defence. We took a few minutes to find our shape, Trossard and Havertz interchanging sufficiently that it would be hard to claim either were playing striker, whilst Saka’s press was off until he worked out that Partey behind him was not going to be in the same places as Odegaard would be and adjusted.
Gradually, we settled down. Both sides had chances, and the game felt tense, everyone knowing it was likely to be decided by who made the most of a few crucial moments.
Solanke dithered after White lost the ball and failed to get a shot off. Martinelli was put through by Trossard for our best chance of the half but he shot tamely at Vicario instead of cutting across the defender’s line or squaring for Saka.
Havertz had a couple of decent headers, one of which Vicario knocked into a Spurs hand, but that’s never a penalty. Both sides had a few corners which they made little of and Solanke held off Gabriel to loop a header over Raya but round the post.
Jared Gillet dished out a lot of yellows (a record 7 in a first half). Saliba got a stupid one for holding onto the ball after giving away a free kick. Please don’t get any more of them. Spurs got a few, none of them for anything egregious and it wasn’t a game with the aggression and physicality of many we’ve seen in this fixture down the years.
It kicked off briefly about ten minutes before half time. Timber went in for a challenge in a way that I would not advise Arsenal players to do. His foot went on the ball and nearly went over it. If you keep doing that, you’ll keep getting cards, and a small error in timing may turn them from yellow into red. It is also the type of challenge which can genuinely hurt the opponent if it isn’t just right, so I have no issue with the yellow, but I would not be calling for a red if a Spurs player had done it, so I’ve no truck with the idea that Timber was lucky on that count.
The opening twenty minutes of the second half saw little action until we broke away and Saka had a shot blocked for a corner. He took the corner, whipping it into the six-yard box where Gabriel rose unchallenged to head it in.
Vicario and Romero were all kinds of bad, and for all our prowess at set-plays, Spurs were undone simply by a bit of really poor defending. At this level, they have no excuse for making it that easy for us.
Not much more happened. Spurs huffed and puffed and we held them at arm’s length, trusting our defending to shut them out. Sterling came on for his debut alongside Jesus, replacing Trossard and Martinelli. Saka limped off with an injury, so we will have to hope he’s okay. Ethan Nwaneri came on for the last ten minutes or so, and did very well. He looked calm, had the sense not to overplay the ball but also held it when he needed to. And he got a taste of the big game atmosphere. Jesus did well to push him up top and defend the right-hand side, taking a bit of pressure off the young man.
The game ended 11 vs 11, which did not look likely at half-time, and more importantly, 1-0 to The Arsenal.
So, what else is there to say?
Well, a few thoughts…
Timber is a really good player. Strong, technically sound, gets forward but gets back into position, good in one on ones. The more he plays, the better he will get.
Martinelli is not doing well in terms of goals and assists – he needs to improve his numbers. He does not make the most of good positions as moves break down to early and too easily when he either makes a bad choice or executes poorly. That said, he is still such a valuable player. Both he and Saka are absolute beasts on our wings in terms of their running, positioning, defensive output and mentality to do a job for the team. At his very worst, Martinelli is such a strong team player who makes us really hard to play against. When he starts getting his attacking numbers up, he’ll really be one of the best in the league. It is also this side of his game that Trossard does not replicate. Martinelli will get the nod against City next week.
Conversely, even in a brief cameo, we can see that Sterling is gonna make great runs off the ball and be willing defensive cover, but he will take time before he works out where he needs to be in our defensive shape. The question he needs to ask is “where would Martinelli be?”
Havertz, Saka and Trossard between them will have just about enough guile and cleverness to cover for Odegaard’s absence in the short term. I don’t know if they can in the longer term and I don’t want to find out.
Raya is really good. Even six months ago, when we could all see he was an upgrade on Ramsdale, I did not think he was a top, top keeper like Allison or Ederson, but his start to the season has been fantastic. He made a diving stop when a cross flashed past everyone in the box and looked to be heading in the far corner, but even though he didn’t have many more tough saves to make, he just looked composed in the way he dealt with everything Spurs threw at us, and he’s starting to fill me with confidence that doesn’t just stem from the fact that he plays behind the best defensive partnership in the league and the best we have had for twenty years, at least.
Partey and Jorginho did okay in the middle, and they did well not to overreach and leave themselves out of position. Jorginho’s ability to come into the side, as captain, for his first game of the season, in a NLD, and perform like that is truly remarkable. He is such an asset for his manager and his club. Very well played.
As for Spurs. They are all a bit meh. Even the usually odious Romero did little to wind us up, at least by his own high standards.
Personally, after the game they played against City last season when so many of their fans showed themselves to be more concerned with us doing badly than their own team doing well, I lost some of my interest in the rivalry. I have time for passionate fans who support their club and know what that means (or at least, what that has traditionally meant until recent times) regardless of what team they support.
I don’t have time for clowns who don’t care about their club’s integrity, change their opinion every five minutes and think that a sign of being a committed supporter is the vehemence with which they slag their own team off after a loss.
All clubs probably have far too few of the former and too many of the latter these days, but the current crop of Spurs fans don’t seem worth arguing with and the current Spurs team doesn’t interest me in the slightest. Perhaps a part of that is just that our own club has now got its sights set well and truly higher. We have bigger fish to fry, larger cocks to knock off their perches. Or whatever it is one does to vanquish large cocks. Ahem.
Don’t get me wrong, I am chuffed we’ve beaten our rivals, but despite the best efforts of the home fans to make it tough for us, ultimately, they set their stall out with that reedy trumpet and their pathetic rendition of Oh When the Saints Go Marching In (with ‘Spurs’ lazily subbed in for ‘Saints’) which has mysteriously started up right after own our new club anthem has organically arrived on the scene. What a strange coincidence.
That’s a beautiful metaphor for them as a club; trying hard to keep up, not quite backing up their big talk, not quite the big cheeses they want to be seen as, always in our shadow.
For us, there are bigger and more important tests ahead. Today, rivalry or not, we looked like a team focused on winning a league, not just a game. That’s a great sign.
Until next time, ‘holics…
GSD,
Thanks for doing such a speedy and interesting report . I found the game a tense watch but got increasingly confident as the game wore on . I think you picked out some real heroes for us today although it was essentially a hugely committed team performance and we were so well drilled , especially in defence . I’d add a big shout out to Trossard who I thought was committed and effective and Havertz who has now integrated into the team brilliantly .
Your point about Spuds fans is very well made. I thought they showed themselves up very badly last May . It’s a pathetic club
While I accept your comments about Timber’s tackle , I still relapse into the days when I was playing when tackles carried an element of risk and Timber’s type of tackle would have been lauded as an effective attempt to win the ball, Football authorities have clamped down on tackling because of the speed of the game and the dishonesty of players who fake injury after every tackle they experience . I guess that is inevitable but I loved games where players put in big hits, trying to play the ball and not to catch their opponent Players are more deceitful now and much more likely to try to hurt an opponent with a sly challenge .
In a few years time we will have ‘ Nanny State ‘ football where heading is outlawed, tackling is not attempted and there is virtually no physical contact . It will be a poorer game to watch and much less satisfying to play . And the Spuds will be no nearer winning a trophy !
Great going, GSD. All in all, I thought we dealt well with the absence of Ødegaard and Rice. Props to Trossard, and to Arteta and the coaching staff for tweaking things just enough to cope without upsetting the overall rhythm of the team.
Your assessment of Martinelli is interesting and, I think, correct. Ditto that of Raya. As I said in the previous drinks, Timber is the real deal. With the enforced double pivot of Jorginho and Partey, Timber probably inverted far less than Zinchenko would have done and Martinelli likely benefited from having Timber playing up and down the wing behind him.
Jorginho was outstanding. He looked shattered towards the end. Thankfully, Rice’s return will let him put his feet up midweek.
Three games in eight days will test Partey. The sloppy passing that creeps into his game when he gets tired was only too evident in the second half. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lewis-Skelley getting some minutes on Thursday towards the end of the game.
Most of all, as you say:
Some clips never get old, Ned
A great report of a great performance. You accurately highlight the superheroes among the team of heroes, the key moments in the match and the fine job covering for the absence of Ødegaard and Rice by MA8, his backroom team and the 11 men who started but your own highlight is your observations on the pathetic Marshdweller fans and their club’s pathetic effort to emulate ‘North London Forever’. Despite not taking his chance and failing to deliver a killer ball today, Martinelli was a constant threat and our consistently most dangerous attacker. He will certainly start against C115y.
The Match Week 4 leaderboard for the GHF Predictathon has been posted. Some big weeks for some big names. You know where to find it…
Thanks GSD, a quick and accurate report of the game. We controlled the game very well after our goal and by the end I felt that the spuds would never score.
Great report, GSD – accurate, insightful and quick. The Guv will be smiling.
I have to say that on seeing the bench in particular, I was very downbeat about our prospects. 6 first teasers out – including the permanent-injured Tomiyasu and Zinchenko, 7 if you count similarly afflicted Tierney- and 5 -count ‘em, 5 – 17 year olds on the bench. It was as though the game were a throwback to the early Wenger years in the League Cup. The game was probably one of the least “blood and thunder” north London derbies I can remember. Probably just as well with our current injury situation. And yet the referee made a whole raft of bookings in the first half. Saliba’s, given the events of last game, was just plain stupid. However I can’t see what Timber did wrong. Maybe his booking was for the handbags with Flappario, the Middlesex glove butler. The bookings certainly had the effect of putting the focus on the football and taking away the dangers to players which I feel certainly helped us. Saka and Martinelli did fantastic work in ensuring that the wings, the most likely area for penetration by the Middlesex team, were blocked and the full back were backed up at all times. Obviously this meant that we lost some forward penetration but given our lack of experienced back up, Arteta got this spot on. When Martinelli went off, presumably exhausted, I think we could all see why Sterling didn’t start. He seemed to amble about and showed considerably less appetite for backing up his fullback. Trossard worked so hard as did Havertz. In the end, a very good win, leaving the Marshdwellers the consolation of visiting their much vaunted cheeseroom, presumably for a selection of the harder fromages, washed down with sour grapes.
All is as it should be.
Teamers, although my typo is strangely appropriate.
The front four worked outstandingly hard. If I was MA I would think hard about starting Jesus and Sterling against Atalanta as the same front four will need to put the same amount of work in at 115ty next weekend.
Very pleasing away win against one of the lower order outfits in the League. Well reported and I agree with pretty much all of your thoughts on the game, GSD other than that Timber was very unlucky to see yellow and, right now, Raya is head and shoulders the best keeper in the League. Martinelli is due a goal burst and I hope he saves it for next weekend vs the 115ers.
Excellent all-round performance by the boys in black. The gentle nudge in the back of Romero just before Gabby almost burst the home outfit’s net put me in mind of Auger vs Mustafi at Wembley in a Cup semi-final. Thankfully the days of Mustafi, Kolasinac, Lichsteiner, early-Xhaka and their likes are long behind us – although they do emerge from the dark shadows of my mind on occasions in the depth of the night. How far we’ve come in terms of our defensive competence.
Auger, of course, being the smart-set nom de plume of the lesser spotted Aguero, a chap that my spillchucker dislikes as much as I do.
People ask me why I go to away games. Why I expend so much time, effort and money in going behind enemy lines. Walking through mean estates surrounded by strange people with a chicken on a basketball on their chests.
It’s for days like this. For Gooners of my generation this was a perfect win. Against the odds, with eight of the first team squad not available for selection, with four teenagers on the bench, a gritty and well planned defensive performance kept Spurs at bay.
And to put the cap on the win, a centre half determined to get his head on a perfect corner thumped the ball home in front of 3000 ecstatic Arsenal fans. For a moment we were back in the eighties, with George Graham masterminding a tough mean back five and Tony Adams putting life and limb at risk to get his nut on the ball. And life and limb were at risk in the away end as we went berserk as the net rippled.
My son and I are now two for two at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
That’s why we go to away games.
I’m no lover of the daily Express but I love this back page.
Cheers all.
Yesterday, I gave the players their flowers for a fully committed performance.
Today, it’s the boss’ turn. Arteta got his selection and tactics spot on. He got the team in the right frame of mind to put in just the type of performance we need. He was superb in everything he did yesterday and evidently in the build-up too. He is such a complete coach. And he’s still getting better. Top stuff. Top man.
UTA!
Favourite chant of the day, although it’s not new
Cheer up Postecoglu
Oh what can it mean
To a, fat Aussie Bastard
Nada, shit football team
“And a” not Nada
But will PGMOL allow Arsenal to wear their red shirts AT HOME against Spurs???
Nice chant.
My favourite image of the cockerel at the old WHL was when a couple of our lads had climbed up and tied a red and white scarf round its neck the night before a NLD and it was still there at kick off. It was shown several times on the Sky broadcast but sadly the image has disappeared from the internet probably because it’s not acceptable behaviour to the thought police in this repressive ‘Roundhead age’.
bt8@17: Because PGMOL are equal opportunity muppets, they have ruled that the neighbours must wear their away kit when they next come visiting.
BtM@10: You will no doubt be delighted to know you may get to see your old chum Sead Kolasinac on Thursday as he is now at Atalanta.
I am indebted to Swiss Ramble’s review of the Red Mancs finances for this tidbit:
in the period from the Glazers’ arrival up to 2023, Manchester United’s £777m interest payment was exactly three times as much as the next highest club, namely Arsenal with £259m.
At least we have a stadium for our financial pain, whereas United fans just got the privilege of having the Glazers as owners and damp necks from where the OT roof leaks.
This is the view of a Spurs blogger who writes well and is worth reading IMHO
Cheers C100. I think you’ve linked that blog before.and I’ve appreciated it. It was well worth a read today.
Exactly the sort of fan and post that I’ve got plenty of time for, even if he is a Spud. The ups and downs of being a fan are shared by us all, and losing to your rivals is no fun.
I particularly liked that he singled out some of what Ange stands for as a reason he’s bought into his project. Football has to be more than just a craven grab for success at any cost, whoever you support. We’ll, for me it does, anyway. Other opinions are available.
On a completely unrelated topic, I believe there is a court case that started today, isn’t there?
Thank you GSD. If anyone wants a further view from within the the Spurs psyche I recommend A view from the Lane, led by the superlative Danny Kelly. His wife is a Gooner so I feel his pain.
Thanks for two good links, C100. Alan Fisher makes a well-reasoned point that the style of game a team is trying to play doesn’t matter a jot if the quality of its football is plain ordinary.
Thanks for the link @21 C100, it’s a good honest piece of writing. From a distance the spud situation reminds me a little of us under UE, they have some good players and some who don’t look up to it but basically something is wrong with the mentality at the core and some of them are being allowed to mail it in.
442’s Adam Clery’s breakdown:
In the video and stills of the goal I love how Maddison and van de Ven are fouling (yes both have arms wrapped around opponents and are clearly fouling) but at the same time shepherding White and Saliba out of the way to give Gabriel a clear path to goal.
Thanks Ned, entertaining as ever from Adam.
…and no thanks to the Premier League who have had it taken down before I got to see it.☹️
It seems that a tally of 15 points is likely to secure a top eight finish in the new CL format according to Opta, i.e. 5 wins or 4 wins and a draw from the 8 games and 9 points are more than likely to secure a place in the 16 club play-off for the 9th to 24th placed clubs. Read more here (£):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/09/16/champions-league-draw-when/
I do think we can afford to ring the changes in Atalanta and I would play something akin to:
Raya
White, Saliba, Kiwior, Zinny/Calafiori/Skelly
Nwaneri, Rice, Skelly/Trossard
Sterling, Jesus, Martinelli
Pangloss@29: Another go:
Good job, GSD – a shame I’ve only just had time to read it.
Some very good thoughts on practically all our players and especially on the Spurs fans.
That dirge of a song they’ve nicked from Southampton and the lack of a reaction in their support having gone a goal down, suggests they’ve realised how far behind us they really are and have just given up.
Their team is second rate and their play acting a way worse than that.
A brilliant effort in difficult circumstances by everyone in our team. Our defence is a joy to watch – 10 players moving as one to cover every opposition move and never a single lapse in concentration . Arteta has done a magnificent job.
Great write-up, GSD.
Win the next match.
MCMBD
Some great analysis here especially by Clery . He has an extraordinary gift for dissemination of tactical ideas .I hate seeing Arsenal without the ball but this was a true masterclass and a great example of how to restrict the effectiveness of the opposition.
https://archive.ph/IKpSe
Thanks Ned@32. First chance I’ve had to look at Adam Clery’s video analysis. Well worth the late night.
Spoiler alert: above linked article is about Danny’s big day facing down the Sp**s on Sunday.
The NLD certainly attracted some very interesting , high-quality comment and analysis, not least from our own GSD . I thought the Spud blog that C100 attached was a very fair and intelligent blog, not just because it praised Arsenal but because it was realistic . Spud supporters seem generally to be losing faith in Angeball although some are counselling patience and point to the problems Arteta encountered early in his tenure .
I think Arteta bought himself time with our Cup and Community Shield triumphs but to me the essential difference is that Arteta is a generational coach and the Arsenal hierarchy spotted that very early on . I’m told that Sanllehi and Gazidis flipped to Emery partly because of a presentation Emery made …?..I’d pay to watch that given his communication issues and partly because of a connection between Sanllehi and an agent representing Emery ( sounds familiar). Maybe that extra time at C152y ( or whatever it is ) was of help to Arteta but he inherited a dysfunctional squad when he arrived and it wouldn’t have been any different if he had arrived earlier.
Ange , despite a paean of praise I heard from a taxi driver in Scotland last year , does not appear to be a generational coach. He has a different tactical approach ( Clery’s analysis points out just how pragmatic Arteta was on Sunday ) but Ange appears to have no Plan B. His Plan B is more of Plan A. That might work in Australia or Scotland ( if you are managing Celtic ) but it looks very naive in a league with the technical quality and tactical awareness of the PL .
So does Levy stick or twist with his latest attempt to provide a credible manager at the Swamp? My Spud friends increasingly feel he will be gone by Christmas ( I had Nuno to be sacked first which is in line with my desultory performance in the Predictathon . If Levy was my boss I’d be out!)
TTG, Before Postecoglou lasts too long like a piece of bad cheese in the hot sun, I’d like to put my hand up to say that I nominated Ange in the Predictathon to be sacked first. If and when he is sacked, I promise to remind you again.
Trev it appears that Odegaard has a partial ankle ligament injury. What would be your prognosis ?
bt8@40: If Ange is the first to get the tin-tack, not only can you crow your prescience, but you alone will have the right to do so.
>>>>>>>