Their empire of dust needs to be swept under the carpet
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 11:07AM There is no doubting that we need to finish above Arsenal to truly crow about the shift in power under the brooding North London sky. But you need to be insane (or own a red and white shirt) to disagree that one cycle is coming to its end and another continues to blossom.
One of the finest testaments to the Redknapp era at Spurs is the fact that in recent years we have the better record over our old enemy. In head to heads, we tend to best them. The fear, the crippling self-doubt...doesn’t exist any more. For too many years we lacked the quality and the authority to stamp Lilywhite across the NLD and sheer plucky effort was never enough as we were brushed aside time and time again. The dominance of the monopoly crumbled and everyone up top degraded a little. Arsenal have gone from super human to mere mortals whilst we have anchored ourselves to the upper tier without yet consolidating, but with every chance of doing so.
Wenger and his sorry lot are akin to Superman when he agrees to sacrifice his powers. Except you can’t see them getting their powers back (unlike in the movie), what with Arsene building a Fortress of Solitude out of Kryptonite. They’ve lost their best players. They tend to lose their best players almost by default these days. You expect them to replace the lost souls with new Gods but they dither and end up with decent players but of the ilk you expect seasoned top eight sides to sign. It’s a sign of the times, they’re in transition and they are struggling to adapt to morality. They look beatable. They look like they have mistakes and lapses of concentration in them all the time.
This is not an obituary. They still possess quality, but in a twisted way they are more alike to us in terms of how we shaped up a few seasons back. Couple of star players in amongst the ordinary, fancy football flattering to deceive. They show glimpses of belief and desire but it's almost at the expense of really having to push for it, rather than oozing with ease.
Our 2-1 win more or less paints the same picture as described above. Reactions from their support further illustrating how different things truly are at this moment in time. Did Arsenal play well at the Lane? Apparently so. They nicked possession by a couple of %. But if this was Arsenal playing well (bossing it) how come I hardly remember Friedel having to shot-stop? Szczesny on the other hand? More to the point, if this was Arsenal playing well, how can a Spurs side that hardly asserted themselves still be so comfortable in victory? You could point to Redknapp and claim he started the wrong midfield and that had we played three centrally to combat their three man midfield then Arsenal would not have enjoyed so much time on the ball.
They had efforts. They missed a sitter. They struggled to find cutting edge. We had less time on the ball, failed to dictate tempo but on the counter we were too good for their disorganised defence to handle. When Redknapp made the tactical switch and brought on Sandro it was game over. I’ll wager we’d have won easily if he had started. We’d have suffocated their trio and allowed the likes of Bale to run riot. From the heart of a defensive stronghold there would have been offensive riches to behold. Sandro and Parker in the middle means less of the running back for the more creative of our players.
In an ironic role-reversal, they matched us (we're meant to have the better players, right?) and at the start of the second half bettered us. And yet in the end our quality was superior. The likes of Parker, King and Walker excelling. Defoe worked his socks off. Okay, so Ade was subdued and Modric not as influentially. But Bale was menacing in the second half and Sandro consolidated.
A better Arsenal side with some of those long gone players strutting their stuff would have (might have) punished us. Speaks volumes that we can start the wrong formation and yet still work our way to three points. It’s not that we didn’t play well, it’s just that we should have been set up to be far stronger from the start. We have the depth now. We got away with it because they’re the ones now punching above their weight, trying to play a particular way when lacking the players to do so. We have that little bit more in the way of desire and belief than they do.
When Walker scored, I was obviously euphoric but there was a voice in my head that said, “Well that was expected, wasn’t it?”. What bizarro universe is this that I suddenly find myself living in?
New Spurs. Don’t have to play well to beat Arsenal. I like that.
Observations:
Was it handball? Top of arm? Apex? I’m going to be completely biased and say it was majestically controlled and not blatantly ‘handball’ in the traditional way. This was hardly a Henry moment. Arsenal should have complained about it with more vigour but they don’t even seem to have that in them these days.
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Talking of Rafa. He loves giving it to the scum. It's like having a Dutch version of Jenas.
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Ade. Obviously had a Robbie Keane moment when one on one and thought too much about the moment rather than instinctively scoring then concerning himself about whether to celebrate or not.
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As for Jack Wilshere and his tweets:
"Van der Vaart should be sent off! He celebrated with the fans? I'm sure that is a yellow?"
“Remember one thing.....Form is temporary and class is permanent!”
Let’s humour him. Rafa did not jump into the stands. If anything the fans moved towards the player. He then moved back. Absolutely nothing to see here other than someone passionately celebrating a goal in a massive game. If Jack was to ever score in a NLD, I look forward to him shaking hands with his team-mates and briskly walking back to the centre-circle.
As for his form/class comment? I’ll remember one thing Jack, your desperation.
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The vile chanting. The way the media are banging on about it, anybody would think this only ever happens when Spurs play Arsenal.
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Remember how most of us felt post-transfer window closure? We wanted more than what we got. What we’ve got is four wins out of four with Parker and Adebayor. Probably worthy of another article, so I'll just say sorry. I was (along with a few) proved wrong about Parker. I'm okay with that.
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12 points. 6 games. Both Manc sides played along with Liverpool and Arsenal. Just Chelsea left. Next nine games look winnable. This being Tottenham it’s the games we should be winning where we end up dropping points. But retaining confidence and positivity...we’re accomplished these days away from home and our form at the Lane remains strong (we don’t lose too many). The season is about to kick off for us.
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Clive Allen. Knight him.
Reader Comments (70)
We actually played more 4-3-3 than 4-4-2 on Sunday anyway.
VDV did no really operate as a RM in a 4-4-2 did he.
Often Rafa was no place near there and floating positionally.
Their 5 man midfield was setup against our 3 man midfield.
And we still beat em. How funny is that.
"“Remember one thing.....Form is temporary and class is permanent!”" - Jack Wilshere
....just to be pedantic. That's two things.
>>>>Talking of Rafa. He loves giving it to the scum.<<<<
This is why VDV is on the back of my shiny new Investec shirt. 3 goals in 4 games now isn't it?
3 league wins and a draw in the last 4. Not bad at all! Many years of hurt brought to an end. COYS!
I must apologise but with so many sorry Arsenal fans showing their frustrations here, i simply cannot resist.
We still have a long way to go before there is truly a shift in power but Arsenal are stagnating or worse. I felt very sorry for them being humiliated at OT, losing to us 2-1 after a decent game but to lose to Blackburn by gifting them so many goals...
You Arsenal fans please feel free to vent your anger, I have a bad feeling that as they are yet to play Chelsea, Wolves, Stoke, Man City and QPR there's gonna be a lot more anger to release ...
Clive Allen I dont agree with his stand. What's so important about shaking Arsene's hand?
I must commend that Wenger has improved. Previously when they lost, he would refuse to shake anyone's hand aftrr the game. This time, he shook not one but two!He used to be a bad loser, now I guess he's getting used to losing more regularly.
Enough of the soap opera, gooners, getthef&*% out of our blog. It's beginning to stink with the stench of losers...
"When Walker scored, I was obviously euphoric but there was a voice in my head that said, “Well that was expected, wasn’t it?”
the voice in my head went, shit we've a habit of throwing things away to teams from the bottom six.....
Great article and I suspect sums up a lot of our thoughts both before, during and after the match.
Since the 2 Manc games at the start of the season, we have given the centre of our team a real spine with the return of King and arrival of Parker and Ade.
Difficult to know which of them is most important.
I guess Gallas can cover for King when fit and Sandro can fill in for Parker although I think the 2 of them playing in CM will make us rock solid.
No obvious replacement for Ade at this time.
Apparentley Szczesny has pulled out of the Polish squad due to a back problem.
Bending over to pick the ball out of the net so many times could be to blame !
@ Singapore
I'd shake Wenger's hand. It's wonderful what he's doing to the arse right now. I heart him bigtime.
Last 18 league games for Arsenal, 19pts taken. That's not mediocre, that's relegation battle stuff. Alas, we move on. As young Wilshere said after Mr. Wenger didn't shake CA's hand, "Class is permanent" or lack there of. 2 weeks off and a tie up at St. James. No time to celebrate, glad we got two weeks off now.
Almost a 5th of the season gone and Arsenal are struggling at a time they are usually flying.
We are top 6 with a game in hand.
If they want to ignore the reality of the situation that's ok by me, because that's the best way to ensure a problem doesn't get fixed.
We'll finish above them for sure.
If /when Van Persie gets injured they will struggle for goals. If/when Adebayor gets injured we won't resort to playing route 1 football and for me that's the biggest difference from last year,
TOON TOON BLACK & WHITE ARMY!!!!!
I just cannot believe my ears!! VDV is complaining about being played on the right! This after he was given freedom to run all over and even got a goal. I guess he's trying to deflect blame for letting Song run through. Some players! He is an incredible player but what a diva!
Dont believe all the rubbish you read Nochman - he simply said in reply to a question that his preferred position is through the centre, the rest of it was made up bollox by the journo.
Goons make me laugh, delusional wankers
Wilshere is about as irritating as Barton on that blasted twitter. In fact, I'd say just a little less tolerable. Though still in competition.
I was hoping to see us steam roll arse, however that winning goal from Walker made my day. Kind of a, 'Huddlestonesque hammer shot'.
Hate the international break...gets in the way of real football. So it goes...anyway, COYS!
'international break get's in way of run of good form for spurs'- Never thought I would hear that one. Usually a blessing in disguise the international break, 'a chance to regroup' is normally the order of the day.
However, and at the risk of appearing completely wrong, I would like to defend a section of the Goon community. There are those that live in the real world and know exactly what is going on (19 points from last 18 games in EPL, etc), but they are continually suppressed by the AKB brigade as being a 'minority'. Internal wranglings are already going on as those who have known more than just Wenger as a Manager start to whisper that 'one manager isn't bigger than the club'.
But as much as I would relish the chance to give some backing to the anti-wenger / kronke brigade to divide and conquer from within, in order to see an end to the frenchman's tenure and the start of the spiral and fall from grace of what was clearly 'a club to aspire to replicate' six years ago.
I can't help but think that covertly supporting the 'majority' of deluded, mindless idiots who still think that 'Arsene Knows Best', and helping them keep that faith, may take them spiralling down quicker, as their perenially myopic surrender monkey concedes all title races by christmas, which will be of more benefit to Spurs in the short term.
So let them think that the power is no where near shifting, let them make their excuses and find a million statistics for 'how they are better than spurs'.
In case you think I've temporarily lost my marbles, anything that rids the world of the blight that is 'goonerism' I'm all in favour of, that is all. (Even if it is only to be replaced with 'citeh-ism' by a curiously similar bunch of people).
We aren't 'better than them' yet(!), but where they were once our benchmark for success, we are now their benchmark for 'keeping up with the pack'.
Now for all objective spurs and gooners alike, you tell me that the tide isn't changing just a little. And I can't help but think of Canute in a chair, only this time it isn't a tidal rise or fall in success they are facing, it's a cash fuelled tsunami of destruction coming their way (I can but hope).
tricky, you and Machiavelli would make a great pair... chuckle, chuckle
Actually, I've started constructing a large wooden horse in my back garden, as a sort of peace offering to the gooners.
Just to say sorry for the songs we sang about their manager, you know the chap, french, sort of grey looking, likes to kick plastic bottles, sometimes carries around a bag of sweets and a cheeky smile.
"Actually, I've started constructing a large wooden horse in my back garden, as a sort of peace offering to the gooners."
@tricky.... I thought they pitched up at The Library?
It's funny eh spooks all this talk of aggression, bile & acidic nature seems to come from the mouth (or keyboards) of the poor old Woolwhich wonderers, I realise it's a bitter medicine for Le Arse to swallow, but hey you know what they better get used to the taste of the lillywhite juice contained in the humble pie we wish to serve them, I know it would be a fantasy to see them down in the tier of football that suits them, but hey my fantasy of a 3some (the cool kind) was just that until I made it a reality, so why stop dreaming!? To Dare Is To Do, what's their slogan again? oh it doesn't matter they have their memories of the victories they had (I remember when they used to bleat that at us) but I think if you compare the trophy cabinet you'll see we have European cups along with league cups, & I think it's still http://www.sincearsenallastwonatrophy.co.uk/. COYMS!