We all wear masks on the inside.
The North London Derby can sometimes give us iconic moments. There was the time Thierry Henry scored and ran 100 yards to knee slide in front of the Spurs fans. There was the time that Patrick Vieira ran 100 yards and reached out a telescopic leg to score the first goal in what would be a title-winning draw at Wet Fart Lane. There was the time that the light from the setting sun glinted off Tomas Rosicky’s hair to make it look like he caught on fire just before he scored the only goal in a 1-0 winner. There was Cesc Fabregas scoring a solo goal from Spurs’ kickoff right after van Persie had scored. And yesterday, we had Kane trying to dribble, falling over, then Arsenal making two neat little passes to get Bukayo Saka forward only for Kane to barrel in and try to slide-tackle Saka but block his pass right back to him so that the Arsenal man could score the third. It’s a moment that I will replay over and over again in my memory for quite a few years.
The match itself was also quite good, that moment just being the best. Arsenal came out in the first half with an intensity befitting the North London Derby, led by the pressing intensity of Aubameyang (20) and Martin Ødegaard (22). It also helped that Nuno Dispirited Santo played the Christmas tree formation in the first half which left huge gaps in midfield that Ødegaard quite expertly filled and which his teammates quite expertly found him in (he led the team in carries with 39 and progressive carries with 7, and was the recipient of 52 passes, more than any of his teammates).
The day will perhaps be most remembered for that iconic moment above but we shouldn’t forget the game that Saka and Smith Rowe had last night. Saka had a goal and an assist in that game and the assist was for Smith Rowe. As I’ve said time and again, those two have a special partnership[p. When one dips to the byline the other runs to where he knows the pass will end up. That’s exactly what happened for Arsenal’s first goal: Saka got an inch of space past his man and played in a nutmeg dragback to the penalty spot. Smith Rowe saw the play developing and ran to the spot to meet the pass and swept it in easily. Aubameyang made it two after a lovely cutback from Smith Rowe found him in a pocket of space inside the Spurs 18 yard box. But it’s the third goal which will live in infamy. Here are the scenes:
The second half was a bit of a closer match than I would have cared for but Nuno did make some bold changes and switched to a 4231 to match Arsenal, bringing on Skips and Royal for Alli and Tanganga and adding Gil at the 70th minute mark. Spurs were able to create two really good chances in the 2nd half, which Son scored and Kane missed. They also had a very low % shot (0.01 xG) spectacularly saved by Ramsdale as he leapt to palm away Moura’s dipping shot from distance in the 91st minute.
Arsenal’s second half performance wasn’t incredible but it was professional. We have a lot of experience slowing games down and that’s exactly what we did. I was sometimes frustrated with the team when a fullback stopped his run at the half-way line but that’s a minor complaint and given the score-line and the importance of getting a win here (and not letting them get back into the game) I understood why Arteta was playing ultra-conservative. I would have loved a 6-0 thrashing but I have seen Arsenal also let a 3-0 lead slip away and that feeling is unbearable. But we didn’t do that, and the feeling we have here today is quite bearable. In fact, it’s enjoyable. The most enjoyable feeling I’ve had from an Arsenal match since we beat them 4-2 back in December 2018 (yes, I know we beat them 2-1 in March but for whatever reason, this match and the one in 2018 stand out).
I’ll end with a few moments that you might not have noticed which struck a chord with me.
Ramsdale punching the ground when Son scored. I think he was frustrated that we weren’t going to be able to keep a clean sheet. That’s the kind of passion I want from a keeper. Leno is decent enough and has a bit more technical quality about him but Ramsdale ticks all my boxes for a keeper. I also don’t think Leno makes that save off Moura’s shot. And I loved his time-wasting. It was so very professional of him. Sorry, but he’s my #1 from here on out.
The referee denying penalties. I thought Kane went down too easily and so did Gabriel. Could he have given those pens? Of course he could have. Would it have made for a better match? I don’t think so. Hey, you want consistency? There’s your consistency! Honestly I think Craig Pawson had a good game. He didn’t hand out too many yellow cards (could have booked Xhaka three times but didn’t) and he didn’t let marginal calls decide the game. We often talk about how much we hate the refs but we should praise them for their good matches instead.
Gabriel telling players to calm down after the third goal. I think he even said something like “be professional” but that’s my lip-reading. Or maybe it was lip-wishing? I don’t know, but I do know that it looks like we have a lot of leaders on the team now and I like it.
Squad numbers. Arsenal played with 6 guys who wear squad numbers and play in the “correct” position for the team: Tierney (3, LB); Gabriel (6, CB); White (4, CB); Partey (5, D MFer); Saka (7, wide MFer); Ødegaard (8, MFer); Smith Rowe (10, A MFer); Aubameyang (14, forward*). We need to get Tomiyasu the number 2 (sorry Hector!), Ramsdale the number 1, and probably could give someone (Pepe?) the number 11 shirt if we wanted to (I doubt very much Torreira is coming back).
Tomiyasu was targeted by Tottenham and the whole team responded. He had an individually good performance but didn’t put up a ton of defensive numbers himself (just 1 tackle, 6 pressures, 1 block, and 1 interception) but the team defensive map shows that Arsenal as a team defended his space well: Ben White had 5 interceptions and Partey had 4 plus 2 tackles and 2 blocked passes. Defense is almost always about teamwork so it was good to see the whole team pulling together to cover that space as Nuno tried to exploit what he thought was a weakness.
Next up: Brighton, Saturday, late kickoff. Hope to keep this buzz going until then.
*Yeah yeah, I know that forwards usually wear #9 but 14 is traditional for Arsenal.
I love this beautiful game. Yesterday’s match checked (ticked) so many boxes
For me the ultimate was seeing Mikel Arteta finally unleashing his emotions and showing his excitement with celebrating each single goal!
Never has been never will be. Go back to Woolwich.
Were you one of the ones who left at half time?
Wow you actually won 3 games in a row , you must be in for a title push now.
Yeah, but we’ll never amass the silverware your club have over the last 50 years.
There there…..
This comment is almost as pathetic as the fact you haven’t won a trophy since 2007.
Do they even teach phonetics down Tottnum High Road? Must be challenging being able to read but not having quality blogs or fora of your own… 😎
Vote for
Wet Fart Lane
😂
Felt the same way about Ramsdale after this game. He’s my Number 1, and Im not sorry. I also feel he’s making a late charge to be England’s Number 1, because Jordan Pickford is displaceable.
And that’s one of the most encouraging things from the game. Arsenal potentially having 4 players in the England squad (ESR is making a case; even if England has insane quality and quantity in forward positions). I like Arsenal having a strong English core.
But back to Ramsdale. I love his personality. The guy is so pleased to be wearing the shirt. How can you not love him? I think that the distribution and shot-blocking difference between him and Leno is overstated (the edge is given to to one in each area). Ramsdale isnt that far ahead in distribution (he had errors yesterday;mone of which could have cost us), but he showed with that tip onto the bar that he isnt necessarily behind in shot blocking.
But he transmits confidence much better. He telegraphs passion and assurance, and calms everyone down. He doesnt take sh1t from opposition defenders. Said it before… the Brentford player who got away with holding Leno isnt making that mistake with Ramsdale. I love the bloke. Fan favourite for years to come.
On Saka, Im continually struck by his ball intelligence and decision-making in the hurly burly of final third play. He’s a gem. He and ESR seem like twins on the football field. When everyone is fit, Pepe will have hard time breaking into our best XI. He’s a good player and has a smashing left peg, but he so slows the play down sometimes. As Arsenal showed yesterday, at our best, we play with fast combos.
Harry Kane? He clearly needs to put a Pep in his step 😉 How costly is that going to be for Spurs? The lesson of Alexis is sell on a high.
Did you notice the rollicking he gave partey (I think) for not closing down the Moura shot? Ben White had to calm him down. Great passion, we may have another Jens between the posts.
👏🏽You love to see that.
I loved that he demanded accountability only a few games into his career with us. He doesn’t hide, and seems not to give a damn about seniority and other dressing room stuff when playing. Refreshing. Plus he’s got that crazy in him that goalkeepers should have.
Now if he could wear full sleeves…
Yes Claude – this game really marks the change in fortunes of the two clubs. One clearly ascendant, the other on a serious downward spiral. Saka and ESR have each taken a step forward this season, and we are only seeing the beginning for that pair. With a little luck and good health, they may carry us back to heights that seemed so unattainable until recently. Love their energy and pride in the badge.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/sep/25/arsenals-struggles-offer-spurs-grim-warning-of-their-own-mediocre-future
This is not a bad article, except that it misses out the part where we now seem to have an identity and a plan, whereas Spurs are still unfortunately treading water, and they royally effed up by not cashing in on Kane in order to fund a rebuild.
What the Tottering trolls don’t seem to realize is that their sad little jibes only serve to emphasize how painful that game must have been for them. And that makes my smile even wider, if possible. Hahahahahahahaha…
Is there a more beautiful sight in football than watching disgruntled Spurs fans making for the exits with 10 minutes of the game remaining. “We can see you sneaking out!” Oh, how we chortled! There is a God. What’s the German for schadenfreude?
Anytime you have that lot trolling on here after a (bad) loss, it can only mean good things. And proves that what we think of Tottenham is bang on. As well as what we think of s%$t.
Was so nervous for this match, especially with Xhaka starting but he done good.
I’ve trained myself not to infer or assume anything after an Arsenal win no matter how good or bad. But if we could go on a bit of a run now given the immediate fixtures it would steady the ship.
Arteta in? Or is the jury still out on our manager? At the very least, he’s prob bought himself some time.
Great stuff Tim. Awesome writing as always.
Fabulous game excellent result. I try not to get down to much during bad runs of form and I don’t get as excited about a good run of form. In the end they balance out. Yesterday was certainly a great game but we are tied with spurs on points and goal differential after 6 games but we have climbed back into the top half of the table where we belong. All in all a very good day.
Games like yesterday are why I don’t believe Arteta is responsible for the difficulty we have had scoring goals. How do we have games like that if our tactics are all wrong. I have seen a couple people speculating that yesterday may have been the turning point for the manager but he is the same guy lots of us wanted sacked a couple weeks ago. He has been with the club for almost 2 years and I can’t imagine he came up with some radically new tactical change that he or his coaching staff had not thought of previously. I think the difference yesterday was we were able to execute the game plan effectively. Most games and most seasons have crests and troughs. It’s hard for any team to stay on top for 90 minutes or 38 games. We hit a really high crest in the first half yesterday and then coasted to the finish. Hopefully this is the start of a good run which will carry us back into contention for one of the Europa league spots and when we hit the next run of bad form we can find a way to avoid it becoming prolonged and difficult
Hi Bill, I dont get your logic.
How can Arteta not be responsible for tactics when we dont score; but get the credit for when we do?
And do you really believe that his team selection and setup had nothing to do with how we played and what resulted?
You say that you cant imagine that he came up with a new tactical change. Clearly he did. In how and where he deployed ESR, Odegaard, Saka, Auba and the speed with which that combo played. Emile playing wide left is a tactical shift.
There is a rumour about Aubamayeng calling a team meeting and speaking out about excessive micro-management from the touch line and to let players decide what is the best move in the heat of the moment, and further they should not face consequences on that account.
We noticed a carefree free flowing football which literally blew the ponderous Spodes away.
Hey BILL! is not tactical change? So where did sudden goal scorers you were hamerring we lacked come from?
Claude. Perhap I did not express properly what I was trying to say. The whole point is I am not blaming his tactics for our problems with scoring but I am not giving his tactics credit for what happened yesterday when we looked so good. The difference was yesterday the players executed the tactics effectively.
We saw this all the time with Arsene. The same players using the same tactics would have completely different performances and results and runs of good form and bad form. One month worth of games was great and the next month we have a bunch of handbrake games. I have no idea what released the handbrake yesterday. How many hundreds of times after a good game or 2 have we hoped that we finally turned the corner and figured things out. Near the end of last season when Pepe had his good run a lot of people were suggesting this was his long awaited breakout and going forward he would be a critical player but now after a few scoreless games the perception is completely different. A player or a formation or a tactic that looked like the long term solution becomes the problem 2 weeks later. The same thing has happened over and over again. We as fans always want to find an explanation for these variations and usually blame or give credit to something the manager does, but I think the reality is that most times these ups and downs that happen during a game or throughout a 38 game season are most often unexplainable. I have become skeptical when we hit a bad run of form and everyone thinks we are doomed, at the same time I am skeptical every time we have a good game or 3 and the new formation or a line up suddenly becomes the next great thing. I hope that makes sense.
Bill, did you watch the game, full game and if you did, where there not some really big changes
A big call was leaving Pepe out with Saka rw and ESR lw. We were physical, not being bullied and playing with a swagger. We’re a different defensive beast with white, Gabriel, Ramsdale, Tomiasou, Partey and now we can go forward in larger numbers.
You didn’t see that, no difference?
You can’t easily separate tactics from player performances, they both feed back on each other. In the end I agree more with Bill than Claude, I think poor player performances have negatively impacted both our choice of tactics (we can’t try the things we want to do) and their execution (we can’t do the things we try). When we can’t play out from the back and start moves but then Ramsdale, Tomi and White start a match together and all of a sudden we can, it’s pretty clear what’s going on.
I think the tactical change for Spurs illustrates my point. Spurs was the first game Arteta could start all of Ramsdale, Tomi, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Xhaka and Partey. That improvement at the back is why he was able to drop Pepe and let the front four float, and we looked both more balanced and more dangerous as a result.
Josh / others are basically right to say that it’s Arteta’s job to get the best out of his team no matter who the players are, and he hasn’t achieved that. BUT it’s also his job to plot a course forwards, and there is no point and no future in adapting or limiting your style of play to fit a set of players who aren’t able to do the job you want them to do, or whose hearts are not in it, or who are stop-gap hires when you’re the manager of Arsenal goddamn Football Club. That’s what we have been doing for years, late Wenger and Emery, it’s what has accelerated our decline and it’s what Arteta’s been trying to reverse while also keeping the performances going. It’s not easy.
People are also right to say that well, if he didn’t have the right squad, that’s at least partly Arteta’s own fault. Agreed, some of those players absolutely were Arteta / Edu’s preferred choices and they bear responsibility for that. But most of them weren’t, and there’s that balancing act to be made in terms of getting the team playing good football in the short term and also rebuilding for the long term. So you exploit agent connections to bring in the hires like Soares, Willian and Luiz to try to add short-term quality and cover, you keep Chambers and Elneny around because they’re limited but reliable and on the other hand you keep loaning out Saliba because he’s one for the future. Mistakes get made, it can feel schizophrenic.
A more experienced manager may have done better but a more experienced manager may also have been worse, as in more opportunistic and opting to just paper over the cracks while getting paid.
Sorry so late to say so Greg, but there are quite a few good takes on several points.
it’s always good to beat totts but it’s better when arsenal slap them…..like a pimp slaps his ho’s.
arteta made some changes that produced a fantastic effect. playing two hale end boys in the front line was bold. someone mentioned higher up that the decision to drop pepe was a brave one…as pepe is so talented. however, saka proved more effective on sunday. likewise, the mobility that emile provides makes him nearly undroppable. it seems that movement is not emphasized enough in the arsenal attacking phase; i would blame the coaching staff for that. emile’s movement unsettles defenses.
another thing we have to give arsenal credit for is the transfers. albert, tomi, nuno, and ramsdale bring not only talent but tenacity to the team. i was unfamiliar with the sambi and nuno but i could see on youtube that tomiyasu could ball, if for no other reason, he could defend 1v1. add to that, he was supposed to go to tottenham. ha!
i’ve had an eye on ramsdale over the past couple of seasons. i think i told you guys that a young man i used to coach told me that the then bournemouth keeper, ramsdale, was his favorite keeper. elijah was right; he was a good player in bad teams. i think the margins between he and leno are extremely small but ramsdale has more likable mannerisms and personality. leno is more, well german.
is this a new way forward? we’ll see.
What a vile analogy. Yech!