Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Tottenham v Arsenal – Player by Player – Who is better?

17 Replies

August 2013, I undertook a completely unbiased player by player review of Arsenal and Tottenham’s 1st 11. The comments made interesting reading.

One claim was that I was a “retarded Gooner” as I rated Per Mertesacker above Michael Dawson. Mertesacker went on to win the World Cup, Michael Dawson now plays for Hull.

Another read “Ramsey better than Paulinho? Go have a lie down” (half a dozen Spurs fans made the claim that Paulinho was the superior player). Ramsey became one of the stand out players in the Premier League, whilst Spurs did everything in their power to sell Paulinho in the last transfer window. And whatever happened to Capoue being better than Arteta, Wilshere & Ramsey?

“What a joke. Lets see who has the best team by their respective positions at the end of the season.” Arsenal finished above Spurs again, for the 19th season in a row.

 

As it is a North London Derby tomorrow, it is time to analyse the starting 11’s again.

Szczesny/Ospina v Lloris

For me, Hugo Lloris is the best keeper in the Premier League. Yes, he still has his Hollywood moments, but at times this season, he has single handedly kept Spurs in the game. He is a brilliant keeper.

Neither Szczesny or Ospina are near to the level of Lloris. Szczesney has had a rough ride this season, but is still young, whilst Ospina is in the early stages of his Arsenal career, so it is very early to judge him. Although he has not yet conceded a Premier League goal.

Szczesny/Ospina – 7 Lloris – 9

Bellerin v Walker

Had Mathieu Debuchy been fit, this would have been a no contest. Unfortunately, as he is out injured due to a bit of Stoke thuggery, it is only fair that I judge who will play. Hector Bellerin.

Bellerin is young, raw and exciting. He will become a superstar, but is not there yet. His only real weakness is his size. He is small and lightweight. But his reading of the game, tackling and ability to get up and down the line is remarkable.

Kyle Walker was once like Hector Bellerin. A young talent. He will be 25 in May. He has certainly not fulfilled his potential. He still relies too much on his pace to get him out of trouble, and is defensively awful, I have not seen a player with worse defensive positioning or awareness since Armand Traore. Despite these criticisms, Walker get’s the nod due to his experience.

Bellerin 6 Walker 7

Mertesacker v Fazio

Both are tall, both lack pace, but only one has exceptional reading of the game.

World Cup winner Per Mertesacker is still an exceptional defender. Yes, he does make mistakes – but doesn’t everyone? When I look at Vincent Kompany, he has made horrendous errors this season, yet does not seem to get the criticism that Mertesacker does. Sometimes people make an opinion of a player without truly watching him.

I will not go as far as saying Fazio is a donkey. That is harsh and it would be hypocritical of me to label him as such, with it being what Spurs fans have tagged Mertesacker and Adams over the years. He is an OK player, but his 2 red cards in 23 games shows he is a bit of a liability.

Mertesacker is an established Premier League centre back, Fazio there is still a question mark over him.

Mertesacker 8 Fazio 6

Koscielny v Vertonghan

Previously, I have always rated Vertonghan as superior to Koscielny. But last season, the Frenchman took strides forwards, whilst Vertonghan went backwards.

Koscielny’s importance was highlighted when he was out injured. Arsenal missed him. He is strong, quick, and has exceptional reading of the game. I rate him higher than Kompany.

Meanwhile, Vertonghan has struggled over the last 18 months, and is now known more for his goal scoring than his defending. That is always a sign of a defender who is struggling. Saying that, he is still a top defender and his partnership alongside Fazio is a bit like a poor version of Mertesacker/Koscielny

Koscielny 9 Vertonghan 8

Gibbs v Rose

Both players are older than you would think. Gibbs is now 25, Rose already 24. There is a chance their careers could pass them by without them realising their potential, especially Gibbs.

There is, however, only one top player between the two. One is defensively complete, brilliant going forward, and, in my opinion, Englands best left back. The other is Danny Rose. A Championship player at best. He will probably be sold to QPR next year when they get relegated.

Gibbs 7 Rose 4

Coquelin v Capoue

A bit like the Bellerin v Walker match up, we are comparing a player who’stop level career is just starting, against an established, but average, player.

Coquelin has filled a whole at Arsenal, putting in some top level performances, but he has some way to go before he can be considered top level himself. Capoue has put in some average performances and will probably forever remain average.

Coquelin 6 Capoue 6

Ramsey v Mason

Last year, we were talking about Ramsey v Paulinho. Many Spurs fans disagreed with my view. However I was proved right. Paulinho has since been replaced by ‘young’ Ryan Mason.

Mason is just 6 months younger than Ramsey, and quite frankly, is not good enough to even clean Ramsey’s boots.

I remember watching a youth cup game at White Hart Lane years ago, and Wilshere ran the show. My thoughts at the time were ‘Aaron Ramsey could have played today too.’ Mason did play, but I do not remember him doing anything. Ramsey’s injuries have halted his progress this season, but he is the superior player.

Ramsey 8 Mason 5

Cazorla v Ericksen

Two stand out players. Both have been brilliant for their clubs, especially in recent weeks.

Ericksen’s 9 goals this season have been crucial to Spurs’ overall points tally. It is not just the 9 goals, but the fact those 9 goals have all seem to have been 89th minute winners. People claim Arsenal are a one man team with Sanchez, but Ericksen is the sole reason why Spurs are in the top half.

Cazorla has 6 goals. Many of which have come from the penalty spot. It is his 7 assists in the league this year which highlights his importance. Neither side has a player who has created more.

Cazorla 9 Ericksen 9

Walcott v Lamela

Erik Lamela has scored 1 Premier League goal this season. Theo Walcott also has one goal. The difference is that Lamela has played 1288 minutes more than Walcott.

Lamela has to go down as one of the biggest flops in Premier League history. A fee rising to £30 million, he has just the one Premier LEague goal to his name (and 5 assists). Whilst Ozil was getting pelter’s last season, Lamela went by fairly unnoticed.

Walcott has been out injured for the good part of a year, but his goal against Aston Villa shows he is re-finding his feet. With a goal also against Brighton, his return is timely, taking into account Alexis Sanchez is now out injured.

Walcott 8 Lamela 5

Ozil v Chadli

Nacer Chadli is one of the most underrated players in the Premier League. Two footed and direct, he already has 7 goals and 5 assists in the league this season.

Ozil, like Walcott, has had his injury issues this season. His ‘poor’ form last season was over played in the media – he finished the season with 5 goals and 9 assists. This year, he has 2 and 2. Not a bad return for less than 700 minutes of football. On his day, he is unplayable. When it is not his day, he is atrocious.

Ozil 8 Chadli 7

Giroud v Kane

Another player who has missed a lot of football this season due to injury/stupidy, Olivier Giroud is finally back, and scoring goals. Since his return from injury in November, he has scored 6 goals in 10 Premier League games. He is average 1 goal every 99 minutes in the Premier League this season.

Arsenal fan Harry Kane has been a revelation this season, and certainly deserves an England call up. He has the knack of scoring goals from anywhere in and around the box. Before this season, he had only scored 21 professional goals in all competitions, all leagues. He has scored 20 this campaign.

There are two major differences between the two. Giroud is a consistent Premier League striker. He now has 34 goals in a little in 82 games. Kane is in his first season. A bit like Bellerin, it is perhaps unfair to compare someone in his 1st full season, with someone who is in his 3rd.

The second is goals per minutes. As mentioned, Giroud has averaged a goal every 99 minutes. Kane is up at a goal every 125 minutes.

Giroud is the better player, but Harry Kane has ability

Giroud 8 Kane7

Arsenal 84
Spurs 73

And that is without Alexis Sanchez…

Keenos

The Arsenal and Me – Gary’s Story

2 Replies

There were a few of us of, shall we say fans of a certain vintage talking on Twitter Christmas Eve about Highbury & GC asked us to go back through the mists of time to tell a few memories of those days. This is my contribution

I started going to The Arsenal in the 1960s & my first game was a 3-1 loss to Newcastle in 1965-66 season. I was already besotted by the club as my dad had told me & my brother all about when he watched the great Herbert Chapman side of James, Bastin, Jack, Hulme, Hapgood etc.

When we first started going to Highbury we used to get the 236 bus from Hackney to arrive at the ground double early to be at the front of the queue at the clock end as there was a great spot just above the entrance to the concourse where you could get a great view of the game. We’d usually get there 3 or 4 hours before kick off to make sure we got that spot.

As kick off approached we’d watch the ground gradually filling up & Constable Alex Morgan accompanied by the Metropolitan Police Band would entertain the crowd belting out Lady of Spain or some other equally ancient songs. But they always get a nice round of applause when they’d finished.

“Peanuts peanuts come & get ya peanuts” would be the cry from the man flogging Percy Daltons finest as he pushed his way through the crowd. As we looked across the pitch at the North bank it would be packed with fans raising their arms clapping in unison & singing songs to the opposition fans like “Your going to get your f****** heads kicked in” or ” “I hear the sound of distinct bums over there over there” At night games you’d see a constant twinkling of lights as people were lighting up their fags all across the north bank

 As there were no all ticket games you had to get there early for the big games like Spurs or Man Utd to make sure you didn’t get locked out. So as the kick off approached the singing would get louder & reach a crescendo when first the opposition got booed onto the pitch. While the ground would roar their approval when The Arsenal took the field. The north bank would chant the players names & the players would raise their arms in acknowledgement as they warmed up before the game

At half time we eagerly awaited the man putting the half time scores of the other matches being played that day next to the corresponding letters at the side of the pitch. The police band would then march round the pitch playing their instruments with the man with the long baton leading them from the front. As they approached each corner he’d point the baton to the left or right depending which direction he wanted the band to follow. But the highlight was when he’d hold the baton upright & the North bank would go “wooooooooooooooh” as he spun the baton though the air & caught it. One day he came a cropper when to his horror he missed the baton & dropped it. The cheer from the crowd was massive matched only by John Jensen finally scoring his only goal for The Arsenal v QPR!

The day JJ scored we all celebrated wildly & at the end of the game I walked back to our cars with my brother Tony & my son Neil & started to frantically pat my pockets. I said to my brother “I don’t believe it I’ve lost my car keys. It must have happened when Jensen scored” he replied “I’ve lost my keys as well” We trooped back to Highbury & found a steward who had a big box of lost keys. As we identified our keys the steward said “We’ve never found so many lost keys”

Sorry to digress. As we got older we graduated to the north bank which was where most of the action took place off the pitch in those days! There were gangs of Arsenal fans that chanted “North London”, “South London” or “East London” wherever area they came from. When The Arsenal scored there would be pandemonium. The crowd surged and we were all pushed forward like a human wave often ending up 10 or twenty feet away from your mates!

When opposition fans infiltrated the North bank to try and take our end they’d be running battles, the police in the middle of it trying to form a line between the two sets of fans. If you ran at the opposing fans or they charged at us, you just had to go with the flow or be trampled on like a herd of cattle

When the game ended everyone would try to surge out the gates & often your feet wouldn’t touch the ground as you were carried along by the crowd. How there wasn’t another Hillsborough I’ll never know!

I’ll end this with a couple of away stories. The first involved a trip on a football special. A bloke we knew for some reason decided to take a leak out the train window! As he started to pee another teenager decided to stick his head out the window for a bit of fresh air further down the carriage. He ended up getting a golden shower! Both the windows slammed shut as the two of them looked at each across the carriage in shock. The other bloke with urine dripping from his face! Our pal said “Sorry mate I didn’t know you were going to stick your head out the window” to which the other kid replied “And I didn’t know you were going to get your knob out & piss all over me” with that the whole carriage were in fits of laughter!

Another occasion where I wasn’t there my brother & our mates decided to go to Nottingham to see us play Forest in the FA Cup. We won 1-0 with a Frank Stapleton goal & Pat Jennings performed wonders to keep Forest at bay. They all went up in a transit van & as they left the ground got chased all the way back to the van by the Forest fans baying for blood! They all dived in the back of the van & made a narrow escape. It was pitch black in the back of the van as there were no windows & as someone lit a fag the back of the van was illuminated & sitting there among them was a complete stranger! “What the f*** are you doing here” someone said “well when Forest started to chase us I decided to run with you & jumped in the back to get away from them” everyone laughed & they dropped him back in London.

Those were the days of our life & they may have taken our Highbury away but they can’t take away our memories.

Gary

If you would like to tell your Arsenal story, click here

Will Tottenham Ever get out of Arsenal’s Shadow?

35 Replies

Tottenham are in Arsenal shadow. They always have been, they always will be. Every now and again, they pop out, get a bit big, realise they do not like the sun, and run back inside. The only people who believe them to be a massive club are themselves.

They are a joke of a club. How often over the years has a Spurs player come out claiming “this is our year” for them to finish above Arsenal. This year, it was Nabil Bentaleb’s turn. Taking into account their continual mocking of Arsenal for finishing 4th, the excitement of Spurs fans and players when they just get close to a top 4 finish is cringworthy. The fact is, they would bring out a DVD and have an open top bus parade if they got top 4.

Andros Townsend topped Bentaleb’s claim of a ‘double’ by claiming that Spurs could win the treble this season. Of course, this was before Spurs got knocked out to Leicester.

Andros Townsend shows how small time Spurs fans are.

Hyped up massively as the future of not just Tottenham but English football, the bloke is average at best.

Already 23, he is not really a kid. And he plays tricks on the mind.

Everyone thinks he has a great left foot, based on a memory of him scoring a cracking goal for England against Montenegro in 2013. He then hit the word work in the very next game against Poland, before hitting another cracker in the game after for Spurs against Aston Villa. This ingrained it into people’s head that he had a dynamite left foot.

Infact, he is just a very very poor Arjen Robben. All he does in a game is pick up the ball on the right, cut inside, and shoot. And most of the time those shots go high wide and handsome.

Do not believe me? let’s look at some stats…

After that goal against Aston Villa in October 2013, Townsend failed to find the net again for Spurs that season.

He finished that Premier League Campaign with 1 goal and 1 assist from 25 appearances. The new Gareth Bale? Have a laugh.

Meanwhile, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott played just 13 games that season. His contribution was 5 league goals and 4 assists.

This season, Andros Townsend has gone from strength to strength, and has scored 5 goals in all competitions. A show of progress? Not until you realise that all 5 goals have come from the penalty spot.

ZERO goals from open play for Andros Townsend in 2014/15. Meanwhile, Theo Walcott already has 2 goals to his name from out of play.

Townsend is the perfect Spurs player. Hyped up massively, yet ultimately achieves nothing.

As for Spurs’ other great hope, Harry Kane, yes, he is having a very good season, but he is not ‘one of their own’. As everyone knows, he was on the books for Arsenal. We let him go before he was even a teenager, yet his love for the club ran deep.

Despite being let go, he still went to games at Highbury and, in 2006, sat watching Arsenal v Barcelona in the Champions League Final, wearing an Arsenal shirt, and cried as Arsenal lost.

“Harry Kane’s a Gooner” will be heard loud and clear on Saturday.

Keenos