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MTCH REPORT: Tottenham 2 – 3 Arsenal

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Tottenham Hotpsur (0) 2 Arsenal (3) 3
Premier League
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 782 High Road, London N17 0BX
Sunday, 28th April 2024. Kick-off time: 2.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Martin Ødegaard (c), Thomas Partey, Declan Rice; Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard.
Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah, Jakob Kiwior, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko

Scorers: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (o.g. 15 mins), Bukayo Saka (27 mins), Kai Havertz (38 mins)
Yellow Cards: Thomas Partey
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 38%

Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Stuart Burt, Dan Cook
Fourth Official: Andy Madley
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Darren Cann

Attendance: 61,554

With regards to this North London derby this afternoon, we have to go into the stadium and be focussed, dynamic, single-minded and professional; in other words, score the goals and do the job. Worry about the bragging rights, the hubris, even the rhetoric for another day. Three points are what is needed today, preferably with a clean sheet and no cards handed out by the referee. Let’s go!

In this white-hot North London derby day atmosphere, the home team started things moving, and right from the start, both teams felt the importance of this game today, and every ball was being fought for, every tackle was firm and deliberate. Thomas Partey lost possession and suddenly the home side were on the charge being led by Son Heung-min, but they were far too slow, thankfully, and their effort went nowhere, so we were able to clear the danger.

A superb Kai Havertz cross into the box was headed clear before Thomas Partey won a free-kick just outside the penalty area following a poor foul by James Maddison, but Martin Ødegaard smashed it into the Tottenham Hotspur defensive wall.

After just fifteen minutes, we took the lead when a corner from Bukayo Saka met the head of Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, who tried to clear it but only managed to send it past Guglielmo Vicario in the Tottemham Hotpsur goal.

In response, a Christian Romero header hit the outside of David Raya’s post, and then, a couple of minutes later, Micky van de Ven blasted the ball past our goalkeeper, but VAR deemed it to be offside, which was a huge let-off.

Everything was focused at the other end, and sure enough, three minutes before the half hour mark, Dejan Kulusevski lost his footing inside our penalty area and we managed to catch the home side on the break. Suddenly, Bukayo Saka found himself in acres of space and simply cut inside before putting the ball away neatly past Guglielmo Vicario for our second goal of the afternoon.

The home side started to capitulate, as we moved forward with growing confidence today. Seven minutes before the half-time break, from yet another Bukayo Saka corner, Kai Havertz scored our third goal from close range in the six-yard box.

Following a Son Heung-min shot that flew right over the crossbar, six minutes injury time was awarded by referee Michael Oliver, and in that period, Bukayo Saka almost grabbed his second goal of the afternoon, but his close range attempt was somehow kept out by goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario; and so we went into the break three goals to the good. Are we in dreamland?

Declan Rice kicked off second half proceedings in this incredible North London derby today, and within a minute or so, our captain was fouled, but from the resulting free-kick, a header from Takehiro Tomiyasu (as he was falling), went over the crossbar.

A Christian Romero header went over David Raya’s crossbar, and then the home team were denied a penalty when Dejan Kulusevski went down in our penalty area after a good tackle from Gabriel, but the referee correctly called it out as a dive by the Tottenham Hotspur forward.

Almost immediately, Bukayo Saka was desperately unlucky not to score at the other end, when Guglielmo Vicario saved his shot with his leg. So close.

The home side were putting pressure on David Raya’s goal, but our defenders were holding them out expertly.

Pedro Porro somehow managed to deny Leandro Trossard scoring, and just after the hour mark, Gabriel Martinelli replaced Leandro Trossard, probabaly to get fresh legs into the attack.

Shortly afterwards, David Raya made a terrible error in clearing the ball to Christian Romero who obliged by slotting the ball into the net. Of course, the home fans felt something was in the air and have changed the atmosphere in an instance, thanks to the nature of their goal, scored in such ridiculous circumstances.

The match has woken up now, with both teams putting in a shift, looking and searching for another goal. We looked a wee bit nervous at the back, but we managed to clear the ball well.

Declan Rice and Takehiro Tomiyasu looked like they were going to get booked by referee Michael Oliver, but he decided quite rightly so, that their challenges were not worthy of a yellow card, unlike Dejan Kulusevski who cynically tripped Gabriel Martinelli out on the left wing, as well as Ben Davies, who fouled Bukayo Saka out on the other wing.

The resulting free-kick was nervously punched away by Guglielmo Vicario. However, Thomas Partey received our first yellow card of the afternoon when he tripped Son Heung-min; minutes later, the home side were awarded a penalty when Declan Rice fouled Ben Davies in the penalty area, and Son Heung-min duly scored.

The remaining five minutes or so of the match will be a tough test for us. Jakon Kiwior replaced our captain in the last minute of normal time, and Bukayo Saka took a superb corner, which was cleared for another one by Micky van de Ven.

In the six minutes of injury time, the tension was unbearable, as the action was going from end to end.

As the clock was running down, the home side put us under pressure from a various strikers, and literally at the death, we managed to clear a corner as referee Michael Oliver blew the final whistle.

Phew. A real nail biter, this North London derby was today, especially the last twenty minutes or so!

Although the records will correctly state that Tottenham Hotspur scored two goals this afternoon, in reality the first goal was a silly error by David Raya, and the other goal was an accident that led to a penalty. Under extreme pressure, the boys did well, despite the thirty-eight per cent possession ratio.

At the time of writing, we are still top of the table, and Arsenal remain the team to beat. That Tottenham Hotspur match is now done and dusted. Let us now focus on the AFC Bournemouth match next Saturday afternoon at the Emirates. Well done, chaps!

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: AFC Bournemouth at the Emirates on Saturday 4th May at 12.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon

Jekyll and Hyde Chelsea should not be taken lightly

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And just like that, we wake up and it is another game day.

Facing Chelsea is never an easy task, no matter what form they are in.

As Mikel Arteta said in his pre-game press conference, we need to “keep doing what we’ve been doing, focus on the game, on the task.”

Whilst some of us might already be glancing towards Sunday’s North London Derby, we need to get past this Jekyll and Hyde Chelsea team first.

Chelsea have lost just 2 games from 8 against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Man U and Tottenham – 2 wins, 4 draws, 2 defeats. They certainly seem to up their game in these bigger matches.

Reports are that Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto are out injured, but my feeling is this is just Mauricio Pochettino being cagey on his team selection. And ultimately they have 3209572057 players to choose from so having a couple out will not make much of a difference.

Arsenal seem to have no new injury issues. It was only Jurrien Timber that Arteta spoke about yesterday, ruling the Dutchman out of Sunday’s game against Tottenham.

Last night, Timber played his first game since August – starting left back for the U21s. If you have been living under a rock, he opened the scoring within 9 minute with an absolute worldie.

Oleksandr Zinchenko has got some criticism this season for his defensive frailties, with many calling for a new left back to be signed this summer. This is wrong.

Arteta recognised last summer that Zinchenko would be better utilised further forward and centrally, and pushed for the signing of Timber.

I am fairly certain that had Timber been fit this season, the Dutchman would have spent much of his time at left back, and we would have seen Zinchenko replace Granit Xhaka in that left hand 8 position, with Declan Rice in behind. Who knows what we might have gone on to achieve?

Considering how long he has been out for, and how little of the season there is left, it is unlikely that Timber will start a first team game this season.

What is more likely is he gets on the bench for Bournemouth and Everton and has a 10-minute run out at the end of both games if we are comfortably winning.

With the focus back on today, we just need to start fast and maintain that intensity. Win and the momentum is back with us.

UTA.

Keenos

Drained from Munich, but we go again tomorrow!!!

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I am a little bit slow of mind this morning. A European trip will do that to you.

Four flights, all of which were delayed, about 10 hours sleep over 3 days and countless steins of beer later, I am back in England with a cup of coffee. I am getting too old for these trips.

There is the old saying “do not let the 90 minutes ruin a great day at the football”, and that is certainly the case for European away games. When you are spending £500+ on a couple of nights away for The Arsenal, you naturally become “less bothered” by the football.

That does not mean I do not care. It just means that I am not going to let the game ruin what was a great few days in Munich.

As I have said before, if you want a guaranteed happy ending, go to Thailand.

Winning the league, and winning the Champions League, is not easy. Some online commentators would make it seem like it is the easiest ever, and that Arsenal season would have been a failure if we finish 2nd and have been knocked out by Bayern Munich in the QF of the Champions League.

For years, all we wanted was to compete. And for the second season in a row we have competed with Manchester City (and Liverpool). Yes, we might come up short. But is it failure to finish behind Manchester City with their state funded spending?

Man City spend around £150m more on wages than us. They spend on average more than £100k a week per player than us which will naturally mean that they can recruit better players, and have more squad depth. It is no shame to finish below them.

If they win the league, they would have won 6 of the last 7 Premier League titles, and became the first team to win 4 English league titles in a row in the history of the game.

Jurgen Klopp will leave England with just a single league title during that period. I do not think anyone would label his time in this country as a failure. It just shows how hard it is finish above the Manchester City sportswashing jaganaught.

And likewise, was anyone really expecting us to win the Champions League in our first appearance since 2016?

It took Manchester City to appoint Pep, give him billions of pounds to spend (on transfer fees and salaries) and 7-years for him to finally win them a Champions League. If it was that easy, they would have won it a lot earlier during Pep’s reign!

To compete for the title, finishing 2nd or 3rd (although the season is not yet over), whilst making the quarter final of the Champions League is a solid season and backs up last years improvement. We just now need to keep building.

Following the Munich defeat, I heard people saying we need to make wholesale changes. I tried to ignore those demanding Mikel Arteta get sacked or that the Kroenke’s to invest more money in, but they can be a noisy moany bunch.

We are 2 points behind Manchester City in the league, and it was the mighty Bayern Munich who beat us – and it is not the poor Bayern side some are making out. They are 2nd in the Bundesliga behind a superb Leverkusen side! We are not a team that needs wholesale changes.

What we need is a summer like last season – 3 quality players to come in that improve the top end of the squad, pushes players “down one in the peaking order” and with those at the bottom leaving.

For me that is buying a new striker, new winger and new midfielder. And departing would be Eddie Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey.

The 3 new players would easily replace the 5 mentioned above (considering how little play time they get) and would improve both our starting XI and overall squad depth.

I excluded David Raya from the equation as that deal is done.

You would be surprised if those 3 new signings cost much less than £150m. Add in Raya and a 2nd choice keeper and that will be close to £200m spent again. It is what is needed. Add in the returning Jurrien Timber and we would have moved our squad forward again.

But spending the £200m will not guarantee us the league title or Champions League, more will it mean Arteta would be a failure if we do not win either of the big two.

Liverpool have been doing this sort of spending (adjusted for inflation) throughout Jurgen Klopp’s reign and have just one of each. For every pound Arsenal or Liverpool spend, Manchester City can spend £2 (without taking account what may or may not be put into offshore bank accounts!).

Football is not easy. If you are of the thought that “anything but winning is failure” then you are in for a tough ride for your life. You can not live by thinking that unless you achieve more than anyone else you have failed.

Me? I just need another coffee and another nights sleep. Then it is off to Wolves tomorrow with no trains back…

Keenos