ARSENAL v SPURS: Match Thread

mcalcohol · Sep 1, 2013

vicbob said:
Fuck me if it wasn't deadline day tomorrow I would avoid sc like the plague. If you think the papers will be shit reading tomorrow, I think the spurs chat section here will make RAWK look like the Oxford university debating society.

Spot on. Its like a switchblade romance with some on here. When its going well its all unbridled admiration and unrealistic expectations, but when it goes wrong its a knife to the throats of the players/coach who have the temerity to make a mistake, and not live up to their deluded hopes. Get a grip!

Support your team and give them a chance to play together. All today showed is that we need our new players to get to know each other and the squad system before we can fire on all cylinders.

Even not playing great we will give any side a proper match, other teams will set themselves up to stop us just as they did today. We need to get used to playing against these tactics.

TheChosenOne · Sep 1, 2013

I'd love to know how many "take down" fouls Woolwich committed just outside the centre circle today, yeah Rosickener got booked for one but there were so many.

Plus so many unforced errors and giving away possession too cheaply.

Could anyone tell me if the whole pitch was watered at half time ? Just a thought, I saw some sprinklers on but there were Arsenal players warming up out there while it was going on, noticed Doris Lloris slipped a couple of times.

tottenham28 · Sep 1, 2013

balalasaurus said:
Better to 'try not to lose' with a team that's still as yet finding their feet than trying to achieve something that has a minute probability of happening. It was pretty obvious today that the understanding between players isn't quite there yet. Misplaced passes, slow reactions and unanticipated runs were some of the let downs I saw today. HOWEVER we spent most of that game in control of possession and were almost always alert to their attacking threat. We dominated the game for most periods but just could not find a way to translate it into scoreline superiority. Looking at the match today AVB will look at it more as a lesson than as a sign of failure. He was right about the team being stronger with or without GB and I think the scoreline today proved that. Those goons were genuinely happy to see an end to the game and that tells me that even though we might not know how good we are yet, other teams have started to pay attention. Give it time. In AVB I trust.

I also trust the man but in the first three games of the season, I have not seen an ounce of forward thinking momentum from Dembele, when Capoue and Paulinho have been in the side.
I can only point the finger at him as that is how AVB keeps setting up the side.

We needed Holtby out there today as he would have gave us a much needed edge in the final third. I mean, how many attempted through balls or forward thinking balls did you actually see from the three central midfielders?

If we weren't going to do it through the middle, we had to do it out wide yet both Towsend and Chadli spent almost the whole game coming inside.

He set us up to try and not lose, rather than try and win.

Rout-Ledge · Sep 1, 2013

Darragh said:
will be huge huge player for spurs this season.

schmichael used win united so many points back in the day for united and he will do same for us.

IMVHO big clubs will come knocking next summer for him. next proper star player to leave.sticks out a mile.

Completely agree.

postigol · Sep 1, 2013

benaudere said:
Dawson is a very lucky chap to be in this team. Once Kaboul is fit and Vlad adapts, Dawson can start looking for a new club. His future looks extremely bleak.

Yes, a bad day for Dawson but maybe not time to write him off yet - he and Verts played as a decent pairing for a good part of last season. But I'm definitely happy we now have a 4th centre half (5 if you count Fryers).

The Spurs Lad · Sep 1, 2013

postigol said:
So, taking your point - what the hell was AVB playing at spending £22m on Chadli and Dembele to employ them in a system where they can't be played? On the whole 4-3-3 vs 4-2-3-1 thing, I prefer the latter but looks like we might be employing both over the course of the season.

I don't think either of them can play in either formation. Dembele is alright in the 2 of a 4231 but even then he is a poor midfielder intelligence wise, he has all the attributes but the brain of a striker and consistently misses simple passes and doesn't track his man.

I don't have a clue about Chadli, he doesn't look quick enough for a winger in this league imo, he needs to beat his man more often, it seems he can only ever do anything when he has time, space and is already near the box, at which point he can put a good cross in but give him it anywhere else on the pitch and he either runs into somebody or gets outpaced. Pretty much just a target man for Dawson/Hugo. Mertens for the same price was far, FAR more suited to 433.

It was evident today that Dembele was missing and Chadli did little to nothing after our early spell of domination where he had all the time and space to cross it in. Holtby should easily start ahead of Dembele and Townsend ahead of Chadli on the left. Eriksen can fill either of those slots as well depending where Andre wants him.

Also, why we took Townsend off, our only threat, for Lamela instead of Chadli is beyond me. I won't even bother going into the 442 Defoe for Dembele decision except for to say it cost us the game.

mozzer · Sep 1, 2013

mcalcohol said:
Spot on. Its like a switchblade romance with some on here. When its going well its all unbridled admiration and unrealistic expectations, but when it goes wrong its a knife to the throats of the players/coach who have the temerity to make a mistake, and not live up to their deluded hopes. Get a grip!

Support your team and give them a chance to play together. All today showed is that we need our new players to get to know each other and the squad system before we can fire on all cylinders.

Even not playing great we will give any side a proper match, other teams will set themselves up to stop us just as they did today. We need to get used to playing against these tactics.

Buy that man a beer!

Kirito · Sep 1, 2013

This loss isn't the end of the world. Our team will take time to settle and if it was against anyone else then there wouldn't be so much rage on here. Ive never seen us dominate possession against Arsenal at their place in my life. I'm sure we all have wanker Arsenal fans texting and calling us right now but that will pass and at the end of the season we will be ahead of them.

Syn_13 · Sep 1, 2013

tottenham28 said:
I also trust the man but in the first three games of the season, I have not seen an ounce of forward thinking momentum from Dembele, when Capoue and Paulinho have been in the side.
I can only point the finger at him as that is how AVB keeps setting up the side.

We needed Holtby out there today as he would have gave us a much needed edge in the final third. I mean, how many attempted through balls or forward thinking balls did you actually see from the three central midfielders?

If this is a month down the line then fair enough, I'd agree with you. Unfortunately, I think our hands are tied. Holtby played his first bit of football all season on Thursday. If this game was in a couple of weeks time I'd like to imagine we'd have lined up completely differently with a much more creative midfield.

NayimsSocks · Sep 1, 2013

Early doors. All of these players we have brought in have had very little time to adjust to the PL and playing in a team together. Shame this game came so early in the season. Arsenal got their tactics right and got the lions share of the luck with regards to getting a toe to this and deflected balls falling to their players.
After going to the Swansea game and now watching this one the only problem I have is the laboured style and predictability of our forward play. Cannot blame Soldado for that. We need a goal in open play and hopefully it will come pretty soon.

Reclamation Project · Sep 1, 2013

ibbz said:
Chaldi - now who think's he's any good?
I think he's shit. Brings nothing to the team.

He's had 3 games in english football, and that was his first NLD, and he's so new you don't even know how to spell his name yet......

Lets give him a chance yeah

DubSpurs · Sep 1, 2013

Sack Walker, sack Rose, sack AVB, sack everyone!!!

poc · Sep 1, 2013

Not sure they parked the bus, the impression I got was they didn't really need to drive it.

Having said that, it was away to arse with a lot of new players only the 3rd game of the season. be pissed off but some of what's being posted is the sort of over reaction sensationalist crap I expect to avoid in the red tops tommorrow.

Darragh · Sep 1, 2013

mil1lion said:
I would rather lose away to Arsenal wirh 7 new signings who overall are an imrpovement from last season, than win at home to Arsenal with 2 free signings. The future is white!

whats this mean?

saw absolute nothing there today that says spurs will finish ahead of arsenal.

lis spur · Sep 1, 2013

There is a lot to take from this game,we are a new team in transition and at no time did Arsenal have us on the rack as they have at other times.
In fact they had back to the wall defending to do at the end;however Dawson is not going to cut it playing in a high line defence.
We have lost a battle ,lets hope for once we win the war!!!

Mullers · Sep 1, 2013

THFCSPURS19 said:
MANAGER REACTION - Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
AVB was also asked about if/when Gareth Bale will be announced as a Real Madrid player. He got very shirty and refused to answer.

1806:

MANAGER REACTION - Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham
Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas: "It was a competitive game, we both had chances. It really changed in the second half. For them to finish with four full-backs says much about our domination.
"It was great spirit from our players to approach the game in such a courageous way in the second half. To expose Arsenal in that way is a great example for us.
"We don't have time for the players to gel. We played on Thursday and again on Sundays, we don't have enough time at this moment to put the team together."

Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas on whether he will do any more transfer business: "We have to see. The last day of the season is always frantic, I don't think we will see much more from us on that side, probably put some people on loan, but we will see."

1815:

More from Villas-Boas: "We had opportunities in the first half, they also started strong but I think we came back into the game very positively. The second half was very strong from us, it was a difficult encounter but I think we deserved something in the second half but Arsenal were clinical in front of goal. Probably a draw would have been a fair result. That they finished with four full-backs on the pitch at the end shows how much they wanted to hang on to the result."

AVB is lying like last year, he knows we will do something.

Also, our players showed no spirit.

I think Ade will be staying with us if not I hope Soldado and Defoe won't be our only strikers.

nedley · Sep 1, 2013

Cant be too disheartened with that. Players will take time to bed in.

I thought AVB got his tactics wrong in all honesty. It was evident again what our problem was again.

Tottenham28 makes a great point regarding Dembele. Eriksen will and should take his place pretty soon. A squad game though.

Plebty of time to figure each other out.

theShiznit · Sep 1, 2013

guiltyparty said:
So much denial in how poor we were

Of course we'll get better. We're talking about today, where we weren't very good

But we played an Arsenal team who have pretty much been the same team for years (the ones that dick on us at home most times) A settled team, a team fighting for the shirt and fans.

We are not a team (yet) we are a selection of players that have barely played a handful of games together. There is no passion for this team yet, at the moment it's a wage, hopefully it will come as players build a rapport with each other and the fans, but it's certainly not a given.

But inpite of all that, we still managed to dominate possession against a team considered one of the best passing teams in European (if not world) football. ok so we didn't look creative but this was never going to be a quick fix, we haven't looked creative since Modric left, and Bale just papered over the cracks so now people think that is football, dribbling and taking long shots.

Too many reaction tests being done on people's patellas today...

Darth Vega · Sep 1, 2013

We did ok. It hurts now but we'll get over it. 3 PL games and we've played like the home team and been hit on the counter in each game; Arsenal just had that quality that Palace and Swansea didn't and it cost us.

Like many people have alluded to, this would've been a different game if it didn't come so early. Not many teams go to the Emirates and dominate possession, we just lacked that one creative spark to convert that dominance into goals.

amathews3416 · Sep 1, 2013

AVB fell into the trap of sticking w/ same eleven because we won the previous two games when tactics needed changing today.

I think Chadli plays because he is not confident enough yet in Rose and feels Chadli offers a lot in tracking back and isn't afraid to put a foot in on defense.

Can Lamela or Townsend play on the left? Need to find a first 11 where we fit both in.

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