Arsenal Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

sak11 said:

I agree with his underlying sentiment - a key example was at 1-1 and we had a break with 3 on 2 and lamela free on the right I think and instead the move stalled as play was held and and ball passed backwards. We should have gone for the goal rather than be scared to try.
We were ponderous, slow and unadventerous. There was no pressing and we looked like qpr are did when we played them - we just stood off arsenal and let them play with no pressure on the ballholder.

Having said that you could argue that it worked. I'm just hoping that this is just Poch trying to get the defensive side sorted before progressing his philosophy.

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spud said:

So what price a point?

There are two ways to look at this game. You might say that we are a new team with players who are getting used to the different philosophy and playing style of yet another new manager. Against a team full of good players with a defined style this is a creditable, hard-fought draw. It is unsurprising that they had most of the play. We defended our box well and restricted them to a handful of half-chances. There is some merit in this view. All of these things are true, and yet it tells only part of the story.

The rest of the story is less charitable. We have been led to believe that our new manager's preferred style of play is an aggressive, pressing style. It deprives the opposition of time and space in order to win possession high up the pitch and attack when they are least able to defend it. I saw that once today and it resulted in Chadli's goal. Once.

What I saw was a team that was happy to let the opposition have the ball. A team that was content to defend deep in its own half in order to restrict the options of a team that likes to pass its way through the centre of the pitch. In short, a team that came to the game with the sole intention of avoiding defeat and hoping to possibly sneak a goal on the break.

I'm not sure exactly how to catgorise my feelings about this. I feel a strange combination of disbelief, anger, sadness and shame. I watched my beloved Tottenham creep into the enemy's stadium too scared to play. Too frightened to even try to play football, to challenge the opposition, to impose itself on them. Grateful to avoid defeat, seemingly satisfied at a demonstration of what can only be described as sporting cowardice. I am stunned. I have witnessed humiliations, capitulations and degradations. I have seen us field a team of pub players and get spanked, and I have seen us field a team of internationals who played like pub players. But I don't think that I have ever seen us take the field against a team that we should be challenging and be scared of competing with them.

Where is the glory in what we saw today? There is none. Irrespective of how many points we got today - even if we had won - it would have been a defeat. A defeat for all that we hold dear about this great club. A betrayal of our history and our philosophy. (Sir) Bill Nick will be turning in his grave.

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sak11 said:

I agree with his underlying sentiment - a key example was at 1-1 and we had a break with 3 on 2 and lamela free on the right I think and instead the move stalled as play was held and and ball passed backwards. We should have gone for the goal rather than be scared to try.
We were ponderous, slow and unadventerous. There was no pressing and we looked like qpr are did when we played them - we just stood off arsenal and let them play with no pressure on the ballholder.

Having said that you could argue that it worked. I'm just hoping that this is just Poch trying to get the defensive side sorted before progressing his philosophy.

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jolsnogross said:

You're just jerking off here spud.

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jolsnogross said:

After the Liverpool and west brom games, we had Little confidence this side could man up against a top 5 team. They did, and the approach was appropriate....

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spud said:

So what price a point?

There are two ways to look at this game. You might say that we are a new team with players who are getting used to the different philosophy and playing style of yet another new manager. Against a team full of good players with a defined style this is a creditable, hard-fought draw. It is unsurprising that they had most of the play. We defended our box well and restricted them to a handful of half-chances. There is some merit in this view. All of these things are true, and yet it tells only part of the story.

The rest of the story is less charitable. We have been led to believe that our new manager's preferred style of play is an aggressive, pressing style. It deprives the opposition of time and space in order to win possession high up the pitch and attack when they are least able to defend it. I saw that once today and it resulted in Chadli's goal. Once.

What I saw was a team that was happy to let the opposition have the ball. A team that was content to defend deep in its own half in order to restrict the options of a team that likes to pass its way through the centre of the pitch. In short, a team that came to the game with the sole intention of avoiding defeat and hoping to possibly sneak a goal on the break.

I'm not sure exactly how to catgorise my feelings about this. I feel a strange combination of disbelief, anger, sadness and shame. I watched my beloved Tottenham creep into the enemy's stadium too scared to play. Too frightened to even try to play football, to challenge the opposition, to impose itself on them. Grateful to avoid defeat, seemingly satisfied at a demonstration of what can only be described as sporting cowardice. I am stunned. I have witnessed humiliations, capitulations and degradations. I have seen us field a team of pub players and get spanked, and I have seen us field a team of internationals who played like pub players. But I don't think that I have ever seen us take the field against a team that we should be challenging and be scared of competing with them.

Where is the glory in what we saw today? There is none. Irrespective of how many points we got today - even if we had won - it would have been a defeat. A defeat for all that we hold dear about this great club. A betrayal of our history and our philosophy. (Sir) Bill Nick will be turning in his grave.

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spud said:

Our ideas of 'manning up' are obviously different. Mine doesn't include being afraid to challenge the opponent for possession, cowering on the edge of your own box hoping to god they don't score and praying for the match to end.

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THFCSPURS19 said:

Here we go, another fan who thinks we have the divine right to be the best team in the world.

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spud said:

Very mature comment. Well done.


Our ideas of 'manning up' are obviously different. Mine doesn't include being afraid to challenge the opponent for possession, cowering on the edge of your own box hoping to god they don't score and praying for the match to end.

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jolsnogross said:

Mature and appropriate response to the self-flagellation of that earlier post.

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jolsnogross said:

] You were watching a different game to me if you thought all we did was cower on the edge of our box. Crisp defending, allowing them pointless possession while not getting sucked out into headless chasing, and looking more promising in attack - all miles better than some recent showings. Certainly not a recipe for the poseur language about bill nick and all.

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Berbatonghen said:

Oh come on mate are you being serious?

The problem with ade is all there to see. I honestly felt we were playing with ten men at times.

He is meant to be our focal point of attack but through out the game he was very ineffective. Very slow to react when the ball comes to his feet and when it does he decision making was not good.

He did work hard in terms of work rate in the second half but that should come automatically for a striker.

I would easily hold my hands up if he had a good game but over the past few weeks his been evidently lethargic. I always back any player at spurs but with adebayor im slowly running out of patience because I'm not seeing any improvements in his game.

Maybe he needs a rest but i feel he needs to be dropped so he can see that there is competition for places and maybe that can kick start his campaign.

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spud said:

If you think that accusing somebody of 'jerking off' is a 'mature and appropriate' comment then we'll have to agree to disagree. I happen to think it's puerile.


You're right: I must have been watching a different game. I particularly liked 'crisp defending', whatever that is, and that you thought we looked 'more promising' in attack. Priceless.

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CowInAComa said:

So this week everyone likes Kaboul again. And Mason is our new hero.

Sell Eriksen.

Shoot Ade. Pick Soldado.

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spud said:

So what price a point?

There are two ways to look at this game. You might say that we are a new team with players who are getting used to the different philosophy and playing style of yet another new manager. Against a team full of good players with a defined style this is a creditable, hard-fought draw. It is unsurprising that they had most of the play. We defended our box well and restricted them to a handful of half-chances. There is some merit in this view. All of these things are true, and yet it tells only part of the story.

The rest of the story is less charitable. We have been led to believe that our new manager's preferred style of play is an aggressive, pressing style. It deprives the opposition of time and space in order to win possession high up the pitch and attack when they are least able to defend it. I saw that once today and it resulted in Chadli's goal. Once.

What I saw was a team that was happy to let the opposition have the ball. A team that was content to defend deep in its own half in order to restrict the options of a team that likes to pass its way through the centre of the pitch. In short, a team that came to the game with the sole intention of avoiding defeat and hoping to possibly sneak a goal on the break.

I'm not sure exactly how to catgorise my feelings about this. I feel a strange combination of disbelief, anger, sadness and shame. I watched my beloved Tottenham creep into the enemy's stadium too scared to play. Too frightened to even try to play football, to challenge the opposition, to impose itself on them. Grateful to avoid defeat, seemingly satisfied at a demonstration of what can only be described as sporting cowardice. I am stunned. I have witnessed humiliations, capitulations and degradations. I have seen us field a team of pub players and get spanked, and I have seen us field a team of internationals who played like pub players. But I don't think that I have ever seen us take the field against a team that we should be challenging and be scared of competing with them.

Where is the glory in what we saw today? There is none. Irrespective of how many points we got today - even if we had won - it would have been a defeat. A defeat for all that we hold dear about this great club. A betrayal of our history and our philosophy. (Sir) Bill Nick will be turning in his grave.

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prawnsandwich said:

Just thinking about Kane not on the subs bench. I think MoPo was not going to sub Ade under any circumstances other than injury.
I think Ade is our number one player and so did Tim and likely so does MoPo.

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sim0n said:

Looks like Poch finally has the correct CB pairing, just need Davies in at LB and they will be sound.

It was a shame Paulinho was not on the bench - I think he would have been a nice option in for Lamela later in the second half IMO

Satisfied with a point away at the emirates -- looks like positive progress

COYS!!!!!!!!!!!

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jolsnogross said:

The example you're on about was vertonghen's breakaway from center back to the final third. He lost composure when he got there and the simple pass to the right was missed. But he was sharp enough to regain possession, make the run with the ball, and then race back again when he lost it. The idea that he was too scared to try is just daft...he lost control and missed the pass as it was being nicked off him. He didn't bottle it, and he should be credited with the effort, rather than slammed for the error.

Chasing arsenal around high up in their half would have been suicide and you're speaking like a FIFA game head here. Comparing us to QPR of a few weeks ago confirms this.

And maybe if we play with a bit more heart and less philosophical bullshitting by fans and manager alike, we might actually start attacking with more frequency and purpose, as there were glimpses of today.

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spud said:

So what price a point?

There are two ways to look at this game. You might say that we are a new team with players who are getting used to the different philosophy and playing style of yet another new manager. Against a team full of good players with a defined style this is a creditable, hard-fought draw. It is unsurprising that they had most of the play. We defended our box well and restricted them to a handful of half-chances. There is some merit in this view. All of these things are true, and yet it tells only part of the story.

The rest of the story is less charitable. We have been led to believe that our new manager's preferred style of play is an aggressive, pressing style. It deprives the opposition of time and space in order to win possession high up the pitch and attack when they are least able to defend it. I saw that once today and it resulted in Chadli's goal. Once.

What I saw was a team that was happy to let the opposition have the ball. A team that was content to defend deep in its own half in order to restrict the options of a team that likes to pass its way through the centre of the pitch. In short, a team that came to the game with the sole intention of avoiding defeat and hoping to possibly sneak a goal on the break.

I'm not sure exactly how to catgorise my feelings about this. I feel a strange combination of disbelief, anger, sadness and shame. I watched my beloved Tottenham creep into the enemy's stadium too scared to play. Too frightened to even try to play football, to challenge the opposition, to impose itself on them. Grateful to avoid defeat, seemingly satisfied at a demonstration of what can only be described as sporting cowardice. I am stunned. I have witnessed humiliations, capitulations and degradations. I have seen us field a team of pub players and get spanked, and I have seen us field a team of internationals who played like pub players. But I don't think that I have ever seen us take the field against a team that we should be challenging and be scared of competing with them.

Where is the glory in what we saw today? There is none. Irrespective of how many points we got today - even if we had won - it would have been a defeat. A defeat for all that we hold dear about this great club. A betrayal of our history and our philosophy. (Sir) Bill Nick will be turning in his grave.

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spud said:

Not at all. I just believe that when you you play football you should try to win. You should compete. You should challenge the opposition, not allow them to do precisely what they want and cling to the hope that you can steal a point.

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