Arsenal vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[mike_l]

Fairenough dude!No offence intended. Its a day of high emotions!

I should probably have emphasised more that King is still a top defender, but IMO the injuries have robbed him of that little bit extra he used to have. Such a shame really.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

I'm about to go off to Cyprus for a week (coming back just in time to make it to WHL for the Sunderland game) so I get to escape from the humiliation at least.

Arsenal barely had to do anything to beat us, which is worrying. King had what I think is his worst ever match for us, and I am confident we won't see it again. For him to be at all at fault for 1 goal, never mind 3, in a game is quite amazing.

Two goals from crosses for our left. I like Ekotto but he doesn't stop crosses coming in, ever.

Corluka and Bentley on the same side, as predicted, was an awful idea. Bentley had no space to do anything meaningful.

Jenas, Hudd and Palacios (who also had his worst game in our shirt) was a rubbish idea, and cowardly from our manager in my opinion, trying to accomodate both Jenas and Hudd rather than stick to the only formation that has won us games this season (playmaker on the left, winger on the right, two solid CMs).

Robbie Keane was poor regardless of whether he was in position of not. Crouch was so isolated it is untrue.

However, amidst all of this, we have gotten out of jail a bit because Liverpool lost, and Sunderland and Villa both drew. Granted Villa have a game in hand, while Citeh have 2 (please do us a favour tomorrow Birmingham and pretend to be Barcelona), but for now we are still 4th, and the lowest we'd go if all games in hand went against us is 6th. We also have two home games coming up.

I remain confident. Redknapp needs to be a bit stronger with his decisions regarding who plays and who doesn't in my opinion (Kranjcar the easiest to leave out from the available midfielders, so Kranjcar left out), but a couple of wins and we'll bounce back. I'll be at the lane, jovial, confident, and jetlagged next saturday with every faith that we'll have 22 points come the end of the 12th round of fixtures.

COME ON YOU SPURS!

 

[Dr Know]

So we're measuring our replacements against a full strength Arsenal? Our back up and depth, is back up and depth for a reason. It's not as good as our first 11, but it's good for back up.

Our backup played like a Sunday pub team m8 thats what I'm saying. We supposed to have 4 top class strikers we only had one out so what happened to the other 3? I keep hearing we have amazing cover for every position in the team and its a fight for a starting place, I sure did not see that today. We jump up and down when we wack Hull and the lower teams but this is where it matters IMO. If we want to get into the top 4 (which I still think we will) these are the games we need to win or at least get a point.

Another thing, some of us went on about Harry's formation and tactics but they must have tried it out in training :shrug: We knew we were missing key players for this game so Harry and the coaching staff must have discussed it, so what went wrong?

I think we just need to put this down to a bad day but how many times are we going to say that we've lost to the teams but 1 that we are trying to dislodge for that CL place, its only natural that most posts on here will be out of frustration

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Oh and also, Lennon, Modric, Defoe out at the same time = Rooney, Berbatov, Giggs all out at the same time; Van Persie, Fabregas, Arshavin all out at the same time; Gerrard, Torres out at the same time and Lampard, Anelka and Drogba out at the same time. We were without our three best attackers.

 

[ShelfSide18]

I'm about to go off to Cyprus for a week (coming back just in time to make it to WHL for the Sunderland game) so I get to escape from the humiliation at least.

Arsenal barely had to do anything to beat us, which is worrying. King had what I think is his worst ever match for us, and I am confident we won't see it again. For him to be at all at fault for 1 goal, never mind 3, in a game is quite amazing.

Two goals from crosses for our left. I like Ekotto but he doesn't stop crosses coming in, ever.

Corluka and Bentley on the same side, as predicted, was an awful idea. Bentley had no space to do anything meaningful.

Jenas, Hudd and Palacios (who also had his worst game in our shirt) was a rubbish idea, and cowardly from our manager in my opinion, trying to accomodate both Jenas and Hudd rather than stick to the only formation that has won us games this season (playmaker on the left, winger on the right, two solid CMs).

Robbie Keane was poor regardless of whether he was in position of not. Crouch was so isolated it is untrue.

However, amidst all of this, we have gotten out of jail a bit because Liverpool lost, and Sunderland and Villa both drew. Granted Villa have a game in hand, while Citeh have 2 (please do us a favour tomorrow Birmingham and pretend to be Barcelona), but for now we are still 4th, and the lowest we'd go if all games in hand went against us is 6th. We also have two home games coming up.

I remain confident. Redknapp needs to be a bit stronger with his decisions regarding who plays and who doesn't in my opinion (Kranjcar the easiest to leave out from the available midfielders, so Kranjcar left out), but a couple of wins and we'll bounce back. I'll be at the lane, jovial, confident, and jetlagged next saturday with every faith that we'll have 22 points come the end of the 12th round of fixtures.

COME ON YOU SPURS!

Spot on.

I actually was in favour of Corluka and Bentley to start. I was wrong!

 

[InBlackAndWhite]

Imagine if this was at White Hart Lane, we had a full strength squad available, and Arsenal were missing their 3 best players in Fabregas, Arshavin and Van Persie.

They would play Nasri in the Fabregas role (which is actually his prefered position), Rosicky wide as Arshavin's replacement and maybe throw Walcott up top. Eek

 

[walworthyid]

They would play Nasri in the Fabregas role (which is actually his prefered position), Rosicky wide as Arshavin's replacement and maybe throw Walcott up top. Eek

Yes they have better replacements than we do but they would be much weaker and I would fancy us to beat them. Like people have said, when we beat them 5-1 they had only a few players missing and we ripped them to shreds!

It was a very bad day at the office today and won't reflect on what we go on to do this season. But come January, Harry needs to look up front and in centre midfield if he really wants to strengthen us.

 

[riversmonkey]

The gameplan we had required the right personnel, I think we would have felt confident if Lennon or Modric were in the team instead of Keane and Bentley, because they have the mobility and skill to work the counter attack. Unfortunately Bentley was rusty, and Keane out of form, and neither were able to provide anything that would threaten Arsenal.

A lesson could also be learnt about squad rotation - none of the substitutes appeared match sharp, and Bentley still looked off the pace. It's all right having a bench that looks strong on paper but if these players aren't on their games then they won't be able to offer any impact when they come on to the pitch.

 

[Nads]

No team we'd have put out would have done much better. We had no way of creating, and although their goals all came from errors, we'd never have caused them problems.

My point is more to do with the mentality - only one player different for us can change our formation a lot. We only got going on any sort of offensive game when Bale came on for Huddlestone, and we went 4-4-2 which is how we should have started! As it was we played with 2 defensive CM roles and Keane dropping even further back. I still think we could have done much much better with the players available. We could still have given them a bloody good game, going for it and Harry seriously looked worried, it's not the right mentality. Almost all the players walked out for kick off and at half time with their heads down. There really is no point playing when we've all given up before the game.

We've played 4-4-2 all season, and with a bit of "C'mon lads lets go at 'em!!", which is how they approached the game, we could have caused them far more problems.

I LOVE Harry, but his admiration for the top 4 is bordering on pathetic.

 

[ultimateloner]

Keane's comments about us having a similar squad to Arsenal seems ironic - he must be the only one who believes that.

We had no self-belief and this translates to lack of ownership and creativity on the pitch. In the 2nd half all we did was hoof up to Crouch. Very disappointing.

 

[Brewster]

They would play Nasri in the Fabregas role (which is actually his prefered position), Rosicky wide as Arshavin's replacement and maybe throw Walcott up top. Eek

Still wouldn't match our full strength team. Especially at the lane.

As weve seen when Fabretwat gets injured they are rubbish. Without their best strikers they are also rubbish, Walcott up top instead of VP and Arshavin wouldnt frighten me he is too lightweight.

 

[ILS]

For the first time in the history of spurs, the fan's are more realistic then the manager and players.

Arsenal are so far infront of us it's scary still. We have one player that can stand up against the likes of Van Persie, Arshavin and Fabregas and that is Modric and once he realises this or a big team does, then he will sod off to play with better players.

Until we sign a top class centre midfielder that can dominant a game and take it by the scruff of the neck then we will always be nearly men. Jenas and Huddlestone are hit and miss, Palacios is good at what he does yet sometimes when the ball is at his feet against the top sides he gets found out. I have no idea how good this Sandro lad is or could be but until we get this part of the team sorted i just can't see us challenging the top clubs over a season.

 

[hybridsoldier]

3 mistakes cost us the game.

I can't criticise too much because for 42 mins we were equal. Then a mistake and fuck know what on the Fabregas goal, I mean that is not even sunday league thats a 5 a side goal!!!!

Also very disturbed that we came out in the 2nd half with no fight, no emotion, no nothing...it was very dissapointing and the third goal was inevitable.

But to be fair you expect to lose this game, the stoke loss makes it a bad result IMO as if we had beaten stoke then we would still be in a good position.
Liverpool look a shambles are there is a scrap for 4th, I still think get Defoe and Modric back and we will be up there.

 

[ILS]

Still wouldn't match our full strength team. Especially at the lane.

As weve seen when Fabretwat gets injured they are rubbish. Without their best strikers they are also rubbish, Walcott up top instead of VP and Arshavin wouldnt frighten me he is too lightweight.

They are rubbish without Fabregas??? Yet have played in the champions league for the last 12 seasons. Arsenal have system and a style of play that runs from the youth team all the way through to the first 11 which allows any players to come in to the side and get on with it.

People were saying they were going to struggle this season without a main striker in Adebayor but Wenger has put Van Persie up the middle and due to the fluency they have in the whole team he never just stays up against the two centre halves much like the Barcelona way.

I think some fans get too carried away of what comes out of Harry's mouth about how good our squad really is compared to say Arsenal's!!

 

[Brewster]

For the first time in the history of spurs, the fan's are more realistic then the manager and players.

Arsenal are so far infront of us it's scary still. We have one player that can stand up against the likes of Van Persie, Arshavin and Fabregas and that is Modric and once he realises this or a big team does, then he will sod off to play with better players.

Until we sign a top class centre midfielder that can dominant a game and take it by the scruff of the neck then we will always be nearly men. Jenas and Huddlestone are hit and miss, Palacios is good at what he does yet sometimes when the ball is at his feet against the top sides he gets found out. I have no idea how good this Sandro lad is or could be but until we get this part of the team sorted i just can't see us challenging the top clubs over a season.

I really think this is an over reaction. Their not that much better than us.

Imagine if just one of those chances against stoke went in, and we had beaten Stoke last week, we'd be going into this game on a high, imagine we wern't missing our 3 best players in Defoe Modric and Lennon. It would have been a completely different story. Its just circumstance. Im sure we'll beat the scum at our place convincingly.

 

[Brewster]

They are rubbish??? Yet have played in the champions league for the last 12 seasons. Arsenal have system and a style of play that runs from the youth team all the way through to the first 11 which allows any players to come in to the side and get on with it.

People were saying they were going to struggle this season without a main striker in Adebayor but Wenger has put Van Persie up the middle and due to the fluency they have in the whole team he never just stays up against the two centre halves much like the Barcelona way.

I think some fans get too carried away of what comes out of Harry's mouth about how good our squad really is compared to say Arsenal's!!

Whats the last 12 years got to do with it? They had different players then.. Viera, Henry, Pires, Wiltord etc.. Fact is, as we have seen before loads of times, if Fabregas is missing, Arsenal are nowhere near as good as they usually are. If, like us atm, they were also missing their other 2 best attacking players, who ive suggested are RVP and Arshavin, they would be pretty rubbish and we would beat them.

 

[ILS]

I really think this is an over reaction. Their not that much better than us.

Imagine if just one of those chances against stoke went in, and we had beaten Stoke last week, we'd be going into this game on a high, imagine we wern't missing our 3 best players in Defoe Modric and Lennon. It would have been a completely different story. Its just circumstance. Im sure we'll beat the scum at our place convincingly.

We played them at our place last season when they had 10 men for most of the match and we created very little. We are improving as a team but we are still a long way of them yet over a 38 game season and most of it is due to the mentality of the players and manager especially away from home against the big sides.

 

[ILS]

Whats the last 12 years got to do with it? They had different players then.. Viera, Henry, Pires, Wiltord etc.. Fact is, as we have seen before loads of times, if Fabregas is missing, Arsenal are nowhere near as good as they usually are. If, like us atm, they were also missing their other 2 best attacking players, who ive suggested are RVP and Arshavin, they would be pretty rubbish and we would beat them.

How the hell do you know we would beat them?? Of course they would miss Fabregas but after watching Ramsey's performance in midweek Wenger has someone who he is nuturing into an ideal replacement.

Arsenal do something we have a serious problem with and that is they are the best team at keeping the football. Without Modric we find it very hard stringing five yards balls together and even more so when we have Crouch in the side as the midfield players just become lazy and launch it up to him.

 

[speccy_spur]

We were doing so well, frustrating them, slowly getting a grip of the game....
I was so hopeful of the Keane-Crouch partnership before the Stoke game...how wrong I was.
Bentley did nowt to make a point to the manager or the supporters.

 

[ziggy]

sorry wrong thread