Arsenal vs Tottenham: NLD Match Thread

[Hazardousman]

Spurs fans are so fickle. We lose away to Arsenal (we weren’t anywhere near our best, with key players out and some in our team still recovering from injury), and they tell us this is a reality check. Get a grip people. This game does not reflect where we are as a club/team. We lost, they played well. It happens.

To be fair a game like this can change a season, we aren't going to win this league this year anyway because City are miles ahead and can't see anybody stopping them.

Worried about us dropping off the pace because we were shockingly bad today, worst I have seen us play in a NLD.

 

[worcestersauce]

Arsenal were right up for this and driven on by Sanchez, we were short of 100% without a doubt, players carrying injuries and the team just lacking on a number of fronts, physically and mentally.
Not helped by a few refereeing decisions but not sure we can put it all down to that.

 

[dagraham]

Dog shit performance.

A little bit of pressing rendered us totally infective.

Unfortunately it often does. As good as we were against Madrid, they played right into our hands.

Crap teams can’t execute the press against us we’ll because when they win the ball they don’t do much with it and they are scared to give us space to run into, but all the top teams can press us away from home and we have no answer.

 

[thinktank]

Why didn't Lloris dive for that header? It wasn't a rocket and he could see it from a long way out. I know it went in of the post but it was soft for me.

Weight was on wrong foot (and his position seemed slightly off).

 

[ilikeost]

We lost it in midfield, Dembele was a shadow of his former self and Sissoko (whilst positive going forward) wanders all over the pitch which leaves a gap in the middle. We then had to try and punt it long which was clearly not working. We really, really missed not having one of Wanyama or Dier in the centre today - preferably alongside Winks.

Hats off to Arsenal, I thought they worked very hard and if (our) Sanchez hadn't been so good then it could have been much worse.

Yeah, Sissoko should't play there. I don't honestly know where he should play, probably at some other club. He is good at one thing, running with the ball and that just isn't enough.

 

[SugarRay]

Bitter post alert!!

Them pricks are still going to lose their two main men, they are still in turmoil, they are still a wet fan base, they are still gonna miss out on top 4 again.

They are still scum

Bitter but factually correct.

 

[glacierSpurs]

Players should be fined a weeks wages for that, Sanchez and Verts the only two that can hold their heads high after that.

IMO, even Verts today was guilty of contemplative headers and gave away possession too much because of that. Really wonders what got the grips of the lads to feel so fearful today.. Sigh..

 

[2bearis2do]

If you think he's one dimensional then it's because you're myopic. I really can't stand this scapegoating of Sissoko. We didn't play well at all, they played as well as they can. There were three players who didn't turn up: Kane, Alli and Eriksen.

I actually bad mouth a half -fit Kane and the constantly mis-performing Dele (who shouldn't even start these days) -I don't blame Eriksen - he needs players to create space for him and that ain't going to happen if those two aren't on their game. As for Sissoko - he looked Ok today - but he's no game changer, is one dimensional and has poor technical ability - I don't see how he adds value or improves our team. He can get by - but I want more from a 30 million pound player. I'd swap him in a heart beat for a Zaha, a Rashford or a Salah - they're the types of players we should be buying for that kind of money. And if you can't see that - I suggest you buy some bi-focals.
Please feel free to enlighten me as to how and what you think Sissoko brings to the team?!? Direct running with the ball &...........works hard &........

 

[StevePil]

The biggest concern for me is that performance after the Palace performance, what has happened? all the injuries too - this is when we normally come to life as a team under Poch, some big games coming up.
We need to move on and quickly as frankly that was awful today, we can blame the ref as much as we like but we were shit and deserved what we got.
There was no passion from the players at all and clearly we have a few injuries in the squad, we need to rest against Dortmund and get a win next week at Wembley as that wont be easy either.

Re title - I said weeks ago shut that thread, hopefully now you believe... we have absolutely zero chance of winning the league, we are gonna be in a battle for top 4, let alone title. If season can finish now and we get third I will be happy

 

[Garbob]

We can kiss the league goodbye, City could be 11 points clear of us after today and even if we win both games against them, we would still need to make up 5 points on them. Not happening.

Agree. To be fair i did say I would be happy to finish top 4 at the start the season given we are playing at Wembley.

 

[Damian99]

We win the occasional big game and that's about it really.

 

[ajspurs]

I said at HT that the refs decision doesn't help things at all and could have changed the outcome of the match but in truth, after watching the full 90 I couldn't care less about the decision because even after being able to reset ourselves at HT we were shit. From the start, as a defensive unit we looked very fragile and even then I was thinking it was one if those games where if we do go 1-0 we'll still feel very vulnerable.

Arsenal could have had 4 or 5 today. The annoying thing is that it just looked like a superior team today playing an inferior team when we know that's not the case and that's one of the reasons why it was so frustrating. The seemingly lack of fight, passion and desire from the front 3 in Alli, Kane and Eriksen was disappointing.

I'm not sure if it's a fair observation as it's easy to say when we've lost but from early on I was kind of hoping we'd had Aurier and Rose on for this game. Probably because they're both capable of showing fight and we looked like we lacked so much of that today.

 

[SpursDave88]

Poch has done amazing things with this team, but if he doesn't stop with his amateurish coaching during the games, we will never be a winning club. I can accept that Kane was subsituted, because he wasn't fit. But Alli too? It's so stupid so I don't know what to say. No, Alli wasn't good. But even when players like Kane and Alli plays bad, they can score a goal or two. Sissoko was decent, but even when he's decent, he wont help us getting back in a game where we need goals.

But they were both absolutely awful, honestly, we probably would have been better if Alli had gotten himself sent off nice and early, he was that bad.

 

[bat-chain]

Was a poor performance but still decided by very small moments.

 

[Bobbins]

Pathetic.

Arsenal were excellent but we were absolute shit.

We are becoming extremely proficient at losing the games which matter.

 

[Super Tottenham]

Really missed lamela

 

[Chimbo!]

People, don't get carried away.

Kane was clearly off colour, probably because he's not 100% fit. Alli had been nursing a hamstring issue. Those things matter when you play games at this level. The performance was poor but the goals conceded were marginal – you could argue with either. Yes, Arsenal were better but what got them over the line were tiny margins that could have easily gone the other way. People forget that we also had Alderweireld and Wanyama missing. That's the spine of the team either out injured or off colour.

The one worry is we've played the top 6 fours times and lost 3 – and in each of those defeats none of our players have scored (Chelsea was an own goal). That's a worrying trend. It suggests that head to head we're a weaker team compared to our competition. The only one we haven't played is Manchester City, by some distance the strongest side in the division.

 

[Spurs 1961]

Looked like most of our key players were missing that 5-10% that makes all the difference. Maybe because too many have been out injured. Then Eriksen has just come off the most important game of his career in getting his country to the World Cup finals.

I may be grasping at straws but that was not a typical Spurs performance so I am looking for valid reasons

 

[spursbhoy67]

Mike Dean and the lino should not be the focus for us. Free kicks and marginal decisions happen like they did today.

We gave away the ball needlessly in the build up to both goals. We didn't defend the free kick very well. We were opened up too easily in the build up to the second. We didn't create many chances. We looked devoid of ideas in the final third. We possibly got our tactics and team selection wrong.

That is where the focus should be.

 

[Ashen]

Arsenal were good and up for it. Football is a game of incredibly fine margins. They got the benefit. I don't think we were backs against the wall, without Mike Dean it would have much closer and probably a far different game. We were off the pace slightly but Its just a loss.