Ratings for Arsenal

[Spurger King]

Mason MotM for me. That's the best I've seen him play. Some of his passes went a bit astray but his commitment, awareness, and overall energy was superb. Worked very well with Bentaleb, who also deserves a huge amount of credit.

Apart from Kane's two goals I was also extremely impressed by his hold-up play and passing. I don't think anyone can still have doubts that he's the real deal. Immense.

The whole team hardly put a foot wrong today and all should be applauded, but a special mention to Danny Rose. I've criticised him heavily in the past but today he was dynamic, calm under pressure, and visibly up for the challenge.

One of the most impressive performances I've seen from any Spurs team. Everything just seemed to click, and we never looked like allowing a small matter like conceding the first goal to get in the way of a fully deserved three points.

 

[Mr Pink]

Lloris - 7.5 - Superb when called upon, which was rarely.

Veronghen - 7 - Solid and organised.Worked well with Dier and came forward at appropriate times.

Dier - 7.5 - I like Fazio a lot, but I can easily see why Dier was preferred against a team with a lot of pace and movement, but only Giroud as a target - he's a good striker, but he's not a physical handful. And Dier rewarded his manager with a mature performance, full of good judgment and strength, with only a few dodgy clearances and sloppy passes to mar it. The past 2 appearances, he hasn't looked like a youth player anymore, he's looked ready.

Walker - 7 - Great verve and pace, only caught out positionally twice, although once cost us a goal. A determined display.

Rose - 8 - A great display in the attack and forced a fine save from Ospina. He was never going to win the foot-race for the move that led up to their goal and, otherwise, he defended well. Rose is now showing sustained good form.

Mason - 9 - MotM. Simply everywhere, closing down, pressing, winning the ball countless times, driving the midfield and taking shots at goal. And he didn't let up for the entire time he was on the pitch. A coming-of-age display.

Eriksen - 7 - Calm, organised, involved - more of a cog than a star today, but a bloody important cog.

Bentaleb - 8.5 - Nearly as good as Mason, with a simply superb floated deep cross for the simple-but-sublime winner. Bentaleb's smooth possession-preserving passing reminds me more and more of Huddlestone. It isn't flash, but you'd never want to be without it. It keeps us ticking - his comments about Deschamps and Makelele in his interview this week speak volumes.

Dembélé - 7 - His presence in an advanced position is tactically brilliant and was crucial to the sustained pressure we were able to exert today, but his indecisiveness with the ball is simply infuriating. At one point, after about a half-hour, he was controlling the ball under pressure on the edge of the box and a perfect corridor opened up for him in the Arsenal defence. With only Ospina to beat and the whole goal to steer to ball at ... he took 2 or 3 pointless touches and then got off neither a shot nor a pass. And I knew he wouldn't.

Lamela - 6.5 - His contribution at present resembles that of Aaron Lennon: he occupies two defenders, because everyone now knows that he can beat one man but not two and the opposition double-team him routinely, and he tracks back and tackles and plays a full part in our midfield team play. But none of his creative play ever comes to fruition and he still loses the ball far too often.

Kane - 9 - As someone wrote above, he is starting to look more like a young Shearer than the Sheringham-style player I saw a few months ago. His bullishness has emerged alongside his canniness and the blend is very exciting. His finishes - totally different, as usual - were precise, nerveless and, in the case of the header, world-class. He rose above two markers who are bigger than he is and guided the deepest of deep crosses (a difficult technique) right into the top corner. Simple and wonderful.

It cannot be a coincidence that our four (!) youth team graduates, Kane, Mason, Bentaleb and Rose, were arguably our four best players and were snapping into tackles, closing down, pressing high and attacking every ball fiercely. The North London Derby has a different significance for them.

And what decade is Kane from? You grow up in a local family of Spurs supporters. You sign for your home town club at 11. You play your way into the first team at 21, in place of two expensive imports. And then you score two goals to win your first North London Derby. It's a boys' magazine story from the 1950s. "Living the dream" doesn't quite convey how weird it is to have someone with his background and career pattern becoming a major figure in the 2015 Premiership.

It was a fantastic football match anyway and we dominated nearly all of it. The score could justifiably have been 3-1 or 4-1, but let's not fail to give credit to Arsenal's very organised and aware defending. It took two good finishes to beat them, but FFS, we had 23 shots and they had 7. It was our game. Our day.

Totally agree with this and if he could improve his decision making and speed in terms of when to release the ball he'd be a monster of a player.

But you're bang on, tactically playing him in the advanced central position is proving extremely effective.

I think some are critical regarding his indecisiveness, which is fair, but they're totally ignoring or not seeing how crucial his influence is to our whole dynamic. No coincidence that Pochettino's style is suddenly bursting out now either. Playing Dembele where he is now has certainly contributed to that.

Enjoyed your ratings.

 

[bigfrooj]

Today was a reversal of roles. They scored a fortunate goal and tried to hang on and we then totally dominated and finally overcame them. Recognise that?

 

[danielneeds]

The biggest compliment I can pay to the lads today was that at times they were reminding me of last year's Atletico team. Stylistically maybe we're not as cautious as they were. And our defence is still not as rock solid. But like Atletico, the players showed such tremendous apetitite for work, such hunger and a real winning ethic. Added to that a powerhouse striker leading from the front,

 

[jurgen1966]

Everywhere we gooooo, everywhere we goooooooo, it's the Tottenham boys making all the noise , everywhere we goooo

 

[PMS]

Lamela was awesome.

 

[jurgen1966]

Six out of eleven English players , I'll have a tenner we win the euros

 

[HW61]

Kane gave us a striker's masterclass. A complete performance.

Bentaleb again astonishes me. He's been out of the loop for a month and this 20 year old puts on a 90 minute show like that.

Hell, I'm proud of all of them and our fans who likewise created a sparkling atmosphere even when we went 1 down.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Just another thought. It seems that Pochettino didn't think twice about selecting Eric Dier - aged 21 + 3 weeks, with only a few Premiership matches behind him in his natural position - for a crucial North London Derby, ahead of Fazio, Kaboul and Chiriches.

It's yet more evidence that the manager observes clearly and makes decisions based on what he sees, not on what he expected to see or what he thinks is expected of him. Anyone who follows my posts knows how much I rate this kind of attitude. He seems to be unusually free of confirmation bias, which may be his best characteristic as a manager - he sees what's there, not what he expects to see.

 

[mpickard2087]

Still buzzing after that win. Clocked up 20 years now as a supporter, and I can honestly say I'm struggling to recall a better performance. Certainly have not seen a Spurs team show so much fight, energy and be so prepared to get stuck in and win the ball back. The only thing you could criticise was the lack of a composed final touch at times.

It was a travesty we were losing the match for such a long time, but in the end justice was done. I was so impressed with how we stuck at it, with the crowd roaring them on, kept fighting and plugging away against in fairness a pretty resilient defensive outfit and finally were rewarded.

Tactically I often criticise managers, today I thought we were superb in this respect. We finally saw a real concerted high press that everyone bought into and the results were pretty good. There was a 5 minute spell in particular second half where we absolutely strangled them, they were unable to get out, as we carried out wave after wave of attack after snaffling the ball back. We were so dominant that the two centre backs were stationed well inside their half as we completely hemmed them in. Beautiful to see it put into practice. I hope we see much more of this, and the pressure is on now, because today finally it looked like things had clicked.

With the ball we were patient but played with tempo, in keeping with our frantic pressing efforts. We didn't let our heads drop after the early goal and kept plugging away. I thought we played with a lot of adventure and daring, Rose and Walker pushing right on and taking the game to them, and as I said the centre backs played extremely high. There was a chance we would get countered, but we were bold and took it to them. I liked what I saw.

What was most pleasing though has to be the attitude and workrate that we saw all over the pitch. It makes a nice change to see a Tottenham team do the 'dirty work' and want it more than the opposition. We aren't getting bullied out of games anymore. It's epitomised by people like Mason and Rose - tenacious, and sometimes downright nasty, fuckers which you need in the team and to get about the opposition. Unfair to single out individuals though, all over the pitch players put in a shift and no one could be faulted. A real team effort. Only one side wanted it out there today, and got its rewards.

Great stuff. Now to bottle, and repeat it!

Lloris - Not much to do. No chance for the goal. One super save from Welbeck.

Walker - Better from him today I thought. Showed greater urgency, whether that be coming out and pressing the ball/making interceptions or when he attacked his man well and used his speed. Good game.

Dier - First real test. Passed with flying colours. Composed on the ball, good positional sense, quick enough across the ground when he needs to cover across. Looks totally unfazed by it all. Looks a great buy, and a scarily good prospect.

Vertonghen - Solid, composed game. A good foil for Dier and a good partnership for playing proactive football trying to play out from the back.

Rose - He got done from a standing start for the goal, but I don't think that should take away from a very good performance. First half especially he tore down the left and really took the game to them. His energy and tenaciousness were a great example of our pressing and hassling game today. All that was missing was a better final ball on a couple of occasions. Very good game.

Mason - Few blips in the first 20 mins, after that an absolutely heroic performance in the centre of the park. Popped up everywhere, whether that be to pass, dribble, tackle or even kick the opposition when needed. Some bemoaned his fouls but you need to play with an edge and when you press high you need players who will commit dirty fouls to stop the counter attack, is the truth. Greater precision is needed at times, and he needs to strive to improve this, but he was the heartbeat of that performance today.

Bentaleb - Early stages worked his way into it a little bit I thought, as the game wore on though he was his usual composed self and kept things ticking in midfield. Great cross for the winning goal.

Lamela - Worked hard, some nice lay offs and link up play at times, but in and around the box decision making/composure let him down at times. Put in a real shift though and contributed to the team effort.

Dembele - A couple of times was frustrating, and I still think he needs to show more incisiveness at times, but I thought second half in particular he had a good-very good game. He effectively played as a targetman from the No.10 role... It allowed us to push forward passes into a congested area and the ball would stick with him and then we could play off him. Looks a much better use of him than in the Cm2.

Eriksen - Also put in a real shift. Final ball maybe not happening for him today, but saw plenty of the ball and played his part.

Kane - Just keeps on going. Had to do a lot of hold up play today and be patient, when the chances came though he showed the striker he has become over the last few months. The header in particular was top class. Amazing progression.

Fans - Excellent.
Poch - Bravo. Encore...

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

Safe to say we took the piss

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Absolutely savage performance today, very little point in trying to be objective in all fairness although I did laugh at 'Lamela was awesome' which is perhaps taking it a bit far.

Walker had his best game since returning from injury, attacked with purpose, again final ball let him down a bit but was genuinely impressed with him.

Really like Dier. Would have him over Fazio all day long, him and Vertonghen complement each other well.

Rose was a strange one, he was our best attacking outlet in the first half but also our weakness as they had a lot of joy down their right. Had a good second half though.

Bentaleb slotted straight in, Mason gave the ball away a lot in the early stages but was so involved you couldn't ignore his work.

I really like Dembele in this advanced role, holds the ball up well and was involved in a lot of our good stuff early on, Eriksen didn't get involved first half but had more to do in the second, nothing really happened for Lamela, ran down a lot of blind alleys but didn't give up, probably the weakest of our outfield players but wasn't poor by any means.

I thought Kane had a great game, he played like a complete forward and we wont do much wrong if we keep with him, it clearly means a lot to him too.

All in all I thought it was a great game from us, very good signs and happy to give Poch the backing to stamp his mark on the team, get rid of the big earners Adebayor, Soldado, Capoue, Kaboul and bring in/through youngsters who 'get it'.

Good stuff.

 

[Dan Yeats]

Here's about 3 seconds of The HurriKane after the final whistle.

http://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnatio...north-london-derby-tottenham-arsenal-reaction

 

[SFCS]

all 14 players and manager = 12/10

Paulinho was unstoppable!

 

[Spurs-USA]

Mason was everywhere. If/when he gets a little bit sharper technically he could be a top, top player. It's hard to even fault him for a few errant deliveries because he was around the ball so much today.

 

[ilikeost]

Mason was man of the match, he was fucking brilliant from start to finish. Kane will steal the headlines because of his goals but Mason was the best player on that pitch today.

 

[Mr Pink]

Will be buzzing all week after that, what a performance that was and everyone deserves immense credit. The signs have been there in recent weeks though, for me at least, and when you couple the spice of a NLD I wasn't completely surprised that Pochettino's style came bursting out today.

I thought we were excellent in the first half against Sheffield United and that's when Dembele started in the advanced central role. The shape and our collective ability with him in that position has changed our dynamic and its enabled us to press better from the font and it allows us to retain possession well when we push up the pitch and camp in the oppositions half. Basically its enabling us to completely overwhelm teams. I know he can be too slow to release the ball at times, which is frustrating, but the tactical affect is considerable and that's not to be underestimated in terms of Pochettino's style becoming a lot more evident since we've seen Dembele employed in the advanced role.

Everyone worked their socks off. The return of Bentaleb gives us some real steel. We swarmed all over them and the sheer appetite to compete was simply stunning. For years on end we've watched Spurs teams get out fought when it gets niggly, when second balls are there to be won we'd lose the battle. Today there was a determination that I've never seen or associated with Spurs in recent times. This shift in mentality is coming from the management, but its also about playing the right players who have the mental capacity to step out on the pitch and compete to that level.

The only criticism I'd have of today is that we could and should of made more of our attacking situations. We simply should of scored more goals and a 3/4 - 1 scoreline would of been a lot more representative of the game.

That was Pochettino's style in absolutely every respect though. Fast, aggressive, slick and high intensity football. The benchmark has been set. Many of us saw this as a real test as to where we are at the moment. Well I think its fair to say that we've taken a big stride forward today - in terms of implementing Pochettino's style for a full game against a good side and in terms of the confidence and belief that it will give the players - not just in themselves, but in Pochettino and what's he asking of them. We've heard plenty of comments about the fitness work, well I'd say none of them will be doubting Pochettino's methods now that's for sure - not that they ever did in all likelihood.

Very exciting times when you consider the average age and make up of the squad.

Lloris 7 not that much to do. Good save from Welbeck and very sound with the other few things he had to contend with.

Walker 7 got into some great positions, competed really well although lapsed for the goal - as did others to be fair. Love his fight.

Dier 7 looks composed and plays with a maturity beyond his years. Justified his place ahead of Fazio and it was the right selection.

Vertonghen 7 generally very good but did get caught up field for their goal when diving in I think....

Rose 7.5 would of been an 8, but Welbeck got past him quite easily for the goal. But overall he was buzzing down our left, an attacking performance full of zest and a good effort on goal to. Should of made more of some crossing opportunities but I love his tenacity and the feisty edge he has.

Mason 8.5 MOTM some of the tackles he won were insane looking, they really were. Pressed like a man possessed, and drove us forward. A few passes went astray in the first 20 but overall this was one hell of a performance from Mason. It had everything and for a NLD it was incredibly impressive for him to be so influential - with and without the ball.

Bentaleb 8 he brings a real steel to the midfield and his passing was bloody good. A lovely cross for the winner and overall his competitiveness and influence was seriously impressive. You have to really want it, Bentaleb and Mason had it in absolute spades today.

Lamela 7 I thought he got better as the game went on, definitely was better in the second half. He worked hard and that;s why he gets a 7 for me, otherwise it would of been lower. But he did some good things in the second half, some nice interplay and exchanges but he still loses the ball too easily at times.

Dembele 7.5 there was one moment that he lumbered on the ball in the first half when an opening had presented itself and we failed to capitalise depressingly as a result - he needs to release the ball quicker. Other than that though he's a highly effective component in our collective dynamic at the moment. His ability to retain possession in those areas higher up the pitch was key in terms of the pressure we created. Got better in the second half as well. His header was saved for our equaliser and he forced another good save with a great effort. A commanding game all in all and he has to stay in this advanced role, we look a hell of a lot better for it.

Eriksen 7 worked hard and passed the ball well, he was highly involved in all that pressure we managed to put them under. Set pieces could of been better.

Kane 8.5 that header is as good as I've seen as far as headed goals go. Running out of superlatives, but the rapid rate at which he's developed is scary. Some of his hold up play was exquisite as well today. He's a composure and calmness about his game that's coupled with a real hunger and determination - a fantastic blend of attributes IMO. He's going to be a Tottenham legend, you can feel it.

Well done Pochettino. Style is out, picking the young players who have came through the Club who are best equipped to carry it out.

Does it get much better than today?

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Will be buzzing all week after that

If only we didn't have Liverpool on Tuesday

 

[danielneeds]

I'm just so glad we've learned how to put away these little teams who come to the Lane and park the bus with men behind the ball....

 

[G Ron]

Lamela was awesome.

I actually thought he was our least awesome player today if I'm honest. Worked very hard yes, but I expect more from him, much more.