For ten glorious years, give Arsene a statue. Report and player ratings.
ARSENAL 3 SPURS 0
GREETINGS from North London.
It’s pouring down outside, my head is hurting, but nonetheless, what a beautiful day it is.
Just when you thought we had squeezed every last little bit of joy from the north London derby fixture, along came yesterday.
This was magnificent to behold: Spurs (from whom there had been a bit too much chat in the week) humbled as Arsene notched up an incredible perfect decade without defeat to our nearest rivals.
On the premise that losing these games is a painful experience (which trust me it is) then I think everyone should raise a glass to Arsene for sparing us such pain for so long. To put it into some context, United have lost five times in the league to City in that same period.
Last night on Twitter I called for a statue in recognition of Arsene’s achievement half way between our ground and theirs. According to Google Maps, the turning into Berkeley Road on the Seven Sisters Road is exactly the half way point and so there I propose it should go.
So, yesterday. Arsene plumped for Bendtner on the right wing. I thought it the wrong call at the time but actually until he went off he was our best player.
The atmosphere, I should say, was very decent indeed, despite the 12.45 kick-off.
I’ll make no bones about it: with Spurs swamping the midfield, we were somewhat turgid for 42 minutes. Indeed, I’d even go so far as to say Tottenham looked in some senses, the better side.
For our part Diaby was having one of those days. The fans who got on his back were hardly helping matters. Equally, he was very frustrating: not for me so much when he lost the ball, but more the way he seemed to spend most of the first half ambling passively while Spurs passed around us.
This is what Harry Redknapp thought of that first half:
“On 42 minutes I felt the crowd were getting onto them, they weren’t creating anything worth talking about, and I felt very comfortable. I’m looking up at the clock with three minutes to half time and thinking we’ve done our job. I could see us certainly getting a big result.”
The half way spot where the statue should go
That, frankly, is a rather selective version of events. Chance wise there had been one and it had fallen to us when Gomes saved smartly from Cesc. They had played some nice patterns but created sod all concrete. Manuel Almunia, who returned after family tragedy, didn’t have a save to make, which was fortunate because his handling looked iffy.
Spurs had put together a few decent passes but by and large their only tactic seemed to be to hoof it in Crouch’s direction and play off his knock-downs. Yes, they were missing their pace in Lennon and Defoe, but we were missing Walcott and really I thought they’d have a bit more ambition.
They did have one 40 yard Bentley volley. Sitting at the side of the pitch, I can’t tell you the sense of relief I felt when the first fans behind the goal cheered because they realised it was drifting harmlessly wide.
And then Harry’s fatal mistake was exposed: sitting at the Emirates feeling very comfortable. How can you sit there feeling comfortable playing a side who have knocked an average of four goals a game at home this season?
We’re chock full of players who can score from nothing and sure enough, we did.
Harry can bemoan slack marking at the throw in that allowed the excellent Sagna to swing in a cross and he can ask whether Gomes might have saved it, but there can be no doubting the way RVP got ahead of the deified Ledley King to turn it viciously towards goal with his right chocolate leg.
Great stuff and seconds later the Emirates was going absolutely crazy as Cesc exploited a sloppy ball from kick-off, slalomed his way through and finished magnificently for one of the great derby day goals.
Classic Arsenal.
After the break, I really thought we were excellent. Not least because at 2-0 you actually looked at it and thought in one sense for the next 25 minutes or so we needed a goal more than they did because come the 70 mark they’d probably settle for 2-0 and we’d feel a tad twitchy given recent events and last year’s game.
But we played it perfectly: rock solid in defence and midfield but still creating chances for Diaby and Eduardo. Almunia saved from a Bentley free-kick and then it was three. It was great refereeing from Clattenburg to allow play to carry on and when Sagna crossed, they screwed it up and RVP tapped home.
Clattenburg really was very good I thought. Yes, Bentley was lucky early on, but by and large the ref read the game perfectly and realised that getting card happy would probably only make a clean game dirtier.
It’s funny because even after 88 minutes of last year’s game I said to the people I was with that I wasn’t at all comfortable. Yesterday, was a completely different story. The back four were rock, rock solid. Sure, Crouch was winning headers, but our positioning was excellent and helped by the excellent Song and Cesc and even Diaby, Spurs really didn’t get a sniff.
With a birthday to mark too, the celebrations went on long and late and got to the stage of drunkenly trying to recall every Spurs v Arsenal result since 1988. By and large we did.
Arsene Wenger, I thank you. My head is hurting less now.
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