“Threadbare Arsenal” Comfortably Beat Big Spending Tottenham

Arsenal (1) – (0) Tottenham Hotspur
Giroud 23′
The Emirates Stadium, London
Barclays Premier League

Although there weren’t a lot of goals, it was certainly a tense game.

The previous two seasons have seen a 5-2 scoreline but this game was just as engrossing. Tottenham Hotspur, who have spent around £110 million and were full of new, exciting signings were up against Arsenal, who had only signed Sanogo and Flamini on free transfers.

But as we’ve seen in recent games, Arsenal are still a force to be reckoned with. As the scoreline suggests, this was a much closer contest than in recent seasons, and for the first 15 minutes Tottenham were the better side. They controlled the ball well, popped it around nicely and had most of the attacking possession – although in fairness it didn’t trouble us greatly.

Over the 90 minutes, we had the better of the chances and if it wasn’t for Lloris who was in fantastic form, we would have should have scored more goals. Szczesny wasn’t called upon that many times but needed to make two extremely important saves and he did so.

Defensively we were sound and it was only in the final 10 minutes when it got a bit tense. They had a lot of the ball (57% of possession in the end) but didn’t do a huge amount with it. For all their new signings and money spent, Tottenham have yet to score from open play in 3 Premier League games. In the words of AVB, maybe Tottenham are in a “negative spiral” in terms of goals.

The goal when it came was in a vital time in the match. Tottenham were bossing possession but we carved out a great chance on 23 minutes. Rosicky, the king of the pre-assist, fed in Theo who picked out Giroud at the near post. The big striker did extremely well to get ahead of the defender and coolly slotted in at the near post – it was a well taken goal and in the end proved decisive.

The game was a end to end for the most part and Arsenal were unlucky not to add to Giroud’s goal. Theo could have done better when played in by Cazorla but was denied by an onrushing Lloris, and Theo had a chance well-saved with 15 minutes to go.

The other main talking point was the introduction of Mathieu Flamini on 42 minutes when Jack Wilshere came off with stomach cramps. He did well in fairness, organising the team and defending well – and was extremely unlucky when he got booked for winning the ball.

The positive thing was how we played as a team. We attacked well, although lacked a bit of cutting edge, and defended as a team as well. Giroud made a fantastic block on the line from Soldado to deny Tottenham an equaliser. Giroud was deservedly Man of the Match, holding the ball up well and bringing others into play.

The back five were excellent, with Per Mertesacker outstanding at the back. Koscielny was always first to the ball and made some important interceptions, Gibbs and Jenkinson were solid and the midfield again, moved the ball around well and made some goalscoring opportunities.

Cazorla wasn’t as influential as he can be but did well, Rosicky was energetic and made things happen. Ramsey wasn’t as influential as he has been in recent games but never gave up. Theo again showed how much of an impact player he is as he popped up in decent positions to hurt Tottenham and delivered a brilliant cross for Giroud’s goal.

In the end, Arsenal deservedly won in the North London Derby playing the Arsenal way. Tottenham, for all the money spent and new signings weren’t convincing. However, it would be naive to think that they won’t be right up there by the end of the season and once their new players do have time to settle in they will be a force in the league.

Our first eleven is very good but with 24 hours of the transfer window to go, it would be suicidal if Arsene Wenger didn’t strengthen and add numbers to the squad. Giroud is bang in form at the money but an injury to him would be catastrophic. Wilshere has shown he will struggle to play an entire season and while Rosicky is playing well, he is prone to picking up a knock. Defensively we are still “a little bit short” and we need at least one defender as cover.

Overall, a good performance and excellent result, but it still covers over the cracks somewhat. But let’s enjoy the result this week and we can evaluate the state of the squad at 11pm tomorrow evening.

 

30 thoughts on ““Threadbare Arsenal” Comfortably Beat Big Spending Tottenham

  1. we beat the spuds AGAIN. same old same old…All the spud fans that were running out …… now they are saying they need time to gel.

     
  2. Arsenal played well and deserved to win but it doesn’t change anything regarding the squad situation – we still desperately need players. Trouble for Wenger now is that few clubs would want to sell their best players now and it reeks of panic buying. Wenger has failed this summer…

     
  3. Spurs got bus’ up on the ropes again haha. Bring back ‘Arry, bring back Alan Sugar, bring back Holsten Pils… haha… C’mon Arsenal…

     
  4. As a Spurs fan I can say Arsenal deserved the 3 points today, without doubt. Pretty much spot on with your review and impression for what’s yet to come. It’s going to be a fun season, especially with Liverpool looking a different kettle of fish already!

     
  5. LOL. Comfortably, eh? Sure, that must be why you ended the game with 6 defenders, and Spurs had most of the possession and shots. 😉 It was a good 3 points for you lot, sure enough, and well deserved, but comfortable it was not. You scraped a 1-0 at home, to a team who have played only 2 games together. Let’s see how you’re doing at Christmas….

    COYS

     
    • Exactly…Arsenal’s squad looked paper thin. Our squad is certainly superior, but they looked basically what they are – strangers. Arsenal have a tight-knit group with quality in it, but it’s paper thin and today could have easily gone differently had Spurs scored while on top in the first 25mins. Deserved three points for Arsenal on the day, but I am far from convinced your team has what it takes for a 60 game season.

       
    • We finished with 6 defenders for the same reason we need to buy we aint got enough squad players! For goodness sake we had a 17 yr old on the bench

       
      • What age got to do with it? How long have you followed arsenal? So many started as kids at aresenal. They rate him as highly as a certain former gooner in spain.

         
  6. Arsenal fans shouldn’t be so smug. They got lucky today and when Wenger decides to panic buy and bring in 3+ players then his team will need time to gel. Come May and we will all see what the league table says. Tottenham’s squad might need to settle but if can find an end product to go with their sheer dominance in play then those same, smug Arsenal fans might look back on today as the only time this season they got the better of Spurs. Besides, your not even from north london. Wannabes!

     
    • Wannabes? Haha. Spurs have sold their only good player and replaced him with a load of rubbish. You will be WORSE than last year, and even then you couldn’t pip us. Arsenal haven’t sold any first team players, and added at least one decent one in Flamini. Perhaps we’ll add one or two more tomorrow, or even in January, but anyway we will be better than Spurs, bunch of bottlers with no history of doing well and an average manager. I still fancy you to make the top 10 though…

       
  7. Spurs fan here. Very unbiased and fair assessment of the game. V worrying we’ve still not scored. Could do with some of your trickery and hopefully Lamela and Eriksen Can bring that. Really hoping that Wenger’s arrogance makes him believe by beating spurs, he’s no need to strengthen. The only possible silver lining after today!

     
  8. how on earth you could think arsenal deserved that win is beyond me, a quality goal by giroud but hardly a battering!! lol gooners are running scared 🙂 even your maverick manager says it takes time for players to gel and yet you luckily held on o a 1 – 0 win 🙂 .. roll on the end of the season when you have missed out either to us or the scousers .. lucky lucky arsenal.. one day you will see that wenger is a liability and that really you are shite !!won bugger all for seven years and still think that is acceptable!! goons alright.. for the record we have made a net profit in transfer dealings when all you have done is kept the money making more money for your owners 🙂

     
    • We deserved it u deluded spud cos we scored an u didnt an if u wanna banging on about how many yrs since we won a trophy then how long ago was it that you managed to finish above us and when were u last champions, if u dont knw the answer to the second ask yr great grandad he may remember! Now toottle of back up the Seven Sisters rd with yr tail firmly between yr legs like a good little spud

       
    • Oh poor Spurs fan! Trying to downgrade us. It’s not working. Try it on some clubs that you can bully around. Not us! I’m an arsenal fan and clearly you are just mad that we won against useless-piece-of-high money shit spuds. There’s no need to be like that. Show some grace when you lose. Shame on you!

       
      • You sound like you are ten years old. Useless piece of high money shit spuds? My god, show some joy that you won. It is allowed to invest in a squad when you are making money. Try some business 101, maybe you will learn something. I think you will have a very tough season with the current squad. You won because your team is fluid, but so will spurs be after a while.

         
    • A poor game? You might want to rethink that. I felt like this was the best game so far in this season. Definitely tops Liverpool’s victory over Man United. I guess you are Spurs fan who is clearly not happy with the result!! Spurs, spend another 100 million and you still can’t beat us. Priceless! Arsenal are the king of North London or just maybe yet King of London! Cheers mate! 🙂

       
      • Spend another 100 mill. Childish comment. You are so happy that you scraped a 1-0 win, and now come battering at spurs. At least we use money we earn, its called good business.

         
  9. Hey dudes…I totally agree that arsenal deserved to win the game against spurs. Though spurs had more possession than us, they were not really make useful of the ball. All they did was throw the ball into the penalty box and hope that lame soldado would head in there. A spirited performance from the gunners and love the celebrations toward the end…showed some togetherness and it felt like winning the league for me. Definitely Arsenal in the title run in this time!! Spending or not will not really impact our team unless its a marquee signing. Those last 10 minutes was really tensed but Arsenal were top quality in defending surprisingly. If they put in performance like this in every game, I am sure 100% that Arsenal will win league for sure. They just need to be consistent and they are fourth now with close competiton with other teams. Look who is missing Gareth Bale now, Spuds!!

     
  10. Lloris was the only player that kept the scoreline respectable for purrs and imo the only purrs player worthy of a Arsenal shirt. In Arsene I trust.

     
  11. Title for the gooners?…for just one(1-0) win at the emirates?….
    and putting 2LB and 2RB for defense?
    Makes my toe laughing.
    Still early days.

     

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