Arsenal had alot of possession until Sandro came on but their inability to do anything with it coupled with a very shaky defence means it is going to be a tough season for them IMO! How can Wenger see Arteta as a replacement for Fabregas or Nasri? Last minute panic buy when he knew for the whole summer they would both be off! He should of made a better effort to sign Mata who is the sort of player they needed!
I predicted that we would win this game, simply because we have the better quality throughout the squad. In fact, the only player of theirs I would put straight into our squad is RvP, and I thought he was their most dangerous player. In previous years, we've had to put up with Nasri and Fabregas, both quality players, and without them Arsenal have looked like a spent force. Sure, they are still very good at retaining possession, as that is something that is obviously drilled into them day in and day out on the training ground. Indeed, one senses that that is all they do, at the cost of defensive and attacking drills There was never going to be much between us, as the margins are quite tight at this level, and is was always going to be the team with that little bit of extra quality that was going to win. We are that team, at the moment, and probably have been for a while.
I just think it's absurd to say that beating Arsenal meant more when they were finishing 30 points behind them in mid-table, yet now both sides are competing for the same thing - a place in the Champions League - a win in the derby has somehow diminished in importance.
Is it hard to gloat? Not really, not when the best they could come up with was Wenger making **** up about a handball for VDV's goal, or Wilshere bitching on Twitetr about the obvious bias Glenn Hoddle's punditry had (yet he remained slent about Lee Dixon on MOTD2, strangely...)
Quite agree i think Wilshere should learn to shut his cake-hole.he's starting to sound like 'arry but all he does is bitch.OK it might have been handball but i only saw Mertsacker appeal for it,also it took most people about 5 looks at replays to decide,so what chance does the ref have.On here most Arsenal fans have been ok,but after reading a BBC blog all the Arsenal fans could do was complain about VDV not being sent off.So i think i can gloat
Think it might be prudent to play Sandro and Parker,VDV will have to to sit on the bench until/if needed.
To be fair, for the most part Arsenal fans have been humble and accepted the defeat graciously. It's just their manager who needs to follow suit.
I've never found gloating much fun. Right now the only thing that seems important is getting fourth, and it looks like Tottenham has a slight lead near the beginning of a long race. Despite how discouraged even many of their supporters feel, I'm not writing off Arsenal. They still have talent in midfield, RVP is still good. They have to come up with something resembling a defense, but that's likely to improve somewhat as the team gets used to each other. Consider how much tougher they were at WHL than Liverpool. The key to success may be Parker and Sandro staying healthy. Having them both lets Spurs win the kind of tough games they couldn't win last year. As to Newcastle: Spurs may be due both a disappointing result and a draw, Newcastle is playing well, and the fans will be a big factor. I might guess a draw.
Then again it might be more prudent to put Defoe on the bench. Depends on the international break to some extent, but VDV is a better finisher than JD and a better calibre of player in general, so most of the time I'd choose VDV instead of JD.
It's just Harry has to start making some tough discisions,he's always found it easier to drop Defoe to the bench than VDV.He even said himself he was thinking of changing the team at half-time against Arsenal but in the end didn't and this could well have cost us the goal.VDV is a bigger threat than Defoe,but would VDV be able to take being benched for the sake of the team.I just hope he can.
VDV was far better than Defoe yesterday and he worked well with Ade against Wigan. Given that Pav has been extremely poor I think we'd be far better off starting Defoe on the bench with the potential to bring him on and change things.
I think 442 was more the problem than anything, 2 mids out wide leaving way too much room against 433. Modric was very quiet, and the game went on around him at times. The teamsheet was as good as you'll see, but if we persist with it, we will get over-ran in MF against 433 and 451 teams. The casualty there has to be JD for me, harsh on him I know, but thats how it is.
I'd be tempted to buy another striker in January even if Defoe regains his form. Yesterday's result was marred by a dubiousish first goal which means MAYBE we drew against a struggling team. Not good. We have a way to go to reach top form yet.
Hi Pat, VDV has been benched time and again for the sake of the team, including Sunday. But he keeps coming back and continuing to deliver the goods, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. While we're winning and VDV is contributing things should be ok, though I agree that VDV always has the potential to go off on one Mind you, I think JD had had a moan or two over the years when not getting game time, but I agree VDV is probably the more difficult issue on that score. Still, so far so good, Harry is handling VDV well, on the whole. Though I wasn't happy with with the way he handled VDV's omission from the Europa squad, and back VDV's irritation on that one.
I rarely gloat anyway. I feel its a bit of an empty victory when a team I follow beat a team someone else follows, and neither of us had any effect whatsoever of the result. - Thats just how my thought process works. Having said that, Arsenal's decine has not taken the shine off of a great victory for Tottenham on Sunday. The importance of winning this match shouldn't have been effected by each teams' current standings. I'm 23 now. Never used to beat my dad at anything before the age of 17. I still love beating him at pretty much every sport we play now, even if he is older/I'm currently at my prime.
To be honest, Sunday was one of the first times we were the favourites and not the underdogs against Arsenal... Hence the reason it wasn't much of a surprise that we beat them this time. I still celebrated after the final whistle as if we won the Champions League though!
Sell Pav, buy Leandro, then realise we've got an even tougher juggling act trying to fit them and VDV into the team. As for finding it hard to gloat, I think the better way to put it is that the 4-0 win over Liverpool was a lot more satisfying from a match standpoint, as well as from a shutting their fans up standpoint.
