Match Day Thread Arsenal vs Spurs - NLD Edition

please log in to view this image

Venue: Emirates Stadium
KO time: 16:30
Date: March 14th 2021

Head to Head:
All: 202
Won: 82
Draws: 54
Lost: 66

Last 6 meetings:
Spurs 2-0 Arsenal
Spurs 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-2 Spurs
Spurs 1-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 0-2 Spurs (LC)
Arsenal 4-2 Spurs

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

Team News:
​

Emile Smith Rowe was the only player in the Gunners’ treatment room, but he made his return in the midweek fixture over Olympiakos, having made his recovery from injury.

However, it would be a surprise if Mikel Arteta threw him straight back into the starting XI for the derby.

Serge Aurier bounced back from injury to play the entirety of Spurs’ midweek Europa League bout with Dinamo Zagreb, suggesting that Matt Doherty will come in at right-back.

Sergio Reguilon, unused against Slavia, will replace Ben Davies at left-back, although Giovani Lo Celso’s recovery from a back injury has been delayed due to complications.

 

Tough one this.

Although I think we will score and have and even have the lionshare of possession our ability to gift goals away will again be a problem against a side with such clinical forwards.

I would like to see..

---------------------Leno----------------------
Cedrick---Holding---Gabriel---Tierney
------------Partey-------Xhaka-------------
------------------Odegaard------------------
---Saka-----------Auba------SmithRowe

 

I'm not confident at all for this one - I hope the team prove me wrong, but have a feeling we'll shoot ourselves in the feet like we always seem to do these days. And Kane is in red hot form right now, as well as Bale having a mini-resurgence.

We'll need everyone to be on job. No individual mistakes, no sloppiness in dangerous areas of the pitch, no stupid red cards, no wastefulness in front of goal.

If we can manage that, we may be able to get a positive result...

 

Some videos to get us in the mood for the big one today:

 

I love and dread this game in equal measure.

Kane, Son and Bale are going to be a handful today, and with our generous defending, I can't see us keeping them out.

By the same measure, their defence barring Reguilon is pretty gash too, so we can definitely score against them

I just want to see us play some direct football, take some chances, shots, take defenders on. If we play tippy tappy, Maureen will park the bus and they'll hit us on the break.

 

Just heard on Sport Sports that Auba has been left out of the starting line up for disciplinary reasons. WTF!!!

 

It's an odd one that. Whatever he's done is bad enough for him to have been dropped, but isn't so bad to exclude him from the match day squad altogether. Arteta wouldn't elaborate, either. I wonder what happened...

 

I have to say. Arteta shouldn't have been so candid about his reasons for dropping Aubameyang pre-game. Should have waited until after. Saying it pre-game just increases the scrutiny on him and the club. It'll be intensified if we lose today, as well.

I hope it won't be too much of a distraction...

 

Hmm. Ah well. Might bring him on as a sub.

Hopefully Lacazette is out to prove something today.

Martinelli still cant catch a break though under Arteta.

 

Agree with this. Perhaps it's a bit of naivety/inexperience as a manager - but I just think he could have played it down as tactical reasons and kept this information in-house.

 

Thought Laca would be a good starter in this game anyway so not unhappy with the line up
As always recently am nervous about this game
If we play the way we can and have at times recently we have the beating of them
coyg

 

Very mourinho game plan so far.

 

A VERY Mourinho game plan.

 

Why cant we be more clinical?

We played soo well but there's this total lack of composure in the box. Mourinhos team are the exact opposite - doesnt make a difference how they play if they get chances they score.

 

Lacazette is ****.

 

Tierney is so good. Love this guy!

 

HT. 1-1. The very least we deserve - easily been the better team and we should have scored more.

Lamela shouldn't even be on the pitch, as he kicked out at Luiz and Xhaka, but we were never going to be given that because our players didn't roll around clutching their leg.
Typical that he then scores a Rabona, when they'd created nothing all game.

I just hope we carry on with that performance and don't let them back into it. We've played well and they've not been great.

Come on Arsenal!

 

Other than our lack of composure in the box (and to be fair we hit post and bar) I thought we played really well in 1st half.

 

Yessssss.

 

2-1. FT. Great win. Overall, thought our performance deserved it. Spurs were sitting off us a lot and were allowing us to play. I think they tried to play counter-attacking football, but we had players with the recovery speed and positional sense to not allow them to. We outplayed them and it was a travesty when they went 1-0 ahead. Justice prevailed in the end, as we thoroughly deserved to win.

I was really annoyed at how we let them come at us in the final 15 minutes, when they had 10-men. But glad it didn't matter in the end.

COYG!