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The North London Power-Shift

Discussion in 'The Premier League' started by Hoddle is a god, Feb 8, 2015.

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  1. TOTTENHAM ARE LAUGHING AT COMPLACENT ARSENAL'S EXPENSE

    The joke might have been delivered with tongue firmly in cheek but to understand how the football hierarchy in north London has been so decisively and unexpectedly rearranged, you would only have to recall Arsenal’s annual general meeting during the 2013-14 season.
    Gareth Bale had just been sold to Real Madrid and Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis felt sufficiently confident about his club’s long-term prospects to note that the Welshman “doesn’t play for Tottenham, he now plays for one of our rivals”.

    Chairman Sir Chips Keswick had earlier also been no less bullish when he was challenged over whether change was needed at Arsenal. “It’s like a lady having a new hair-do… often, it’s no better than the one you’ve got,” he said.

    It all reflected a feeling that the hard years of paying back the Emirates were over and Arsenal were poised to move decisively clear of clubs such as Spurs in their pursuit of Europe’s heavyweight elite. Three years on and the most persuasive argument for change was staring up at the Arsenal directors from the White Hart Lane dugout .

    Mauricio Pochettino, a manager almost identical in age to Wenger when he arrived in England 21 years ago, was doing exactly what the Frenchman once did. With a £100 million wage bill – almost half that of Arsenal’s – he was inspiring his team to another performance that defied their natural resource. Confirmation that Tottenham will finally finish above their great rivals for the first time in 22 years was not just a cause for ecstatic celebration in this last derby at the old ground but also shone an uncomfortably bright spotlight on Arsenal’s failings .

    Pochettino’s team here looked more tactically organised, physically imposing and individually certain of their roles. They also seemed hungrier and played with a purpose, intensity and mental strength that Arsenal have lacked so alarmingly at too many critical moments this season.

    Collectively, Tottenham had run fully 10 kilometres further. “When you run more, you have more options to your team-mate when you are in possession,” Pochettino said. “When you don’t have the ball, it is to run to try to recover as soon as possible.”

    Frank Lampard put it more bluntly: “Tottenham have no passengers; Arsenal do.”

    The difference was also psychological and the 74 seconds that decided the game were especially instructive. Arsenal had suffered a setback in falling behind and their response, in briefly becoming even more vulnerable and disorganised, was in keeping with so much of their season.

    A 2-0 final scoreline was more flattering to Arsenal and especially damning in the context of what had been a subtle but significant pre-match shift. Chelsea winning amid dropped points for both Manchester clubs had potentially presented a greater opportunity for Arsenal than Tottenham. Victory would have reignited their top-four hopes, but what followed only underlined how the scars of that nightmare sequence of seven defeats in 12 games were not erased by three moderately more productive performances.

    So does all this amount to a power shift in north London? Of course. The league table’s answer is emphatic, even if the wider debate about the permanence of this change is still very much live. Joyous chants of “Arsène Wenger, we want you to stay” might have been ringing out here but it is worth also remembering that his Arsenal reign has inspired structural changes that will make Spurs’ new-found ascendancy hugely difficult to sustain.

    For all Pochettino’s brilliance, what was only an eighth defeat in Wenger’s 50th derby is likely to remain the longer-term exception rather than the norm. The balance sheets tell us that. And yet all this only underlines how Tottenham have earned their moment. Their salary spend is closer to that of a Championship club than Arsenal and yet they have constructed a team so clearly superior. It is a testament to a relentless improvement which Arsenal, for all their past confidence, simply have not matched.

    Most clubs would suffer just now in any comparison with Tottenham but the reality for Arsenal is that a 17-point gap is a chastening reflection of their respective work in recruitment and on the training ground. Both clubs have pursued a policy of identifying and developing young domestic talent but there is a chasm in how the likes of Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker have progressed in comparison to Kieran Gibbs, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere.

    Tottenham’s title challenge both this year and last has been achieved against the usual financial norms of football and, after so many years of feeling superior, it is time for Arsenal to learn from their bitter rivals.

    (The Telegraph, 1 May 2017)


    Anyone else think it is suspicious that these hack-rags are now talking in terms of a North London Power-Shift?

    That was a phrase that I invented, around 5 or 6 seasons ago. No one in the press was using that kind of terminology at that time. No one, anywhere, was using that kind of language.

    Nonetheless, I am pleased to see that the National press is slowly catching up and coming to the conclusion that there has, in fact, been a power-shift.

    Kindly note, that none of these journos come out with the usual Gooner bollocks about Spurs having to finish ahead of Arsenal for the next 20 years!

    Finally, I hope you enjoy, as I did, the massive piss-take the journo has at Mr Chips' expense!
    <laugh>
     
    #2281
  2. The Ginger Marks

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    Come back in five years with some trophies you must be able to wum better for this to work.
     
    #2282
  3. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    great read but even better is the butthurt in Skiddy <laugh>

    His arse is always aching for the greater cause and thats to get a stiff cock with an Arsenal or Lesta tattoo on it, rammed firmly up his orifice
     
    #2283
    Hoddle is a god likes this.
  4. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Akin to Munchausen by proxy syndrome, the Ginger tiddler is
    suffering from Butthurt by proxy syndrome.

    But he has just sent us a vid clip from Thailand showing he is
    past the worst of the pain ...

     
    #2284
    Lovearsenalcock and NSIS like this.
  5. gooner4ever

    gooner4ever once a Gooner always a Gooner
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    What have Spurs won this season ?

    or last ?


    or the one before that ?

    Only Spud fans can celebrate not winning a trophy.
     
    #2285
    PINKIE likes this.
  6. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    stop crying mate...Football isnt made for snotty entitled arseholes only..everyone loves the game up and down the planet and everyone has a reason to love their team

    Spurs dont need to win **** all..yet we are still good enough today to be 17 points clear of your team....you get down to the pub and crack on having a conversation about the 'invincibles' or whatever you want.

    <ok>
     
    #2286
    Hoddle is a god likes this.
  7. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    The PL 4th place Cup at the minimum ??


    "Only Spud fans can celebrate not winning a trophy."

    But only Arsenal can have a manager who celebrates it too.
     
    #2287
    Hoddle is a god likes this.
  8. PleaseNotPoll

    PleaseNotPoll Well-Known Member
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    Only Arsenal fans can cry about other fans being happy that their team is doing well.
    You lot celebrated top four and St Totteringham's day, yet you're sobbing about others enjoying their team doing well.
    Cry on. <ok>
     
    #2288

  9. Ouch!

    It's not often G4E will have to suffer the ignominy of a bitch-slap that hard, Bruv!
     
    #2289
    Lovearsenalcock likes this.

  10. Wenger actually went on record this very season as saying that clubs should win a trophy for coming 4th!

    <laugh>
    I'm not making this up! He actually said that!

    And, now, you've got Gooners having the brass-neck cheek to try to have a pop at Spurs fans for celebrating finishing above Arsenal!

    Utterly unbelievable!
     
    #2290

  11. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    He tries hard does G4E but his butthurt always shines though...then nature takes it's course.

    Good lad though..i lke G
     
    #2291
  12. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    <laugh>

    he said this?
     
    #2292
  13. Yep.

    It was at about the same time that the press really started to come down hard on him. He started bitching about how hard it is to finish 4th, and how he was such a footballing genius by achieving it for 20 years on the trot. He was, in reality, trying to get across to gormless, thankless Gooners that "not finishing 4th once in your entire career" is not an excuse to sack your otherwise perfect manager. It was in that context that he said something like "perhaps they [the FA, I presume] should award a trophy for finishing 4th."

    It was as though he was inviting derision from us Yids, knowing full well that we had been ripping the piss out of Gooners for years about them winning the "we came 4th again" trophy.
    <laugh>

    I think, secretly, Wenger despises Gooners.
     
    #2293
  14. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    To be fair to Mr Wenger..he has a very valid point. The sense of entitlement has made the Arsenal fans act like Augustus Gloop more than Charlie.....and we all know what happened to Augustus and what came of Charlie.
     
    #2294
  15. PINKIE

    PINKIE Wurzel Gummidge

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    Can't speak for others, but I've never had a sense of entitlement being an Arsenal fan. I recognise that Wenger finishing in the Top 4 every year (apart from this by the looks of things) is a big achievement for any club manager, especially in the Premier League with it's massive influx of money from the Oil baron clubs. Wenger has rightly deserved the plaudits for what he's done at Arsenal. If any Spurs manager had done likewise, you would be giving him the same amount of praise.
     
    #2295
  16. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    Correct me if I am wrong, but is it not the case that the Goons
    have been in at least the PL top 4 in terms of "financial" power
    for well over the past decade, regardless of the appearance of the
    Sugga Daddy FCs ??

    If so, given the increased transfer/wage spending power that has
    given you, isn't 4th place the MINIMUM you should expect ??
     
    #2296
  17. PINKIE

    PINKIE Wurzel Gummidge

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    I thought you lot were just arguing that Arsenal fans had a sense of 'entitlement' ?
    There are no guarantees in football, you have to earn your place in the top 4.
    Look at the amount that Chelsea, Utd and Liverpool have spent in recent seasons and all of those clubs have had seasons outside of the Top 4
     
    #2297
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  18. Lovearsenalcock

    Lovearsenalcock Homeboy
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    I think Wenger is a fantastic manager, ive always said that...and it is a big achievement. What Spurs are doing with their limited finances(relatively speaking) or what they are obviously trying to achieve is also something to be positive about at the Spurs.
     
    #2298
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  19. PINKIE

    PINKIE Wurzel Gummidge

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    You've got a good team, a good manager and real fighting spirit at Spurs. You should rightly be positive about what Spurs are doing at the moment.
    Arsenal have had a mare of a season, and it's been on the cards for a while. We still have a chance for a trophy this season, but there needs to be a period of rebuilding and change at Arsenal. I think a lot depends on which players we keep and can bring in this summer.
     
    #2299
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  20. The RDBD

    The RDBD Well-Known Member

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    You don't have to "earn" your place as much, when you can spend
    your way out of trouble because those below you are far worse funded.

    And since the end of the 2011 season, that is the myth that Wenger
    has been trying to build : that him finishing in the top 4 is some great
    achievement. The reality of course is that 2012 and 2013 was pure
    luck, and this season his luck has run out spectacularly.
     
    #2300
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