Spurs to the Sword

Hello Hello,

It's Sunday morning and what an excellent Sunday it is.  Hope you all had a happy Halloween.  Atlanta's Halloween coincides with gay pride weekend so while the streets were busy the restaurant I work it wasn't.  It was a long, slow and boring night and my Jimmy Connors costume got me in more bother than anything else, I think it must have been the tiny shorts. 

The morning at the BrewHouse was much better however. 

Firstly, there was a lot of talk from Tottenham before the game.  Harry Redknapp talked about our young talent and our great youth system and how it's something Spurs want to try to emulate.  He also said that we'd be no match for Peter Crouch and essentially gave away their game plan.  Meanwhile captain Cunto Keano said:

If you look at the squads, you look at us and think, 'We're definitely on par', and the bench we have is probably a little bit stronger than their bench.

For me Robbie Keane isn't just a complete piece of shit, but he's in poor form and hasn't really been much of a player since he went to Liverpool.  I'm sure the fans were happy about what he's said but I can't imagine it did his teammates any favors.  Telling lies like that is always going to put your team under pressure. 

Wenger answered by saying opinions don't matter in the long run, it's results and performances and while didn't exactly perform we got the result. 

We went into the game in 3rd place on goal difference over Tottenham in 4th and with a game in hand.  We also went into the game with a few injuries.  Djourou is still out of course, as are Denilson and Theo, Fabianski very well may have started the game had he not been injured in his Carling Cup come back and arguably the biggest absence was Rosicky, who is in awesome form, probably our best player at the moment.  Spurs were missing a couple too so things were fairly even and Robbie Keane's thoughts would be put to the test as both benches had to do some filling in.

We started with Almunia back in goal, our regular back 4 and current midfield trio and Bendtner, RvP and Arshavin up front. 

The game started and we carved out a chance after just a minute with Bendtner shooting high and wide from the edge of the box, when he perhaps should have done better.  Then we looked a little shaky with Song handing them a corner with an awful wayward back pass.  As we cleared rat face cunt Bentley stuck his arm out and deliberately handballed Sagna's ball down the line and the ref completely bottled the booking he should have given. 

The game was pretty stop start and lacking in flow as we went forward in narrow attacks, always failing to use the far side and giving away the ball often.  Even so, they couldn't string anything together either and you could see that we were slowly taking control.  Then on 7 minutes, just 3 minutes after his bandball, Bendtly came flying in on Vermaelen and should have at minimum recieved his second yellow, but again Clattenberg completely fucked it up and gave no card.  It was comforting though to see Vermaelen glance over his shoulder and coolly mark the man he'll be murdering later. 

From then on Tottenham began to execute their game plan: high balls to Crouch in hopes of linking play up the park.  Crouch did win a lot of headers but nothing ever came of any of them with Gallas and Vermaelen playing the way we've grown accustom to.  Our play was better and more clever but still wasn't working with Diaby giving away the ball far too often and with Bendtner just totally off the pace, slowing the play down to grandmother speeds.  And that's the way most of the half went.  We were in control when we weren't giving away possession, they were playing the ball up to Crouch and we were getting it back and going forward.  On 13 minutes Clichy could have put a shot in on target but hesitated and chose to pass to Arshavin in a time that Gibbs or Traore would have been happy let fly.  Arshavin's shot was fairly tame and Gomes handled it easily. 

We got a free kick that van Persie played in dangerously but it curled past everyone and out for a goal kick.  On 20 minutes the pub went jumping as we were all certain we were going to score, but it wasn't to be.  Gomes stretched out making an unreal save after Arshavin's shot rebounded to Cesc off a defender.  Meanwhile Tottenham never created a clear chance.  On 28 minutes their little Gieco Gecko look alike left back gave the ball right to Cesc on the edge of the area and he found RvP running in on goal and with Bendtner free on the far post he hit a collosaly poor effort into the side netting from a tight angle. On the 34th minute with Bendtner knacked, they played the ball down the side he was defending and Vermaelen's timely sliding interception popped the ball into the air and into Almunia's arms very nicely. 

And then it came, Eduardo won a throw, Sagna took the throw, got the ball back and whipped in a cross to the near post for van Persie to half-volley home.  41 minutes gone, 1-0 to the Arsenal.  Then, amazingly, the replay ended and the screen showed Fabregas on the edge of the Tottenham box shooting, scoring and running off to celebrate.  "WE ARE THE GREATEST TEAM, IN THE WORLD!  WE ARE THE GREATEST TEAM IN THE WORLD!"  In the replay we saw van Persie nic the ball off their kick off.  The ball rolled over to Cesc and he dribbled 3 defenders, including a nutmeg on Ledley King and scored from the edge of the area.  It was some run and some goal and a perfect way to end the half. 

The second half wasn't as open as you might expect but it was a bit more open than the first.  In the 49the minute we could have gone 3 up as van Persie turned King twice before flashing a low cross across the goal mouth, just out of reach of Eduardo.  The ball spilled out to Diaby who, with no support, could only shoot into the defender at the near post.  From then on we passed fairly nicely, hanging onto the ball much better than we did in the first half.  On 52 minutes Eduardo had a 1v1 with Gomes and probably should have scored, but Gomes made a decent save.  We continued to play narrow, never using the blind side.  Every time they tried on any attack Vermaelen ate it up, he was massive at the back completely destroying their attacks time after time.  van Persie came into the game more in the second half and he really has improved as a center forward.  He holds the ball very well, his link up play is excellent and he's improved in the air, this is adding to his already excellent technique and finishing. 

15 minutes in we made it 3.  Spurs had just had a free kick and a corner, we broke down the right the ref played advantage after a foul and when Sagna realized play was still on nobody else did.  He crossed into the middle and the keeper and a defender missed it and van Persie finished slightly awkwardly to make it 3 nil.  Awful defending, I'd be livid at mu U10s for doing the same thing. 

We could have had more but Eduardo was profligate in missing another 1v1 with Gomes coming outside of his box he could have easily chipped him, dribbled him or finished on either side of him, instead it went wide. 

At the end of the day, nobody had a really great game, although Cesc and van Persie were excellent at times and I shouldn't discount Sagna who was very good all game, as was Vermaelen.  We didn't play all that well, but still could have won 6 nil.  I really don't think that Tottenham will threaten the top 4/5 and this game has put us well and truly above them, 3 points ahead with a game in hand and better goal difference. 

A nice win against our bitter rivals and we carry more momentum after our blips against Alkmaar and West Ham.  We have Alkmaar again in midweek, Wolves at the weekend and we've drawn Man City in the League Cup.  It's shaping up to be a fine season.

Highbury86