I watched the Spurs, and I liked it. by JS
As an Arsenal supporter since the early eighties, I have seen good football, bad football, boring football, flowing football and pretty much understand that we will have ups and downs as a club. That being said, for the last 3-4 years, the ups and downs have flowed not so much on a seasonal basis but in chunks or segments of the season. I would be okay with 20 years of dominance, one year in the wilderness and then signs of a strong future like United have had.
I would be happy with not having such a long run in UCL if it meant we would at least, expect to challenge and then do so. Every year, us fans expect, as we are told to, a title challenge …what we get is a dramatic year of winning streaks and invincibility peppered with pathetic losses, shambolic defenses, effortless matches and a tiny squad (both in numbers and stature) that is full of players who don’t deserve to be at our club. Each week, I am unsure what to expect from Arsenal, some weeks are joyous but most, just a confusing waste of 90 minutes.
In order to recoup my time and find football joy, I have been forced to watch other matches in hopes of seeing some players go all out, communicate, and generally want to win. Last week, after watching Arsenal begin the New Year as if they had partied until 5AM, I decided to watch Chelsea destroy the Spurs to cheer me up…..as you may know, the opposite occurred. The Lilywhite’s played swashbuckling, imaginative football and never stopped running. They played this way for most of the 90 minutes that saw them overtake us in the table. They deserved the win, and they deserve to be on top of us at this time. Let’s take a quick look at the squads and understand why:
Lloris- better than Szczesny by a long way. Can use feet and communicate to organize his defenders, good decision maker. Frankly, Friedel and Vorm are better than our starter.
Vertonghen- not a bad CB, versatile surely, seems his head isn’t fully in it but frankly, he is far better than Per at this point, and he is about as good as our injured star Laurent Koscielny. When Laurent gets better we may have a slight edge here again but not too much.
Pick Chiriches, Davies, Kaboul etc. here and you will get the same result….better than Per at this moment. I’m not overly impressed with any of their 4 second choice CB’s however….they have 4, we have none. I’d take Kaboul over Debuchy at CB, or Chambers, or Gibbs, or Monreal or anyone else Wenger chooses to play there that isn’t actually trained to be there.
Danny Rose- similar to Gibbs in that he is better going forward than defensively and on the fringe of the England squad. What Danny has that Gibbs does not, is strength and a reasonable track record with injuries.
Kyle Walker- not quite at the class level of Debuchy but not too far off- almost a moot point but Kyle has strength and age on his side. He also looks nothing like a French hedgehog.
Erikson- not anywhere near the price nor fame of Ozil but has played as good as or better than Mesut and also looks like he wants to be there.
Lamela- young, fast and good finisher, compare him with our wide players and you may see us looking favourably until you note that Santi Cazorla is not actually a winger. He is far better at this moment than Lamela but is being squandered out wide most days and as such, goes missing. Lamela had a rough start but under Pochettino, he has come back to his old self and will expect to get stronger as time goes on.
Strikers are a toss-up also- Adebayor is about as good as Giroud, Welbeck and Kane not too far apart in spite of Kane’s recent record and Sanogo isn’t quite Soldado but will eclipse him in time we hope.
Chadli is bigger, stronger and faster than pretty much any of our CM players but with a touch less skill. I would guess he will be judged as better than Wilshere is and worse than Ramsey but as those two are mostly out for treatment, Chadli has the edge.
Townsend and Lennon are not on the same level as our Theo or Ox but frankly, injuries mean that Theo and Ox aren’t usually available. If we have them available, we have an edge, but good luck on having them fit.
We have Alexis to carry us at this time and that alone is keeping us close to our fourth place trophy, surely he will soon see his talents are wasted as his lazy teammates aren’t as interested as he is and his managers name is far larger than his acumen.
So you tell me, is this finally the year with no St Totteringhams Day?
Joe
Comparing we and the spud?
A big slap to the face.
@true_gooner, tell us one reason not to compare. of curse when theres similarities, comparison is un avoidable. we are both chasing the so called 4th spot (not epl trophy) then why not to compare?? in fact some of there players will make our XI with ease. Loris & vertongen for example.
I watched the Spurs and liked it 🙂
“I kissed a girl and liked it”
Katy Perry 🙂
The Chelsea thrasing was similar to the Madrid thrashing 4-1 when Lewandoski had a crazy night like Harry Kane. Pochettino, as good a manager as he might be, had no part in the result. It was Harry Kane and him alone, not to mention Cahill had a stinker.
Pochettinos team is aesthetically pleasing to the eye? Watch Spurs vs ManU. Erikson and Harry Kane is saving Spurs at the moment.
Harry Kane alone has 17 goals in all competition, that’s two more than Sanchez.
And to do a player by player comparison is madness specially where you say Danny Rose is similar to Gibbs.
I just can’t see how and why Spurs will finish above us.
Gibbs is disgrace when you concider how many great lb we had.to compare durtmond with spurs now that funny because durtmond can beat any team @samo we too have not performed this season because sanchez has been saving us.when was the last time arsenal won by 5 goals or more?
@Sumo
Why?
I’m really not confident we will finish in the top four,other teams including that lot down the road are improving while we aren’t.
I think that was actually a really good article and if anything will spark a little bit of debate.
I’m happy to have a wager on the top 4 finish with the winner giving the money to charity
@simosays i too dont think we will make top 4 this season and ya many will be shocked when it happens(signs are there to be seen,we are not improving,we are going backwards and not taking oppoturnities for us to go up we must beat those who are above us).
come on wenger sign carvalho and hummels in january and in the summer sign a top class striker and we will be champions.Thats 100 milion and you get a winning squad
I say 10 quid on
Arsenal to make top 4
I am that confident.
@davidnz,I’ll happily take that,if I win my £10 will go to cancer research
To you it maybe a match wonder but to them is a match booster. To score 5 pass Chelsea to me is not a team to look down on. This match will make them more hunger for the 2nd half of EPL so is not good at all for us.
we’re still yet to score a single f**king goal against them let alone beat them
AKBs be like……… Tottenham didn’t play better, they got Lucky……. Booo…… Ever wondered why mother Luck have never allowed wenger to beat Mourihno even just once? ….yea , cuz wenger’s a Jerk
i hate 4th place…….. Gosh!
I know so many good players who have openly declared their love
for Arsenal and would join us on any amount of wages,but clearly
wenger has his favourites in the team and is not willing to replace
them by signing better players.Mertesacker is shit but wenger
wont sign a defender that he knows will bench Mertesacker, same
with Arteta,he’s the captain thus wenger wont sign a midfielder
that he knows will bench his captain, same for szczesny,we won’t
sign petr cech coz wenger has massive blind faith in
szczesny.And something tells me tht the reason why we have
never signed a strong DMF is because Wenger still thinks Diaby is
the next Patrick Vieira
Name the players that wants to play for us and let see how many of them are world class
While I think Spurs deserved their win vs Chelsea I wouldn’t get carried away by it. I genuinely think it was a freak result. This isn’t to say they didn’t deserve their win or to take anything away from them but Mourinho is reaping the rewards of a lack of rotation and a heavy fixture list. Spurs were up for it and Chelsea simply weren’t, John Terry can’t play that often and Cahill has been out of form for the past few weeks. Even Tottenham fans think it was something out of the ordinary.
As for Arsenal I think pound for pound we are a better team but we have suffered from injury problems and mismanagement of all sorts. You’d think after the start we made last year Wegner would have added 2 or 3 players to really push for the title, don’t know why he didn’t. At any rate its crunch time for us and we need to start picking up points and fast here’s why.
I receiving read a statistic that said 90+ % of teams that qualify for European football end up doing worse the following season and it is placing clubs that finish in the Europa league under scrutiny than the CL clubs. Time and Time again we’ve seen teams get either benefit from a lack of European football or do poorly because of it. Liverpool last season, Liverpool this season, United’s resurgence, Southampton are all examples. I know a lot of you think a shake up is needed at Arsenal and while I agree that we are progressing as a brand and regressing as a football club but I don’t think finishing in a Europa league spot would do us any good.
If you think our injury problems were bad now, imagine them when players have a day or 2 worth of rest before a weekend game. Its for that reason I’m not worried about Spurs, its United and Southampton that should concern us.
Hoping for a win today and an injection of confidence back into the gunners
hoping for a win against bottom placed Hull to boost ur ego?….. Laughable!……. You can only keep hoping on wenger, but he’d fail you woefully
@truegunner – thanks, most balanced comment I’ve read on this site for weeks. Nice to see a fan that can live with two truths. The first being that our run of injuries has contributed to our poor form. The second being that Wenger’s run of poor decisions on and off the field has contributed to our poor form. Injuries happen and even top managers make questionable decisions from time to time. But it’s the frequency of both at Arsenal that is most concerning.
Should be an absolute craicker
at the Lane on the 8th of Feb.
With neither club likely to win
the EPL any time soon the whole week
of these derby games provides some
of the best craic of the season.
5-5 sounds about right 🙂
Am more worried about man city, cause i belive we can catch them
Really? Catch Man City!!!
Man Utd maybe but not City.
Man City are top of the league bro. Didn’t you get the memo?
I think the comparison is fair right now!
We are currently behind Spurs in the league and the usual we always finish 4th line trotted out may not be correct this season.
I think we will finish 4th but we really are inconsistent I can’t see us winning 4-5 league games in a row at any point.
Man City last season
Won 27. Drawn 5. Lost 6.
Arsenal this season
Won 9. Drawn 6 Lost 5
Basically Arsenal only need to win the the
next 18 to win the Premiership.
We can do it 🙂 🙂 🙂
This Chelsea match will give them more beliefs, maybe they know they can’t fight for champion just like us but they can hunt us down, for that is a energy booster. Maybe most of them think pool not a treat but to me they are the dark horse that sneaking around behind when you let down your guard, suddenly they ran pass you.
@davidnz the guy is high lol i wonder what is he smoking
He is just trying be realistic and get along with our club business model. 4th is always our target and Wenger is good on that, Wenger will do anything do achieve 4th but not champion, maybe he find 4th is more difficult than getting champion. Prof mind is us can’t level with.
@true gunner that’s where you are wrong, they do not have to be worldclass,there are not so many worldclass players currently. What am saying is that there are so many players out there that are better than what we have.For instance Victor wanyama is an ardent arsenal fan,he wanted to join us from celtic bt wenger overlooked him and went for the free flamini.Wanyama is not a worldclass player,yet,but he is 100 times better than flamini and Arteta combined. And don’t get me started on listing the defenders that are better than Mertesacker or the strikers that are better than sanogo,it is actually much easier to list those that are worse coz they aren’t that many to be honest
They definitely deserve their win, the look on Mourihno’s face after that game hahahaha! Priceless, how I wish it was arsenal.
Sanogo……even with drugs,can never be like Kane….and they are the same age.Sometimes I don’t get some people here,they keep on saying that Sanogo will come good.He is F*cking 22.At 21 Harry Kane is inspiring a win against Chelsea;scoring 17 goals.Paulo Dybala is destroying defences,at 19 divock Origi is scoring in a world cup,alvaro Morata is a no.#9 at Juventus.Akpom is rarely given a chance despite his obvious talent.Sanogoals is not arsenal quality,he is barely premier league quality
Carzola didint play on the wings before he join Arsenal??????
Spurs play like a “team”. Arsenal play like a group of “players”. That is the difference.
You bunch of f@cking traitors, that bunch of scum should never be mentioned on this site, let alone praised!
Grow up!
They are another football team last time I looked not an organised collection of rapists and murderers who have attacked and imprisoned your family..
Jeez
This comperative analysis is spot on. Though I have forecasted Chelsea will drop points at Spurs, I didn’t think they will be beaten by Spurs and even to an extent of putting 5 past them. But the Gunners did not make use of any dropped points as usual. I must agree to the observation that the Gunners form are dip as the Gunners have suddenly become characterized with indiscipline on the field of play. If the Gunners are to rediscovered their top form, they must be watching their decisions making in action. I wouldn’t first be blaming Szczesny for letting Koscielny back-pass pounced-in by the Saints attacker who was too fast for Szczesny’s reaction. Koscielny should have put the ball to touch instead of to dangerously back-passed it to Szczesny. All the Gunners MUST henceforth buckled up when taking any decision of what best and safe to do with the ball. And Sanchez, Rosicky, Oxlade, Walcott, Cazorla and Akpom who all featured at the Southampton game should abhorred laziness in their playing and score goals to win games by all means. Blazing the ball over, side netting the ball or shooting the ball to the goalee’s hands should stop with immediately effect. The Gunners must stop slumbering to defeats in all the games they will play starting with today’s Hull City Tigers Cup game at the Emirates Stadium. The boss MUST further help the Gunners attack-line by signing Endison Cavani to upgrade the Gunners forwards to bring them at parity with Man U, Man C, Chelsea and even now Spurs and Liverpool forwards who are all going to play Arsenal again in this 2nd round of this season in the Barclays Premier League games. Arsenal will finish well ahead of Surps in the table irrespectives of Spurs current form. It is an abomination for the Gunners to finished bellow Spurds, ever.
Wind your neck in a bit eh.
Another thing, if you are going to use the s word its spuds (with a small s)
And the only team that has ‘the’ in front of it is The Arsenal !
@Samuel@justarsenal,
I’m sure a lot of guys thumb down your comments not because what you say don’t make sense, but I’d guess, because they couldn’t read all of it, and frankly, cos the grammar is atrocious.
By the style, I can tell you’re Samuel akinsola @untold arsenal, you could help me ask Tony and Walter if they’re still all about “supporting the lord Wenger in all that he does”, and the ref, media, Chelsea, man city, tottenham, man utd, west ham, all. Clubs, FA, pgmol etc conspiracy theories. I hope they’ve stopped deceiving themselves that their ref reviews are done by neutral panels? I would have asked myself, but judging by the Gestapo style censorship I wouldn’t trust the comment to make it through