Righto, David Hytner’s report is with us, which means we’re done here.
Thanks all for all your company and comments; enjoy the rest of the weekend and peace out.
“It’s as bad as it looks, says Nick Wayne. “Can’t see a way out of the drop. I remember 77, here we go again. So painful.”
Yeah, I know I said below I think Spurs will get out of it, but having looked at the fixtures, I’m revising that. On the plus side, a season of Tuesday-Saturday games would be decent craic, though looking at the Champo, there won’t be a load of new and entertaining aways.
Gyokeres tells Sky he’s happy with some aspects of his play but in others he could’ve done better. Eze, meanwhile, says his work ethic and goals help the team, putting other players in dangerous positions.
Gyokeres, for his part, says they work on their moves in training and he tried to put Eze in position to do what he did in the first game between the sides this season.
Arsenal will feel much better after that win and perhaps, with Eze now ensconced in their first XI and Gyokeres more confident, it’ll be looked back upon as a turning point. But it’d be remiss of me not to note how dreadful Spurs were and are; Chelsea, on Sunday, will ask different, more taxing questions.
When did the army start sponsoring football coverage? For reasons too numerous to list here, the infiltration of military into sport is not – in mine – something to be welcomed.
The league table. Spurs haven’t won a game in 2026.
Also going on:
Declan Rice pulls his shirt up over his face to chat to Bukayo Saka. I’m fairly sure he’s not providing him with nuclear codes.
“All four Arsenal goals scored from open play,” notes Iain Chambers. “Arteta and Nicolas Jover clearly have a lot of work to do on the training ground.”
“New manager bounce in effect,” chuckles Mark Beadle. “Spurs have now had more shots (4) than in the first fixture (3).”
Every journey begins with a single step.
FULL-TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 1-4 Arsenal
Arsenal lead the table by five points having played a game more than Man City; Spurs are fifth bottom, two above Forest and four above West Ham.
90+7 min The ground empties fast as the away end – which, earlier, was singing “Are you Tottenham is disguise?!” now tries a “Sacked in the morning!” I guess I think Spurs’ll get out of this, but one of them, Forest and West Ham are going down, and on form they’re easily the most awfully miserable, terrible, horrific, impotent, sorry and tepid of the three.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-4 Arsenal (Gyokeres 90+4)
Nice from Arsenal outside the box, Martinelli, Odegaard and Madueke combining to slide Gyokeres in, left side of the box, Thierry Henry territory. And he easily holds off Gray, hanging on to his arm, before opening his body to direct a powerful side-footer inside the far post. Two derbies, two 4-1 tousings, and Spurs are in terrible trouble.
Updated
90+3 min Gary Neville gives Gyokeres player of the match, which I guess is far enough. I doubt he’d have done it had the move from Sporting been a roaring success and I’d have gone for Eze BUT EXCUSE ME WHILE I INTERRUPT MYSELF!
90+2 min So Arsenal are going five points clear of Man City having played a game more; it looks like a title that could’ve been settled weeks ago will go to the wire.
90 min Arsenal send on Madueke for Saka; we’ll have seven additional minutes.
88 min Saka hurts himself fouling Xavi and looks in pain, but it’s an impact thing, I think; stud into foot is causing the agita, not the tangling of legs which follows. He’ll be fine, I think.
86 min Bissouma is booked for mouth following a Solanke foul, which really shows everyone.
84 min Out of nowhere, Spence catches Rice then diddles Hincapie on the outside, crossing low, and Richarlison flicks … before Raya dives back towards his own goal, dragging off the line. That’s terrific goalkeeping, and the resultant corner comes to nowt.
Updated
83 min Spurs send on Tel for Palhinha, so of course Gray goes to right centre-back and Tel to right wing-back. The 3-4-2-1 is the winner.
82 min “As someone who works in the audio engineering field, I’m always amazed at the technical problems refs and linos encounter in the PL. Any good concert roadie would have that sorted in under 30 seconds. You plan ahead and have backup systems ready to swap out at any moment. PL giving primary school cafeteria sound system vibes.”
But but but but but the rest of the shebang is so professionally executed.
81 min OK, not shake hands; exchange Nescafe handshakes.
Updated
80 min This is petering out. At this point, I’m pretty sure both sides would shake hands on 3-1.
78 min “Gyokeres scored a great goal, but watch him 30 seconds before completely shy away from a 50/50 around midfield that led directly to the Xavi Simons chance described at 46 minutes, says Adam Becker. “He never wins the ball in that kind of situation. He often appears to literally be avoiding it.”
I missed that, but agree with the overarching point: make yourself minging to play against, especially if you’re struggling for goals.
77 min There’s a blue flare in Raya’s six-yard box, so the game is again paused.
76 min Two changes for Arsenal, Odegaard and Martinelli replacing Trossard and Eze.
75 min Spurs can’t get out of their own half. If Arsenal score again, it’ll be two 4-1s in the season.
73 min The away end taunt the home crowd with oles as Arsenal knock the ball about; it’s as though Wolves never happened – another way of putting which us to say the worst team in the league are better than Spurs. If they can’t get Solanke scoring, staying up could be a serious problem.
71 min Spurs aren’t in this anymore. Eze carries forward and slips to Saka outside him, who cuts inside and slips a shot between Van de Ven’s legs, looking to catch the keeper at his near post, Soslkjaer-style, but the ball scooshes wide.
69 min “I emailed the MBM during the last North London derby,” brags Jonathan Griggs, “asking are Arsenal better with Eze at #10 than with Odegaard? I ask the same question now? Also, would you take Foden or Eze to the World Cup?”
I think I’d play both, Eze off the left and Odegaard in the middle. As for England, I think I’d expect both Eze and Foden to travel. I guess Foden gives you more goalpower, pace and versatility, while Eze plays the game at an unusual tempo so does stuff no one else thinks of. If you’re making me choose, I think I’m going Foden.
68 min And now they try Richarlison for Kolo Muani. That should sort it.
67 min Aaargggh, after the goal, Spurs sent on Solanke for Gallagher.
66 min “With the exception of Eze being on a mission from god against Spurs,” writes Kári Tulinius, “Arsenal haven’t been markedly better today than they were against Wolves, but Tottenham have been dreadful. I can’t see any kind of patterns of attack or defensive plan. Tudor has a lot to do.”
Its hard with so many players out, but yes, the extent of the job is significant and doesn’t just require a good manager, but lots of money and exceptional scouting.
63 min Goodness me, Arsenal need this. It’s taken Arteta till now to find a regular use for Eze and, though he’s done nothing spectacular today, he brings the sense that he might; opponents know he can surprise them, which affects how they defend, and he’s much more likely to find a goal than Odegaard.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-3 Arsenal (Eze 61)
Six goals this season, five of them in derbies! Eze snaps in on Dragusin’s poor header and follows the ball, Gyokeres backheeling Saka through. And, though Van de Ven gets back at him, as Vicario comes out all they succeed in doing is squirting back to Eze, who punches into the unguarded net.
Updated
59 min Solanke is getting ready to come on, but if he’s not quick, the game will be over before he’s in position to affect it. Mosquera, who I’ve just remembered replaced Timber a few minutes ago, robs Spence, unfathomably holding the ball just outside his own box. Saka then finds Eze, whose return pass, with the outside of his foot, puts him through; Vicaruo is out well to smother.
57 min Hincapie surges forward – he’s really starting to express himself – and finds Rice outside him down the left. And, though the cut-back is humped behind by Sarr, the signs for Arsenal are good: they’re pushing for a third goal, and there’s no sense Spurs have the minerals to see them away if they stick at it. Otherwise, the corner comes to nothing.
Updated
55 min “Where has everyone who was slagging Gyokeres off gone?” wonders Joshua Keeling. |Silence. He’s a top player – people need to get a grip.”
I don’t know about that. It was a really good finish, but his return of shots and goals is still extremely poor; I’ve seen nothing, at Arsenal or at Sporting, to make me think he’s a top player or anything proximate. But we’ll see.
53 min Gray pursuers a ball to the corner flag and his deflected cross catches Gabriel underneath it. So Kolo Muani applies the shove then lashes home the loose ball, but he was too bait with it and the ref immediately disallows the goal for a foul.
Updated
51 min More like it from Arsenal, Eze isolating Palhinha out wide and weaving by him, cutting across the face of the box and things open up. Can he find the finish? He actually has Gyokeres free a five-yard pass away, but instead opts to shoot, a telegraphed effort blocked at source.
49 min Most of us, I think, looked at Gyokeres as a player signed to start almost every game and score loads of goals. But given how much Artetz loves Havertz, perhaps the plan was for him to be another option, one of a stable of attackers with different profiles, able to affect games from the start or off the bench.
WHAT A GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Arsenal (Gyokeres 47)
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SCREENS! Gyokeres finally scores a goal that really matters, taking a low pass swung infield by Timber, Eze’s run across the defender creating space for him. His first touch gets the ball out of his feet and his second, delivered with minimum backlift and maximum prejudice, sends a shot from the edge ripping past Vicario’s dive. I think he gets tips to it, but they’re not enough to prevent a terrific finish and the most important goal of the season so far.
Updated
46 min Finally, football, and when Big Xavi Simons wins a flick-on, Kolo Muania feeds him back in, he shoots from the edge … and Rya dives too low, so must reach up to make his save.
And still, no football. So to Scotland, where Hibs won 2-1 at Celtic and Rangers drew 2-2 at Livingtson. Hearts lead the table by four.
“Ignoring Gabriel’s blatant foul which should have been reviewed by VAR but wasn’t,” returns Alexandra Ashton, “I think we still ended the half in the ascendancy. Yes, we weren’t great, but we were solid: Dragusin and Palhinha especially impressed me. At the very least, we looked much less frail and a touch more dangerous than under Frank earlier this season, although that bar is so low it may as well be on the ground.”
Yup, I imagine Tudor will be pretty happy with his first first half as Tottenham manager. I wouldn’t go as far as to say his side were in the ascendancy, but they were in the game, which is a start.
Ahahahaha, we’ve another technical issue relating to the ref’s telecommunications. Who could possibly countenance football in such circumstances?
Our teams are back with us.
This half we’re about to experience is the biggest of the season so far. If Arsenal don’t end it with three points, you’d fear for them – especially as next weekend, they play Chelsea. Do they know how to sustain attacks against a team sitting in?
Half-time email: “The biggest news for me and, I hope, for all of us,” says Mac Millings, is that, heading into this weekend’s action, Girona’s form the last five games looks like Krusty the Clown.”
In similar vein, the Nottingham Forest crest looks like Elmo.
HALF-TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Arsenal
A frantic mess of a game, Arsenal taking the lead only for a Declan Rice’s error to usher them right back into it.
45+7 min “Speaking as someone at the actual game,” says John Tumbridge, “at no point was there any explanation to the crowd as to why exactly the ref spent the best part of six minutes looking for an AA battery.”
Gizuzyamoneyandshutuppeasant.
45+5 min Arsenal haven’t found a way of getting at Palhinha – I’ll say it again, but they need Madueke on for Trossard, I think, who’s a good player but a better sub – and when he concedes a corner, Spurs clear it away easily enough.
45+3 min I do see it again, and Gabriel is a lucky, lucky boy. He steps across Kolo Muani without a thought of playing the ball, and that’s a foul at best, a red at worst. I’ve not a clue why VAR isn’t having another look; perhaps the officials are still reeling from those eight minutes of lost communication. I know I am.
45+2 min Ball over the top, Muani under it, and Gabriel introduces him to grass. There are shouts for a foul, and it didn’t look entirely innocent, but I’d need to see it again.
45 min Dragusin crosses and Raya floats out to claim; we’ll have eight additional minutes, primarily because of that broken headphone or whatevz.
44 min Spurs win a corner down the left and Arsenal have Timber marking Van de Ven. That’s what I’d aim for were I Simons … who instead curls on to Raya’s knuckles.
42 min “Declan Rice dribbling out of his own box happens when he can’t think because his whole body is shutting down because of all those Carabao Cup games he played,” thunders Drew Lundgreen. “Arteta should be fired. He has no idea how to guide a team through a season. But hey, love that performance against Inter when we played our strongest possible side in a dead rubber.”
I don’t think we can say one is a consequence of the other, but I agree he’s not used his squad well enough this season: I was also surprised by the team he sent out against Inter and also think he’s extracted as little as possible from Eze.
Updated
41 min Saka’s cross is blocked so Timber collects the loose ball, squaring for Trossard who helps it towards the far post … and Gyokeres is on his heels when, had he hurled himself at it, he might’ve been able to slide home.
39 min Gray, who must have a nose bleed given the cotton wool chilling in his nostril, concedes a corner, Spurs clearing the immediate danger before Bissouma is in quickly to put the ball into touch.
37 min Lovely ball over the top from Hincapie, and Saka’s in! But Vicario is out smartly to block his shot, then the flag goes up … but a replay shows that he was on, which means that if he’d scored, the goal would’ve stood.
36 min Gray was, apparently, booked for chucking the ball away. Thanks for coming, old mate.
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Arsenal (Kolo Muani 35)
Oh Arsenal! An error from the most unlikely source as Rice, just outside his own box, right-hand side, looks to dribble between Muani and Xavi; Muani robs him, breezes away from Saliba’s wimpish challenge, and whacks low just past Raya’s hand
Updated
GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Arsenal (Eze 32)
Saka draws in Sarr and skips at him bundling by on outside, hits the line, pulls back, and though Eze’s first touch is poor, it sends the ball into the air, allowing him to wallop into the net from close range. That’s his fourth goal against Spurs this season, with his first shot on target in the league since then.
Updated
30 min The home crowd are getting into it now. Arsenal need to find a way of getting players around the edge of the box able to combine with one and two-touch play – we don’t see much from them in the way of feints, dummies and tricks, but that’s one way low, narrow blocks are beaten.
28 min Timber gives it away to Sarr, so pulls him down and is booked.
27 min “About to take to the stage in a production of Candide in Germany,” writes Paul Curievici “and won’t be able to check this again til just after half-time, so if you, Saka, Eze and co could please somehow manufacture something positive to come back to the dressing room to, I’d be very grateful.”
Funny you say thar, I could use a £7 tub of Losely ice cream.Break a leg!
Updated
26 min Spurs will be fairly happy with how this has gone. They’ve shown no attacking threat, but they’ve not conceded many clear-cut chances and are turning the game into the kind of mess that serves the XI Tudor has sent out.
24 min Declan Rice, then. A fantastic player, no doubt about it, but I have a but: he’s not good enough on the half-turn or passing through the lines to be a six, and doesn’t have the quality on the ball you’d want from an eight. So any team he’s in needs to build around those missing bits – he’s not someone you can simply put in any team without having to think about it.
22 min Saka burrows towards the heart of the Tottenham defence so Spence buffets him and is unfortunate to be penalised. Free-kick Arsenal, on the right, 30 yards from goal; Rice swings out, and the ball is headed clear easily enough.
21 min Arsenal were in charge early on but Spurs have improved a little, Sarr getting, er, in and around Zubimendi, robbing him and looking to work a shooting lane, quickly filled and his effort blocked. I’m certain Tudor thinks this is a route to joy for his team.
19 min “Dani Alves before either Puyol or (you gotta be kidding) Pique,” admonishes G Salorio, and he’s right. Alves is one of, if not the best right-back I’ve ever seen.
18 min Deep inside his own half, Simons looks to spread from left to centre and picks out Trossard, who was there all along. He intercepts, advances, eschews the first shooting opportunity, then leathers miles over the top.
17 min Saka swings in and, at the back post Gyokeres peels away to nod down and back, Saliba is there … and heads wide.
15 min The game hasn’t got going again following the pause. But Eze looks to inject pace, sliding another ball into the channel for Gyokeres; again, Dragusin is there to intercede then, shortly afterwards, Arsenal win a corner. Here we go…
14 min A long ball down the left, and Dragusin easily out-physicals Gyokeres, who’s finding Premier League centre-backs less easy to knock about than those he victimised in Primeira Liga.
13 min OK, we are now allowed to enjoy some association football. The lino is once again able to whisper sweet nothings to the ref.
12 min And still we have no football. What a complete and utter idiocy.
11 min “A message to those Gooners suffering the depths of existential angst today,” begins Justin Kavanagh, “(we defend, therefore we are; hell is other people scoring late equalisers; time is a concept by which we measure strikers missing sitters): Take heart in the wise words of probably the finest fitba philosopher ever produced by the British Isles in times such as these: ‘Lads, it’s Spurs!’”
I
10 min For how many years did football thrive without this nonsense? Why doesn’t the ref just take control of the situation and tell everyone, himself included, to grow up?
9 min Gyokeres, by the way, has zero shots on target in 15 out of 25 league games, a stat I could dig out because there’s some kind of technical issue preventing the ref from communicating with a lino. Maybe they could just cope?
7 min Gyokeres, whose parting is slicker than his finishing, runs that channel, nips inside Dragusin, and whacks a low shot just past the far post. He hoped it’d curl back in and it didn’t, but Vicario had it covered, I think.
Updated
5 min Spurs have started in something of a panic, Vicario haring out of his area to diving-head a goalkick away from Saka before doing well not to be lobbed.
4 min Saka waits for Timber to go outside him, Spence doesn’t follow, and when the ball’s fed down the line, the eventuating cross picks out Gyokeres. You can guess roughly what happens next: he heads straight at Dragusin.
Updated
3 min “The fourth of that best Barcelona four has to be Puyol,” reckons Owen Linderholm. “Just because he was a centre back doesn’t mean he should be ignored.”
That’s not why I ignored him – I don’t think he was that good, and the next on my list would actually be a different one, Gerard Pique.
1 min Do we think Spurs are in a relegation battle? Is that even a question at this point? If they lose today, they’ll be four points above the bottom three, with Forest and West Ham, their rivals for that third slot, both playing pretty well.
1 min Off we go!
Archie Gray is showing his Leeds roots with freshly shaved rugby league sideboards.
Oh, now Sky think Palhinha is on the right of the back three.
…and here they come. Time for some staccato sentences from Peter Drury; I’m choking up.
Our players are tunnelled…
“Quite right, Daniel,” begins Charles Antaki, who knows how to get published. “Reality is not easily inhabited. Like probably more than a few Arsenal fans, I’m close to immunising myself against it; nearly there but not quite, though things arer atcheting up to the clicking–over point. Not hard to name the contributing factors: each will have their own, but inadequacy in the goals department and, more systematically, everyone’s patches of inexplicable duffness. But, as I say, not quite there yet. Nevertheless, failure to win today and I suspect that my mental health immune system will kick in. Arsenal will be out of it, and my football sentiments will slide into neutral, not caring whether the Premier League is one by Man City, Mamelody Sundowns or Neptune United. Of course it might yet be Arsenal, and the universe will be righted.”
I understand how and why it happened, but I wonder if Arteta regrets the money spent building one of the deepest squads ever, when he might’ve put together the various funds and spent them on fewer but better attackers.
“Four of the best players ever”, begins Chris Amirault. “Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and … who’s your fourth? Inquiring minds want to know.”
The only one of them I can say, for sure, I believe to be the best ever in his position: the unreal Sergio Busquets.
Fitba latest: Hearts, five points clear at the top of the SPL having beaten Falkirk yesterday, are now sitting back – and so far, it’s been a pleasant Sunday. Second-placed Rangers trail Livingston 2-0, while Celtic are 1-1 with Hibs; there’s just over an hour gone in both games.
So where it the game? I imagine Spurs will defend narrow and deep, then look to release Kolo Muani in the channels with long passes, or have Xavi slip balls for him in behind. I’d not be at all surprised if Gallagher is deputed to sit on Zubimendi, so he can’t build the play, with the space around him and behind Rice targeted.
As for Arsenal, they’ll want Gyokeres to pull defenders out of position, opening up space for Eze, Rice and Trossard, while Saka, coming inside on Spence’s stronger foot, might look to run by him off the ball and attack the back post.
“I think any XI that Tudor put out today would look very strange and disjointed,” says Alexandra Ashton. “With 13 fit players, it’s really just a game of putting them in the least bad position, not their natural ones. I figure it’ll be Sarr at wingback. Solanke was on antibiotics for some illness, Richarlison is just back from injury, so 19-year-old unproven Souza is our only real option off the bench except for Tel, who has been mostly frozen out by Frank and is likely unfit. This is probably as good as it gets, although I personally would have started Souza.”
I know what you mean, but it is quite weird to look at an XI and have no idea what it is.
And it’s also all over at Kingsmeadow:
You do have to wonder why on earth any manager would work for Evangelos Marinakis, but here we are.
It was quite the finish at the City Ground:
“Vitor Pereira’s just been sacked...” chortles Dave Estherby.
The other big choice Arteta had to make was whether to start Eze or Martin Odegaard, plumping for the former. He’s struggled to get much out of Eze so far this season, not quite certain what to do with a maverick improvisor – it’s a bit like when Tony Pulis signed Tuncay and Eidur Gudjohnsen, but perhaps he’s now decided it’s time to make it work. It’s a significant risk – Odegaard hasn’t been great this season, but Arsenal still play their best stuff when he’s on the pitch, which is one reason I’d have stuck Eze on the flank – but with so many games still to play, it makes sense not to rush him back.
As for Arsenal, following the collapse at Wolves, Arteta makes one change, bringing in Leandro Trossard for Noni Madueke. That means Bukayo Saka’s sojourn in the middle, behind the striker, is over for now – a shame, in mine, as they need him involved in the play as often as possible, and have decent options out wide. Now that you ask, I’d have gone with Eze left and Madueke right – Arsenal need to let opponents, especially such poor ones, worry about them. But as we discussed earlier, change is right there for us, but isn’t easy to effect.
So that’s two attackers, Kolo Muani and Simons, with 58 games for Spurs this season between them … and five goals. The Tottenham WayTM or what?
Sky reckon Spurs are going 4-1-2-3, with Sarr on the wing; that sounds odd, but then so does Palhinha at centre-back. Otherwise, Dominic Solanke, who had some kind of throat situation, is left out in favour of Randal Kolo Muani, who Tudor had at Juve, and who’s managed three goals in 27 appearances so far this season, all of them in Europe.
Back to Tudor’s first Tottenham team, loads of players are missing, injured – Destiny Udogie, Kevin Danso, Lucas Bergvall, Ben Davies, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro – in that context, Thomas Frank can consider himself extremely unlucky. Even with everyone available, it’s a poor side, but without all those mentioned, how is he supposed to do anything?
And yet it’s also fair to say that his way of playing did not look like one that could be upscaled for a team wanting to dominate, and when you lose the crowd as he did, justifiably so, there’s no coming back. I’ve not a clue who Spurs go to next, though: where on earth do you find a manager players will join for, who plays attractive football that enabled them to compete against better funded, more enticing rivals? Mauricio Pochettino is the only person to do it post-David Pleat in 1986-87, so perhaps they’ll get him after the World Cup, but does he have the same in him again, the English game having progressed without him and Harry Kane now in Munich?
We’ve so much other sport for you it’s an absolute joke:
I’ll level with you: it’s taken me the last 15 minutes to try and work out what on earth Igor Tudor is doing. I’m guessing it’s Palhinha in the middle of a back three, because managers trying to force a 3-4-2-1 on players unsuited to it has such a strong recent history of Premier-League success. I can’t say I’m entirely sure how you can win a football match with two attackers on the pitch but, on the plus side, he and his XI will have to go some to deliver a performance as pointless and as cowardly as Thomas Frank’s lot did when these sides convened at Arsenal earlier in the season. I’m not sure I’ve seen a side asked to do less to record a 4-1 derby win.
Teams
Tottenham Hotspur (a possible 3-4-2-1 that could ba anything): Vicario; Dragusin, Palhinha, Van de Ven; Gray, Bissouma, Sarr, Spence; Gallagher, Xavi; Kolo Muani. Subs: Austin, Richarlison, Tel, Solanke, Souza, Olusesi, Williams-Barnett, Rowswell, Wilson.
Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie; Zubimendi, Rice, Eze; Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Mosquera, Calafiori, Lewis-Skelly, Norgaard, Madueke, Martinelli, Odegaard, Jesus.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Lancashire)
Preamble
There’s a therapeutic idea that we create ourselves afresh every day, in full control of the person we are – or, to answer the Stone Roses’ question, we’re not etched in stone but sketched in the sand. It’s a liberating, comforting, affirming – and daunting – reality.
A liberating, comforting, affirming, daunting reality and not one easily inhabited, because changing ourselves is difficult – consider Mikel Arteta, to pick a name at random. His excellent work – albeit with serious boardroom backing – turned Arsenal from a rabble into title challengers but in each of the last three seasons, his desperate, flapping intensity and scalding sense of injustice surely transmitted to team and crowd, wins bringing respite more than joy and anything else disaster multiplied by travesty. We can’t say it’s been the difference; we can say it isn’t helpful.
This season, his air is calmer, but convincing players who’ve experienced him that previously, things were one way but now they’re another, isn’t easily done – especially when you look like you’ve not slept in several decades. More than that, though, demeanour only covers part of our impact – attitude is equally important and until that is altered, Arsenal will remain locked in the image of old Artetz, heavy on organisation and meticulousness but rizz and swag deficient. Seldom is there a sense that anyone is having any fun.
Consequently, a lack of freedom we might also characterise as a lack of confidence threatens to cost them a title they’ve spurned several opportunities to near-enough secure, failing every time they’ve had a chance to increase their lead to insurmountable proportions. And now, with the gap down to just two points, they face an away derby against a Tottenham side fighting relegation and eager to impress a new manager equally eager to impress the world, having had nine days to focus solely on this game.
Ultimately, Arteta has built a team guided by principles of certainty and control, problem being football is an inherently chaotic and improvisational activity. It’s true that, for a while, Pep Guardiola upended this truism, but it was only possible, for the foremost football genius of the generation, first with four of the greatest players ever, then on a budget far in excess of any competitor – and since then, even he has had to change.
It’s true that Arsenal might still set-piece, blanket defence and own-goal their way to the title; if they do, they’ll be champions as deserving as any. But restart prowess and general solidity are not the opposite of expressive attacking and exuberant confidence – rather they underpin it.
So, can Arteta liberate, comfort and affirm himself to give his team the same? He still has time, but also, time is not on his side – and that is what should really daunt him.
Kick-off: 4.30pm GMT
