Arsenal
Harry's Right There Isn't a Quality Gap
Fab Goal Against Totts
By Boris Mellor
November 1 2009
Harry Redknapp and Chief Deputy Clown Robbie Keane spent all last week bigging up their chances, accompanied by a Greek Chorus of Pundits. Indeed a few were expecting an upset, or at the worst, for Spurs, a draw. Keane was given acres of space to expound his theory that the Spurs squad had more depth than Arsenal's.
I think he was confusing price with depth, it's not the same thing Robbie (Spurs squad cost £162.4 million and Arsenal's £86.5m). Judged by price tags you would have assumed that the Gunners were the more expensive.
The New Becks
The papers were full of the new "Becks" and what he was going to do to us. This was the man who scored the wonder goal in the 4-4 fiasco a year ago. However getting lucky is no substitute for skill, and apart from a handball and a vile foul on Vermaelen he made no impression on the match. He did try to reprise his lob, but all it achieved was derisive laughter.
Mind Games of the Feeble Do The Trick
Towards the end of the week Harry was getting rather emotional, he wasn't saying the Arsenal team were boys, but they lacked experience. They had little chance of winning the league, although he failed to mention that that was considerably more than his own team's chances.
Anyhow his wind up did the trick, but not in the way he intended, the home crowd was furious and wanted revenge. They were up for it from the first whistle. It was rather sad to see an opposition with "such depth" had a game plan that consisted of booting the ball up field to a Giraffe and its Okapi friend. But even that took second place to the tactic of blocking the midfield.
I can't remember a Spurs team as poor as this, with only six shots all game, and only four of those on target. So Harry's claim that they were doing fine for 40 minutes was disingenuous, unless doing fine means copying Bolton. True the Arsenal fans were getting frustrated, but that was no bad thing, as they turned that into urging their team on.
The crowd's sense of urgency drew dividends with a goal by Robin van Persie on 43 minutes. The crowd went wild and was on its feet celebrating. I nearly missed the second goal as we were still jumping up and down. Suddenly I looked up and Fabregas was heading for the Spurs goal. I though he hasn't got the pace he won't make it, but time and space are related, Cesc evaded the lunging Palacios and that gave him all the time he needed.
Now he had to face Gomes but Fab nullified him by sending him the wrong way. It reminded me of that great goal Henry scored against them. Before the match I wrote "Is Almunia really worse than Gomes? Sure Almunia has made mistakes, but he would have to work overtime to make as many as Gomes who cost £7.8 million". Gomes did prevent some certain goals, but he didn't do that well on Fab's shot, or on RvP's second goal.
The crowd were now having the time of their life, two goals in the same minute, against the old enemy; it doesn't get better than that. "Bentley Bentley what's the score", they crowed.
The Spurs bubble had burst, the game was up and there would be no come back. On 60 minutes RvP put the final nail in the coffin, but it was hardly necessary the corpse had been long dead.In the past Crouch has been a bit of a bogey player for the Gunners, true he worked hard, but Song and Vermaelen had him covered, the one time he got away from Tomas, Song took the ball off his feet two yards out.
It is also worth noting that Sagna gave two assists.
After the game Harry claimed there wasn't a quality gap between Spurs and Arsenal, he is right, it's not a gap it's a chasm.
I will leave the last words to Wenger, "Football is not about opinion. It's about performance."
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:11:03:08:55:47 by Padre Pio.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:11:01:11:51:51 by Tom14.
After reading that P I've got a smile from ear to ear
and We've all still got MONDAY to look forward to if you know what I mean 
You were dead right about Harry Redknapp and Chief Deputy Clown Robbie Keane cos they were really confused; price with depth, it's not the same thing(Spurs squad cost 162.4 million and Arsenal's 86.5m).
we really put them to the sword and i was glad that idiot bentley didn't leave the emirates with a smirk on his sorry face. when we were 2 goals up i was hoping it wasn't a de'ja' vu.
Can We Now Trust The Process 🤔🤷🏿♀️ or Should We Still Remain Cautious 🙇🏿♀️
I'm not sure, but I am sure even some sensible Spurs fans feel that they should have at least tried to compete (attack) more eventhough it might have led to a much bigger loss. If you lose 0-1 or 8-0, its still a loss and you get 0 points. Why should it matter?
"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.
Quote:litmus
As a true football fan first and foremost, I was both surprised and dissapointed that Spurs didn't come out to play. This article is right, they booted the ball out to Crouch all day to provide knockdowns for Keane. Truly reminded me of Bolton. If Harry truly feels that he has a side that rivals Arsenal in terms of quality, he shouldn't have been scared to play an open attacking game. (Please, please no injury excuse accepted).
I'm not sure, but I am sure even some sensible Spurs fans feel that they should have at least tried to compete (attack) more even though it might have led to a much bigger loss. If you lose 0-1 or 8-0, its still a loss and you get 0 points. Why should it matter?
Quote:Padre
Up to 42 mins Harry thought it was working - then it collapsed and was proved threadbare. He refuses to accept it wasnt a good idea
not sure if you guys are revelling in you win and clouding issues or just have a genuine lack of football knowledge/tactics.
Firstly why ahould it matter if you lose 8-0 to your rivals ??? Absolute nonsense, do you even understand the history of rivalry between our clubs ? ask Pk how he would feel if you lost 8-0 to us trying to chase a game. One of the most absurd comments I've ever heard on this forum.
As for Padre, Harry has admitted he needed to tweak a few things at half time, but the fact remains that players switched off for your first goal. That's down to the players individual concentration and not Harry's tactics. Our tactics weren't working in causing you major problems, so you do have a point, but all top managers get there tactics wrong first half from time to time, most earn their money in sending the team out differently 2nd half.
had we gone in at half time at nil nil and Harry had not changed anything maybe you would have a real point.
I would hope all Spurs fans would have wanted us to attack more, but you need to have control of the midfield to do that and Harry got the balance badly wrong, which meant players like King who are normally the most composed were panicking and hoofing clearances.
At the end of the day for us to beat you we need to be at the top of our game most of the time (penultimate league game excluded) and too many individual errors meant that we seemed more hit and hope than I'm sure Harry would have instructed the players to be before the game.
no, put your wallet away Jack, that was too easy
![[:wor kid:]](/phorum-5.1.15/mods/smileys/images/13.gif "[:wor kid:]")
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