Spurs - The final judgment (part 2)

Well it seems at the half way stage that Spurs are living up to their self proclaimed average tag. Good teams don't go 2-0 up looking dangerous and then end the game 2-2, good teams scored first and win the game.

To go through Spurs need to win the game, draw 3-3 or draw 2-2 and win on penalties. No team has scored more than 2 at the Emirates against Arsenal and of the two that did one went on to lose 6-2. Personally I think it will be decided in the 90 minutes one way or the other. Spurs are capable of winning but their record against us this season is one of conceeding goals and not winning and teams that come to attack Arsenal tend to fail.

The lose of Baptista to injury is a blow but there is no cause for serious concern as there are plenty of players capable of scoring for Arsenal. Gilberto is back and we have 4 stikers still available with 21 goals between them this season.

Spurs - The final judgment

So tonight is the Carling Cup Semi final first leg. There is double incentive to win the two games firstly and most obviously the prize is a place in a cup final but second which is even better is that Spurs can be offically crowned an "Average" team.

Martin Jol has been saying in the press that this is the chance to find out if the team are winners or just average (his words). Therefore anything less than progress to the final for Spurs must be average and therefore that will become thier new offical title, Tottenham "Average" Hotspur.

Looking at the league table and Spurs currently sit 9th with 4 teams close enough that given one or two results could over take spurs in a couple of weeks, I'd say that's already proof of an average team but we can put the matter to bed.

The Arsenal squad looks similar to the game against Liverpool and I think there is plenty of quality in there to get the right result. An early goal from us would set the tone and we could open up Spurs on the counter attack. With Van Persie out for a number of weeks it's a second chance for Baptista and Aliadiere to push their case for a premier league start. What we need to do is score, a draw of any sort would be good but even a high scoring loss would do us well for the second game, 3-2 something like that.

United beaten again...

Three fantastic facts to emerge from yesterdays game.

1. We came back from a goal down again
2. We beat Man Utd again (getting a double over them for the first time in a long time)
3. We are still unbeaten at the Emirates

Before the game I had convinced myself that while you never want to lose it would at least mean Man Utd would go 9 points clear of Chelsea. Not I want you to understand that I particuarly want Man Utd to win the league but I desperately don't want Chelsea to. However after 2-3 minutes of the match any notion that I wanted to do anybody any favours went right out the window, this was Arsenals biggest test at the Emirates and the second to last team, Spurs being the last, that I would want to lose our unbeaten record to.

It wasn't the greatest game ever played and while in the first half it looked like things could become heated it was played out in decent enough fashion. For all the hype Man Utd were good but not great, and for me they didn't create what you would call any real chances other than the goal and I think we contained both Rooney and Ronaldo well.

What they did do was waste time at every opportunity, it was clear there were going to be a fair few minutes added on as Man Utd seemed to lack any ambition going forward after their goal and wasted time at every opportunity. At the time I did think that all that would achieve would be to give Arsenal some extra time to chase for a goal and that's exactly what happened. While Van Persies introduction didn't turn the game he came up with the all important goal that at the time looked like it was going to maintain our unbeaten run. But it was better than that, in added time Henry headed the winner to turn the Emirates into a mad house.

As I mentioned in a previous post I was disappointed in the media's build up to the game, it seems while they are getting the odd mention Arsenal are not getting the credit for the great run the are currently on. Almost all the pundits asked before the game said Man Utd would win, which is fine, but there was never any mention of the danger Arsenal clearly pose. One particular instance was when asked about Arsenals chances both for the game and the rest of the season all Jamie Redknapp could mention was an away lose to Sheffield Utd, no mention of a 10 man win away 2 weeks later, no mention of 15 goals in the previous 4 matches and no mention of 2 wins away at Anfield, a ground Liverpool are, rightly, seen as almost unbeatable at.

Regardless of the result we won't win the title this year but we will be a lot closer than last year and I don't think 2nd is out of the question. If nothing else Spurs seem to have reverted to type and are sliding down the table, they have Man Utd, Sheffield Utd away and Bolton in their next three games and they are close to dropping into the bottom half of the table. At least St. Totteringham's Day should come a little earlier than last year.

Lauren Gone

So Lauren has finally gone having not played a full game of football for over a year. Portsmouth is as good a club as any to go to I suppose but I always feel a little uneasy about players going to other Premiership clubs.

The general feeling among the blogs is that this is a bad move from Arsene. Personally I don't think it is especially as he hasn't played for over a year and there were a number of times during that period where there was serious talk of retirement. While I think loyalty is important we should also realise that it shouldn't get in the way of a decent decision.

A lot of people have commented that we should have kept various players for another year, the obvious one being Vieira. I have mentioned before that I think the real issue last year was losing both Vieira and Edu last year rather than just Vieira but what we need to ask is would we have won the Premiership last year had Vieira stayed? I very much doubt we would have but one thing that would have happened is the development of players like Faberagas and to some extend the improvement of Gilberto would have been delayed by another year, while this year hasn't been vintage stuff it's certainly an improvement on the start we had last term. One thing that Wenger and Ferguson have done is move their teams on, if you look at Chelsea this year it seems teams are starting to work them out and the squad isn't progressing.

People also comment on the young age of the Arsenal squad and often point to our failures as a sign of a lack of experience. Experience can only be gained by playing and keeping players for an extra year would only hinder that development.

Arsenal - Man Utd/Liverpool - Chelsea

So this weekend is the one I have been looking forward to for some considerable time. Not only to we get to play Man Utd for the first time at the Emirates, the day before sees Liverpool take on Chelsea. We could see the top two break away, all four come closer together or as with last weekend no real change in the relative positions.

Personally I can see it going anyway with all the teams capable of winning their game, on recent form you would fancy Liverpool to beat Chelsea at home but the 2 results against Arsenal sow a little seed of doubt in that department but equally Chelseas poor form must surely count against them.

As for Man Utd and Arsenal both on top form at the moment. Listening to the Guardian's Football Weekly podcast they all agreed that Man Utd would have too much for Arsenal but when you look at recent form it would suggest something else.

In the last 6 home games Arsenals record is WWDWWD in the process building a goal difference of +14, but while it's agreed that Man Utd are on top form looking at their away record tells a different story. For their last 6 away games it's DWLWLW and a goal difference of only +5

Generally when we play Man Utd the form book goes out the window (as happened at Old Trafford earlier this season) but it does present a very different picture to the one I'm sure most people have of Uniteds current position.

Another win against Blackburn

Another fantastic win against Blackburn, this time for different reason. I love goals but it's also great to win games that you're not expected to and so that proved on Saturday. I refuse to pay for PremPlus games given I give far too much money to Sky already, so it was another Saturday evening listening to Arsenal.com. However after 12 minutes of the game it seemed as if it was going to be the same old story. Gilberto off (more on that in a minute) down to ten men and still 70+ minutes left to play, in a game when somebody of Gilberto's quality was going to be vital.

But.... and here's the great thing, it actually played right into our hands. As soon as Gilberto went off the pressure was on Blackburn to go for the win, to do that they had to try and play a bit of football and that was their downfall (as it was at the Emirates). Often the worry in such situations is that the team can become distracted by such decisions, Van Persie in the Sheffield game for example, but I think it galvanised the team.

So what about the Gilberto incident, to be honest I think the ref could have given him the benefit of the doubt and given both of them a warning or both yellows but he didn't. If the ref feels it was a sending off then fine but as others have pointed out Gilberto will now miss 3 games. What annoys me is the FA's inaction in such cases, things either go totally unpunished if the ref didn't see it or players get 3 match bans for flicking a leg. In isolation I wouldn't be too bothered but then on Sunday we see Chimbonda for Spurs strike another player across the face and all he gets is a yellow. Let's hope the FA do something similar to what happened with Chris Morgans punch on Van Persie and punish retrospectively.

One thing I did see in the game was another fantastic moment from Fabregas, just after the tackle by Tugay, Neill and Fabregas had a little tussle, the ref came over to calm things down but as they were jogging back Neill had something to say, Cesc's response was to smile and hold 2 fingers up with one hand and none on the other. In my opinion that's exactly the way you should respond to such provocation, get your revenge on the football pitch, there is nothing better to say up yours to an opponent than to beat them and show than no amount of kicking or provocation can get to you. It's not the first time, he did the same thing against either Watford or Sheffield Utd at the Emirates, he was pushed off the ball just outside the area, the defender got up stood over Cesc and said something, he just got up held 3 fingers up smiled and went off to take the corner. It's something Fabregas should have a word with Van Persie about.

The Lauren situation

There has been much speculation in the press and much comment on the blogs about Lauren's supposed move away from Arsenal. Lauren has been a great player for us and rightly people are worried about the long term future of Eboue and Hoyte in the right back position while letting go a player of Laurens experience and class.

However we need to look at the situation while taking in the facts.

1. In 8 days time Lauren will pass the magic 30 mark. It's well documented that Wenger only gives single season contracts to players who are over 30, that brings us on to point 2.

2. Lauren's contract ends at the end of this season. The talk of him leaving is not about Arsenal pushing him out but about a player dealing with his future.

3. He is coming back from an injury which has meant he has missed almost an entire year. I'm no Doctor but look at they way Diaby has come back from a dislocation and a fracture in half a season, he's young but Lauren (in football terms) is not. Wenger sees him in training or rehab every day and he will have some idea of the likelihood of a successful return to the team.

4. Arsene is not often wrong on these matters, consistently he has made the right decision on when to allow players to leave the club.

So the reality is Lauren is looking to sign a contract for his future, at Arsenal all he will get in a year (that's all that was is ever offered) and he must himself know that he might not fully recover from his injury. If he signs with Arsenal and fails to reach his previous high his career would be over in a year, by moving somewhere else he is likely to get a 2-3 deal.

In much the same way with Stokes I think any transfer talk is being lead by the player rather than the club.

A quick round up

It's been a decent 2007 so far for Arsenal, first we scored 4 against Charlton (and it would have been a lot more had Carson not been playing) and then 2 great, but unexpected wins against Liverpool at Anfield.

I say unexpected not because I didn't have faith in Arsneal getting a result but simply that Liverpool have been so strong of late at home. Having said that I was saying to a Liverpool supporting friend on Friday that they haven't really played anybody really decent at Anfield so far this season and so that proved correct when Arsenal turned up.

In both games we did what we needed to do and that's get in front. Generally the story of the season so far has been a two headed beast, score first and win or score second and struggle. So when Rosicky scored against the run of play it played right into our hands, that meant Liverpool had to push forward for a goal and that lead to space for us to exploit, and so we did. When they got it back to 2-1 it was a pretty even game and were it not for a bit of Henry magic the last few minutes could have been very tricky. In isolation Liverpool did OK in that game and while 3-1 was deserved it could equally have been a draw.

But when taken in context with Tuesday night it highlighted some problems for Liverpool. Benitez made two mistakes by fielding a weaker side on Tuesday, firstly he underestimate Arsneal's younger players and secondly by doing so he would have given them a big boost in confidence. If he had named his strongest side he might have put a little doubt in the players minds but by not doing so he played right into their hands.

I won't go over the game but need less to say both Baptista and Aliadiere had great games but as with Saturday the early goals put all the pressure on Liverpool. In Aliadieres defence I think he looked half decent against Portsmouth without actually doing a great deal but his problem is now we have 4 players on form in front of him.

A moment I liked was in commentary when Liverpool scored their 3rd Any Gray questioned the Arsenal young players resolve, a few minutes later Baptista scored another and his question was answered in no uncertain terms. Dudek got a fair amount of stick but in reality, especially in the Carling Cup game, he didn't stand a chance with most of the goals.

All in all 2 great results but I don't think it changes much, we all know if Arsenal play a side wanting to go toe to toe with them on a football basis they will come out on top, Blackburn tried and got burned in a similar fashion to Liverpool. On that subject it's Blackburn again this weekend, if they try and play football again they could be in a bit of trouble but the good news from an Arsenal perspective is Bentley is suspended for that game. At the Emirates I think he was the source of most of the danger from Blackburn, with him out I think we might have a better chance.