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Why I Hate Arsenal

November 18, 2010 — by John Lally — 2

It’s coming you know.  I’ve been trying not to think about it, but now it’s unavoidable. The North London Derby is this Saturday (7:45am ET, ESPN2).  Some Spurs fans look forward to this match in the fixture list, some of us dread it – I’m very much in the latter group.

It’s hard to decide which one I fear more: the away fixture, where, in all likelihood, we’ll lose; or the home fixture, which brings with it the pain of hope.  This week, the game is at the Emirates, a stadium we have never won at. Our record is worse than that though – Spurs haven’t won away at Arsenal since May 1993, when I was 11 years old.   That game came a month after we had lost the F.A. Cup Semi-Final to our arch-rivals and they rested players ahead of the Cup Final.  Last year, we finally beat Arsenal in the league at home, but still finished below them.  It has been years and years of being overshadowed by them.  We just can’t win – even when we do win, we end up losing overall anyway.

The rivalry started in 1913, when Woolwich Arsenal moved (invaded!) North London, and got more bitter in 1919, when a vote saw Arsenal elected to the First Division, having finished 6th in the old Second Division, with Spurs relegated, after finishing 20th in the top flight.  Nearly a century later, both sides still hate each other.  Sure, I have friends who are Arsenal fans, but there will always be that divide when the conversation turns to football.  When former Arsenal player Theirry Henry was making his debut for the New York Red Bulls, he described his first opponents, Tottenham, as “a team I will not even name, that’s how much of a rivalry it is”. I couldn’t agree more –  I  only just about cheered Spurs that night more than I jeered Henry.

Honestly, I just hate Arsenal.  I hate playing them, cos we normally lose.  And if we win, I’ll be inundated with e-mails from Arsenal fans with pictures of the “Commerative DVD” Spurs release to celebrate winning a game.

I hate the fact that as we get closer to the game, our players, managers and my fellow fans, will be saying about how we can finally “make the step up” or “overtake” Arsenal.  That players such as Bale, Modric and Van der Vaart are evidence that we can really take the game to them this time.  Suddenly we forget that our defence is so porous, we conceded four goals against a mediocre Bolton team in our last away game, so goodness knows how many Arsenal could put past us.

I hate that their fans celebrate St. Totteringham’s day every year, to recognise the point where Spurs can no longer mathematically catch Arsenal in the league. I hate that they’ve been celebrating that day every year in recent history.  I hate their stadium and the terrible atmosphere they have in 2/3rds of their home games.  I hate it when they win, I love it when they lose.  My second favourite team is whoever is playing Arsenal, even when it’s Chelsea or West Ham.  I hate Wenger, Fabregas, Van Persie, Arshavin, Campbell, Toure, Henry, Ian Wright,  George Graham and everyone else associated with the club.  I hate that they are now lauded as playing some of the best football in Europe, when for years it was “Boring, Boring Arsenal”.  I hate the begrudging respect I have for pretty much everyone I listed there as being talented.  I hate that Spurs constantly measure themselves against Arsenal, and come up short all the time.

What I really hate, though, is that I care about this fixture so much.  It will bother me all weekend, and most of next week, if/when we get thrashed – but why?  When we play against Manchester United, I know the inevitable outcome.  We haven’t beaten any of the “Big 4” of Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea away from home in the league since 1993, we’re not going to start this weekend.  Why do I get my hopes up?

The Pacific Ocean? That’s just a shitty pipe dream.

But hey, Andy Dufresne found his freedom through a shitty pipe…dammit, there’s that hope again.

ChalkboardsCommentary

Newcastle Impose Their Will on Arsenal

November 7, 2010 — by Sean

Man of the Match: Andy Carroll (please cut off your ponytail, thank you)

Newcastle came into their game at the Emirates significant underdogs, though in good spirits coming off a strong win last weekend against aggressive long-time rivals Sunderland. The first half was one of frustration for Arsenal, with Fabregas’ strike against the crossbar the only time the 22 year old Dutch goalkeeper Krul let a ball past (a triumphant return against the team who put 4 past him in recent Carling Cup play). Walcott was unlucky against the woodwork in the second half, but overall Krul made some top-notch saves to kept Newcastle in the lead.

Arsenal tried and tried, but couldn’t penetrate a compact and organized Newcastle defense. The team in black and white collapsed around the Arsenal playmakers as they crossed midfield, cutting off distribution through the center. They also did well to quickly pressure the Gunner’s wingers when they had possession, isolating them and forcing turnovers.

Of particular note was Andy Carroll. The big leaping forward who scored the winning goal for the Magpies was all over the filed, winning balls in defense and forcing the issue in attack.

For this week’s chalkboard project, let’s take a look at the first 17 minutes of the second half. A crucial period for Arsenal (for any team really, ahead or behind), if they’d come out a changed, charged team they might have turned the game then and there and gone on to win. Pity to the home fans, their team were worse after the break. This little slice of the game is a fine example of how most of the match played out–in Newcastle’s favor.

As Newcastle plugged up the middle, then the wings, then the middle, and so on, Arsenal were forced to pass the ball laterally, with very few forays into more dangerous areas. They did try (132 total passes attempted) but Newcastle upset them enough to force 26 turnovers, concentrated dead in the center of the pitch where Fabregas’ magic would have otherwise been crafted.

On the chalkboards, Arsenal is moving left to right, and Newcastle right to left.

NewsVideo

Champions League Matchday 4 Video Highlights: Madrid-Milan, Spurs-Inter, Arsenal-Шахтар

November 4, 2010 — by Suman

In case you missed the this week’s Champions League action, here are highlights from three of this week’s 16 matches:

Tottenham Hotspur 3, Inter Milan 1: In the performance of the week, which has made him the talk of European football, 21-year old Welshman Gareth Bale led Spurs to a big victory at home over defending champion Inter.  Though he wasn’t involved in Spurs’ first goal (Modric feeding van der Vaart for that one), he singlehandedly created the latter two by streaking down the left wing and feeding perfect, nearly identical low crosses right into the path of the goalscorer (Peter Crouch for the 2nd, Pavylyuchenko for the 3rd (that after Samuel Eto’o had pulled Inter back to 2-1 with a suberb finish).

Here is the Guardian’s “as it happened” commentary on the last goal, to read along as you watch:

GOAL! Spurs 3-1 Inter (Pavlyuchenko 89′) That is just outlandish from Bale! He received the ball around the half-way line and simply belted it 20 yards beyond Maicon and set off after it. He got there first and, best of all, played the perfect pass across the face of goal, inviting Pavlyuchenko to smash it simply past the keeper. Bale has blown Inter away tonight.

Video: CL Highlights: Tottenham/Inter

AfricaCommentary

Johan Danon Djourou-Gbadjere

October 28, 2010 — by Sean

Continuing on this week’s theme of all things Arsenal, we take a very quick look at Johan Djourou, Swiss defender for the Gunners. You may ask, “Isn’t he a little dark for a Swiss, and that name, it’s so African.”

Of course he’s not Swiss-born. The 23 yr-old was born in the Côte d’Ivoire, then brought by his father’s Swiss wife (not his mother) to Geneva before his 2nd birthday. Arsenal held his contract for a number of years, but we’re only seeing him now (unless you caught him for one of his very few appearances for the Swiss).

You’d think being a Swiss center back would mean he’d be a great defensive player. But having seen him beaten to too many balls during his time covering for injured starters, that’s simply not the case. He’s got good foot skills, but is surprisingly slow for a young back on Arsenal, who have some speedy players in the rear. What makes his lack of pace most glaring is his uncomfortable positioning. He’s too often caught out and has to track back in a wild dash to try and poke the ball away. Not a good tactic when you’re dealing with the olympic sprinters playing up front for opposing sides.

He won’t be playing once everyone is healthy, but he does have potential as long as he can get his head around the game.

Commentary

ARSENAL CLICKS, OR CITY STUMBLES? (Questions from a Gunners fan)

October 27, 2010 — by Tyler

Nasri prances off to celebrate his goal

I admit that I was suprised by this game. Surprised by the Arsenal win, by the 0-3 final result, and by City’s reaction to the early red card that left them with ten men for 85 minutes.

Everyone at Eastlands will tell you that the result would have been different had Boyata not been ejected. But ejected Boyata was, leaving Roberto Mancini and his millionaires to decide how to fight on. I wonder if they’ve made their decision yet.

My feeling is that City didn’t fold, but they didn’t really fight, either. I’m confused as to the strategy for those 85 minutes. We’ve all seen examples of teams that seem to draw from untapped wells of determination and desperation after losing a player to a red card. But I didn’t see City demonstrate that brand of resilience on Sunday.

It’s a rare test to play virtually an entire game 10 vs. 11. And City played a Europa League game Thursday, while Arsenal had two days’ more rest after their Champions League match. So I understand that the City players were exhausted by the final whistle.

But Mancini has made it clear that he plans to rotate players throughout the season. He had players of skill and experience available on the bench, and City were playing at home for a repeat of last year’s explosive fixture.

I have questions.

CommentaryTacticsVideo

How Arsenal Built Their Way to Goal – A Chalkboard Comparison

October 26, 2010 — by Sean

A red card 5 minutes into the game would obviously have repercussions sooner or later. Looking at the buildup to Arsenal’s first goal (Nasri, 20′), it appears to have been the former. Arsenal made nearly 20 more passes than City over the 10 minutes leading up to the goal, and you can see from the Guardian chalkboards below that they were running the midfield from front to back. Isolated groups of Man City players were trying to maintain the ball while waiting for players to support, but having one less man leaves too may holes to fill and Arsenal plugged them full of attacking movement.


by Guardian Chalkboards

Video highlights of the match below–the first of which is Boyata’s early foul of Chamakh and subsequent red card, and the second of which is Nasri’s goal–a great finish off a quick give&go with Andrei Arshavin (as indicated by the white circles in the top chalkboard above):
PL Highlights: Man City/Arsenal

Schedule

What to Watch This Weekend: Man City v Arsenal

October 23, 2010 — by Suman

Man City v Arsenal - probable starting lineups (via the Guardian)

The CultFootball team went over the list of this weekend’s televised matches, and frankly not a whole lot jumped out at us–except of course the big Premier League match of the weekend: Arsenal at Manchester City.  The match kicks off Sunday at 4pm GMT–for those of us in the US that translates to 11am ET, televised on FSC.

Why is this the match of the weekend?  Just take a look at the top half of the table:

Team Pld W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Chelsea 9 7 1 1 25 2 23 22
2 Manchester City 8 5 2 1 12 5 7 17
3 Tottenham Hotspur 9 4 3 2 11 8 3 15
4 West Bromwich Albion 9 4 3 2 13 15 -2 15
5 Arsenal 8 4 2 2 18 10 8 14
6 Manchester United 8 3 5 0 18 11 7 14
7 Sunderland 9 2 6 1 8 7 1 12
8 Bolton Wanderers 9 2 6 1 13 13 0 12

(The table is also via the Guardian, specifically their Stats Centre.  Click thru on any individual team in the table to see all sorts of data and stats–and in particular some interesting data visualization under “Current league form” and “League position analysis”).

By our reckoning, Man City and Arsenal are two of four teams giving chase to favorites and early front-runners Chelsea for the Premiership title this season (we like West Brom, but doubt they’ll stick around the Big Five–and we don’t see sides like Sunderland or Bolton climbing up among them).  Hence the importance of this match, as 2nd place Man City will look to win to stay two points behind Chelsea (who won on Saturday), while Arsenal will need a win to keep from falling further behind Man City and Chelsea, and from allowing Spurs and West Brom (and probably Man U) to jump above them in the standings.

The table/title chase is just further motivation for what will hopefully be an entertaining match between two very talented teams. A look at the Guardian’s squad sheet of probable starters above shows that (also useful to have open during the match are the current squad lists of both clubs: here is the goal.com page for this match, and the Wikipedia entries for the current squads are here and here).

Fabregas leads the way for Arsenal--including in the stretching circle, apparently

Among the players to watch: for Arsenal, captain Cesc Fabregas returns to Premier League action after nearly a month on the sideline due to injury.  He played most of Arsenal’s Champions League match mid-week against Shaktar Donetsk, and is the creative force that pulls together Arsenal’s talented attack: Andrei Arshavin, and the youngsters Samir Nasri and Maroune Chamakh.  It’s a shame though that 18-year old boy wonder Jack Wilshere will have to sit out this match, as well as Arsenal’s next two, due to the red card he received last Sunday.  In his stead in the midfield the Guardian seems to think we’ll likely see Brazilian Denilson–although Abou Diaby and Tomáš Rosický have both played a lot more in the Arsenal midfield this season than Denilson has.  In fact, Arsenal’s squad stats seem to indicate that Denilson is the odd man out in Arsenal’s crowded midfield so far this season, despite how ever much Wenger loves him and his passing ratio.

(An extended aside on Jack Wilshere, even though we won’t be seeing him in action today: Wilshere has been increasingly impressive through the beginning of this season, but especially Arsenal’s two matches last week in, resulting in much praise and press (e.g, “Wilshere has the talent to define his generation“; presumably meaning the “next generation” that will take over from the ultimately disappointing “golden generation” of English football (Paul Scholes, Michael Owen, David Beckham, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, John Terry).  In fact, there are rumblings of an entire coterie of talented English youngsters on Arsenal’s reserve squad, such that some are saying that Arsene Wenger is grooming England’s next golden generation.  More on that in a later post, perhaps.)

For Man City, striker Carlos Tevez is their captain and attacking talisman.  Though it appears he’s starting to get some help in attack, with Emmanuel Adebayor scoring a hat trick last Thursday in Europa League action (albeit against Polish side Lech Poznań), and David Silva seems to be coming into form and getting more comfortable playing in the Premier League, after coming over during the summer from Spanish side Valencia.

Tevez came across town from Manchester United two years ago (and amid all the Wayne Rooney/Man U drama last week was supposedly lobbying for Man City to make an attempt to bring Rooney across too), while Adebayor was lured away from Arsenal, the club that initially brought him into the Premier League in 2003 from France, at age 19.

(That has led to some drama, in particular when Man City played at the Emirates towards the beginning of last season, just after Adebayor had made the switch. Adebayor scored for his new club against his old club on their pitch–and then ran the length of the field in order to slide and celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters!

It’s not just Tevez, Silva, and Adebayo that Man City have signed away from other big clubs for big money over the past two years. Man City essentially bought the entire squad we’ll see on the pitch today in the time period, using the seemingly infinitely deep pockets of the Abu Dhabi United Group and its owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.  Vincent Kompany was signed in August 2008, with Wayne Bridge and Nigel de Jong signed in January 2009.  During the summer of 2009, Man City spent over £100 million on bringing in Adebayor, Tévez, Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Joleon Lescott, and Kolo Touré (also signed away from Arsenal, which signed him directly from Côte d’Ivoire in 2002, at age 21).  Then this past summer they spent even more on acquiring Silva, Jérôme Boateng, Yaya Touré (Kolo’s younger brother), Aleksandar Kolarov, James Milner, and Mario Balotelli (though the latter has made only one brief appearance for Man City so far, due to injuries).

See below for video highlights from each side’s most recent Premier League match: Arsenal’s victory over Birmingham City, which featured some of that stellar play by Jack Wilshere, in particular in combination with Chamakh, which leads to a fantastic goal for the latter; and Man City’s 3-2 victory over Blackpool, in which Tevez scored twice in his typically scrappy manner (one of them assisted by Silva btw)–but it’s the 3rd late goal by Silva that’s the one to see, a fantastic individual effort.

CommentaryVideo

Chelsea Power Through, Defeat Arsenal

October 4, 2010 — by Sean — 2

Thanks to our very own Blues supporter Sumit Sasidharan for this surprisingly fair & balanced evaluation of Chelsea’s latest victory, over London rivals Arsenal (with video highlights of the match embedded below Sumit’s comments):

No bogarting, it's puff puff pass, Jon.

That was the best match all week. Tempo, width, muscle and touch on display–exciting.

Drogba’s touch seems better than ever. I was more surprised by Gunner lack of possession by their big men; Diaby and Song failed to exert the kind of muscle that could’ve been the edge.

After reading the beebs’ and guardian reports on the game and listening to Wenger, must’ve been a different game than I was watching. It really felt pretty even. Both sides had chances and possession seemed pretty even. A. Cole’s goal should’ve made the margin 3 and Anelka’s 4.

Instead of the past two beatings, Arsenal seemed to have clawed their way to an even showing but the reality is goals decide the difference. Wenger’s been the best coach in the EPL for a long while but he’s got to stop putting kids out there. I love his approach to the game and the way his team plays but that place looks like an ER.

Blues in front by 4 points seven games in.

What does everyone think of Obi Jon Mikelobi for the newest line of Michelob?

Video highlights courtesty of Fox Soccer Video Central:

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