The North London Derby Blues

There’s been a lot going right with Arsenal in recent weeks. We’ve signed what seems to be a decent left back, who seems to know what he’s doing; we’ve won all three of our Premier League games in February, putting us to within a couple points of the top four; and some form of confidence seems to have been creeping back into the side, at least as league games are concerned. So yes, there are a lot of things going well for Arsenal right now, but the opposite can also be said.

Today we went to White Hart Lane to take on the rowdy neighbours and show them who are the kings of north London. The problem is that things didn’t quite play out that way. We started strongly, holding possession for much of the first half hour and getting into threatening positions, so much so that it seemed Arsenal were likely to score at any moment. All it took to change this was two minutes of questionable defending and disorientation among the back four. Bale was put through the middle, past Vermaelen, unchallenged and slotted a fine ball past Szczesny; the next passage of play was similar, the same kind of ball through the middle of the defense, but this time Lennon ran across on it and tucked it in past the keeper. The game changed suddenly in such a short space of time. The remainder of the first half was spent chasing the game and trying to regain some semblance of order on the pitch.

The second half looked somewhat better as we got a goal back from a corner in which Mertesacker headed home past Lloris. We began to look threatening and created a number of chances, none of which really looked like it would trouble the Spurs defense. Jenkinson would go off injured, while Podolski and Rosicky would come on and try to spice things up, with mixed results. I am a faithful supporter of Arsène, but he made only two substitutions in a game we really had to play for. There must have been some other option available offensively today; Giroud, though a good player, was not on his game at all and really needed replacing by 60 minutes in. Ramsey wasn’t having a particularly good game either, besides a couple moments of skill coming through. Maybe Walcott could have changed to a more central role and a wing option put in place on the right. It seems obvious to me that there were players not playing well and to leave them on the pitch with a substitution left unused seems the definition of madness.

One last point I’ll make: Piers Morgan has been appearing on Fox Soccer for Arsenal game commentary. Normally I’m a live and let live kind of guy, but Morgan does Arsenal no favours, nor does he do himself any by spending the entire time he is allotted on air spewing premeditated Arsenal hate vomit and “Wenger-out” savagery. At this point, Piers Morgan seems to look more like a Spurs fan than anything else; he must be, since he was talking up Bale so well. He says he loves Arsenal, but someone in his position blowing up the way he did on air today when Arsenal had won their last three league games seems completely asinine. Ridiculous commentary with no redeeming qualities that came off looking childish.

Anyway, we’ve got a decent break from games now until we meet Bayern on the 13th. The fight on both fronts will be difficult for us now, but it’s by no means out of our reach.

Cheers.