The Soccer Blog: Spurs Must Start Winning The Big Away Games. Starting At Arsenal.

Saturday, 20 November 2010

Spurs Must Start Winning The Big Away Games. Starting At Arsenal.

By: Robert Reed | November 19th, 2010

Keep your heads, lads! If both sides stay calm this could be the game of the season

Arsenal take their rivalry with Tottenham very seriously. When the new pitch was laid at Highbury, the hierarchy were very put out by the rumour that a Spurs supporting contractor had buried a Tottenham shirt under the pitch. They took this so seriously that when I myself did some building work on the Emirates Stadium as it was being built, I observed the security guards who were stationed on the pitch at all times, rain or shine, to stop such a thing happening again. I was given many a suspicious look as I wondered around enemy terrain with my Spurs hat proudly jammed on my head beneath my hard hat.

We take the rivalry very seriously ourselves of course, which is why it pains us so much that we have never beaten Arsenal at their new stadium and only beaten them once at home, while at Highbury, since the Premier League was formed. In fact it has astonishingly been seventeen years and sixty eight games since our last win at the home ground of any of the ‘Big Four.’ A damning statistic which has to change soon if we are to be taken seriously.

Spurs travel to The Emirates with a long list of injuries. Tom Huddlestone is now out for three months with an ankle injury, joining Woodgate, Dos Santos, Keane, Lennon, King, Dawson and O’Hara on the sidelines. Defoe was tipped for a start in this game but it may prove a little early for him.

PicImg_Jermaine_Jenas_Tottenham_0e50 Some will doubtless see Huddlestone’s omittance as a disaster, being of the opinion that Spurs cannot perform without his passing ability. While it is a blow to lose the services of a good player, we proved by putting four past Blackburn last week in one of our most exciting league performances of the season that we are more than capable of scoring goals without him. Our late capitulation however showed that we still need steel in that area, making recent reports linking us with a renewed bid for Lassana Diarra in the new year heartening news.

Jermain Jenas was superb against Blackburn. He covered every blade of grass; tackling, creating and a couple of times nearly scoring in what would have been a man of the match performance were it not for Gareth Bale’s contribution. He is tipped to partner Modric again in central midfield against Arsenal, so more of the same would be welcomed.

Van der Vaart should play right midfield again, meaning a likely start for Crouch and Pavlyuchenko up front. Crouch scored his first league goal of the season in our last outing, as well as scoring with his first touch after coming on as a sub for England in midweek. Hopefully he can bring that form into this game.

Many, myself included, have been bemoaning Redknapp’s persistence in playing the lanky front man throughout his poor run of form. Personally I’ve never sanctioned selling him altogether though, I’ve always considered him a good option from the bench and it would be pretty crazy to sell England’s fifteenth all time highest scorer.

William Gallas should start, which could prove interesting. He will be public enemy number one with the Arsenal fans after his move on a free to their most hated enemies. Expect a crescendo of booing every time he touches the ball, at least to start with.

campbell_1358793c It must be said though that his actions pale into insignificance when compared to Sol Campbell’s decision to move over to the dark side. If done in the right way any player should be able to play for any club in my opinion, but his defection was so machiavellian in it’s execution that he will never be forgiven by Spurs fans who know all the details.

Arsenal fans will understandably still wish to vent their spleen at the Frenchman. Indeed he had become as unpopular with most of his teammates by the time he left (he and Nasri didn’t speak a word to each other in his final year) so things could also get a bit tasty between he and they on the pitch as well.

So will we win? Statistically it looks unlikely. Arsenal have twenty six points, their highest tally from the first thirteen games for three seasons. We are on nineteen points, six fewer than we had at this point last season.

Arsenal were beaten soundly by Newcastle in their last home outing, so anything is possible, but I think our problem against them is that we always go there to play good football and they have had the upper hand in that respect in recent years. We go there with some real players though; a midfield boasting Van der Vaart, Modric and Bale should be a match for most. We will have to get at them from the start and hopefully score early as we cannot count on a clean sheet from our team at the moment.

Whatever happens this should be a good game. In the past the rivalry between the two sides has on occasion lead to some bitterness, and the sight of two such pure footballing sides trying to kick lumps out of each other is criminal. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time, as both teams usually play football which is a joy to behold. This could be a niggley grudge match, or it could be the game of the season. I’m hoping for the latter.

SpursShield-mar03 There is no doubt that we are a much better team now than we have been for some time. It is also a fact that Arsenal are not quite the team they have been in recent years. We are closing the gap on them, so they are right to be paranoid.

Security guards on the Emirates pitch is a bit overly paranoid though. Besides, I was working on the ceilings, not the pitch. If you are going to watch the game this weekend, keep your eyes open. As you walk through from the main area to the stadium, through the many small tunnels which lead to the seats, look up through the metal grate ceilings they have. You might see the Tottenham banner I left hanging up there.

COYS!

Some Related Spurs Posts:Harry Needs To Toughen Up To Save Spurs’ SeasonBolton Vs Spurs At The Reebok. Back To Earth With A Bang?Spurs V Sunderland At White Hart Lane. Just Win, OK?Spurs Beat Villa 2-1 Thanks To Van Der Vaart DoubleBolton Beat Spurs 4-2. Wheeler Dealing In January?

Category: Players, Premier League, Team News

Tags: Arsenal, Emirates, Game Review, Peter Crouch, Players, Premier League, Premiership, Spurs, Team News, Tom Huddlestone, Tottenham Hotspur
« Harry Needs To Toughen Up To Save Spurs’ Season | Home | Comments | Add your comment greg | November 19th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

good luck to Tottenham, if you win it will be like winning the Champions’ league. This is how desperate you are. Arsenal is the bigger (much bigger) club. And this is a confirmation from across the Atlantic in Canada. No need to be genius to see Arsenal is superior on all imaginable counts

feygooner | November 19th, 2010 at 10:39 pm

“It is also a fact that Arsenal are not quite the team they have been in recent years.”

If by recent you compare us to the double winning sides and invincibles, then it’s hard to argue with you. But if you think that our squad this year isn’t stronger than last years, you would be very, very wrong.

Karlos | November 19th, 2010 at 11:33 pm

Paranoid? Not after last year’s fixture. Your Tiny Tots will cough up three pts again.

Robert Reed | November 19th, 2010 at 11:38 pm

I always find something inherently sad about reading opposition blogs and leaving niggley messages, but no matter, I’ll answer all.

Fey, I suggest you read again (or not, as it’s a Spurs blog) as you will see I made a point of saying this was your best showing after thirteen games for three years. The fact is though that you are not remotely as good now as the teams you mentioned, I agree with that, but you are better than last year although Fabregas isn’t tearing up any trees.

Greg, thank heavens you’ve finally gotten in touch. We’ve all been on tenterhooks here in North London waiting to hear the expert opinion of someone from Canada, that international hotbed of all things football. I’m certainly aware of the typical Arsenal arrogance around me in London but I wasn’t aware it was now being exported.

Firstly, you’re an Arsenal fan, and as such not well placed to speculate on what it feels like to win the Champions League.

‘Superior on all imaginable counts’ is obviously not the case. I can imagine a goalkeeper for example. We have a better goalkeeper and only an idiot would say otherwise. Your midfield is no better than ours and neither of our defences are particularly great, but with everyone fit ours would be superior. If we had Defoe and you had Van Persie your forward line would be better, but we don’t so neither of ours is that much to write home about either.
As I said Arsenal are the more accomplished team and I don’t really expect a win, but we are closing the gap as most sensible Arsenal fans I know acknowledge.

Stick to your ice hockey mate, leave this game to people who know something about it. Do enjoy our game my friend and by all means support the team you picked out of thin air (doubtless because they were successful. Funny how nobody over there seems to support Leicester or Middlesbrough, or even Leeds) but don’t make out you’re an expert or you’ll make a fool of yourself. I’m not saying there aren’t people on your side of the ocean who know their stuff, I’m just saying you aren’t one of them.

Confirmation from Canada. Haha. That was a good one.

Robert Reed | November 19th, 2010 at 11:47 pm

And Karlos. Reading an opponents blog which gives the opinion that we are unlikely to win, and then gloatingly leaving a message saying ‘we’re gonna win’. What was that I said about arrogance?

Davos | November 20th, 2010 at 1:03 am

Another gooner here, I like reading the blogs of the other teams, especially if they make good points and don’t seem to be written by some nutjob incoherently spouting jingoistic rubbish (there are far too many of those). I have to say that this article made an interesting read. It’s true that Spurs have made a lot of progress over the last year or so, and in Bale and Van der Vaart they have two players that I would love to see playing in red today. I was actually very worried at the start of the season that this could be the year that we don’t finish above Spurs (Unfortunately in these days of the Chelsea and Manchester riches…my definition of success for the season has been to finish in the top four and above Spurs – and i thought both might be in jeopardy this year). It seems though that so far that I was being pessimistic, not because Spurs haven’t improved, they definitely have, but because Arsenal have also improved this year probably more than anyone expected. And so, all in all, I’d say we still have our noses in front. Today will be a big test, I’m more worried about a home derby today than I have been in a long time. With my red tinted glasses on, I’m going to say that at home we should have the team to win, although as we saw last time at home, in football, having a better team is not enough. I agree that paradoxically, the fact that Spurs will come and play a passing football game will possibly make the game more winable. Newcastle came to kill the game and score from a set piece, which is exactly what they did. Spurs will come to try to create chances, and that will mean that Arsenal will definitely have the chance to create chances too. So it will come down to who takes their chances. I’m hoping it will be the team in red…..

Davos | November 20th, 2010 at 1:05 am

By the way….in case i wasn’t clear, i wasn’t saying that this was one of those blogs with the incoherent rubbish

ArsenalAndrew | November 20th, 2010 at 1:51 am

Great post, v interesting and agreed with much of it. I think both Spurs and Arse are improved sides this season (which is really the one that matters, surely?), but both prone to inconsistency. Spurs are being stretched by Champions League participation on one side and an Arsenalesque injury list on the other. I think the Arse are still bedding in certain key players new in the side this summer – Kos, Sqill – and newish – Wilshire and Fabianski. This combined to injuries right down the spine from Van Persie, Fabregas, Vermaelen and former no 1 goalie Almunia – all these things have severely disrupted our season so far. And yet we go into today’s derby a scarcely believable 2nd, close on going top which is also a reflection on the relative declines we are witnessing at Manure and Chelski.

Spurs and Arsenal have great opportunities this season, both have potentially GREAT sides. We ought to win today, the weight if history, home advantage and, for once, a light injury list should work in our favour but it won’t be a walkover and could as easily be a draw.

Looking forward to you lot finally getting round to building a grown up stadium – no amount if security guards will prevent all manner of afc collateral ending up in the foundations, walls and ceilings; well, anything to give the place a bit of backbone!!

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