The Soccer Blog: Tottenham - Arsenal Preview

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Tottenham - Arsenal Preview

Tottenham – Arsenal Preview - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Wilshere Wins Young Player of the Year; Nasri, Sagna, Wilshere Make Team of the Year | Home | Tottenham – Arsenal PreviewBy: Martin | April 19th, 2011
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Tottenham

Position: 5th, 14-11-6 (53 points, +8 goal differential)

Home Form: 8-6-1 (+10 goal differential)

Recent Form: LDDDW

Last Meeting: Arsenal 2 – Tottenham 3 (November 20, 2010)

Derby time.

This is a weird one. It’s obviously always a massive match when Arsenal and Tottenham get together, but does this one have a slightly anticlimactic feel to anyone else? A couple of months ago, I remember looking at the fixture list and thinking “wow — we’ll be going into White Hart Lane looking to push on for the title” and thinking what a massive match that was going to be. But alas, it was not to be. I can’t help but think back to some of the points we dropped that we should not have, and how much bigger a match this could potentially be, and get depressed about the whole thing.

Still, the reality is that we have not much to play for other than to ensure St. Totteringham’s Day comes as early as possible this season, and with Liverpool pushing on to possibly qualify for Europe, it would be a bit nice at least to do our part to put them out of Europe entirely next season. And there’s always the matter of pride, especially after the humiliating capitulation in the second half to Spurs at the Emirates.

Way back in September, we had one of our matches of the season against Spurs at White Hart Lane, when we came back to win 4-1 in extra-time. That kick-started our Carling Cup run and gave us a lot of confidence. Conversely, one of the low points of the season was when Spurs beat us at the Emirates, especially because the first-half of that match was one of our best halves of the season that saw us up 2-0. But Bale scored a goal on the counter, van der Vaart converted a penalty, and then Younes Kaboul, of all people, scored the match winner to see us shell-shocked and pointless at 3-2. Revenge for that is most definitely a motive in this one.

And that’s good, because we can use all the motivation we can get. The team has looked really rudderless the last 2 months, and needs to avoid a repeat of last year’s performance, where once our title hopes dimmed we went into an absolute tailspin the last few months of the season that saw us looking at a possible 5th place finish going into the final match of the season. It was absolutely maddening, as if the team had completely given up, and we cannot afford a repeat of that performance.

We know Spurs well enough that I won’t go through a position-by-position breakdown for them. They’ve got a good keeper in Gomes, a backline I think is pretty shaky when King and/or Dawson are out injured (which is all the time) (although in their defense, only 5 Premiership sides have conceded fewer goals than Spurs), they’ve got some deadly exciting midfield players in Modric, Bale, and van der Vaart, and those guys will no doubt give us a handful. Up front they’ve got two tall strikers/aerial threats in Peter Crouch (who has a very good scoring record against Arsenal) and Roman Pavlyuchenko, as well as Jermaine Defoe, a more straight-forward fox in the box type.

We’ve had trouble with them in recent seasons — we had the 4-4 draw where we blew a 4-2 lead in injury time a few years back, and then the second-half collapse this season. Let’s hope that doesn’t continue tomorrow, because it would be a tough pill to swallow if we went the season without a league victory over Spurs.

In team news for us, apparently only Flaps is out injured. However, a lot of the other first-team guys are coming back off lay-offs and, even though they are apparently fit to train, are not match fit enough to play — Almunia, Denilson, and Vermaelen fall into this category. Still, we are oddly healthy for this time of year. Sagna and Song are both available and supposedly completely healthy, so I expect to see both of them start. Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Wojo

Sagna-Djourou-Koscielny-Clichy

Diaby-Song

Walcott-Cesc-Nasri

van Persie

Bench: Lehmann, Squillaci, Gibbs, Wilshere, Arshavin, Bendtner, Chamakh

Wojo definitely starts in goal. So long as Djourou is healthy enough to go, he’ll start alongside Koscielny on the backline. I think Clichy keeps his place over Gibbs, although Gibbs hasn’t played in a while and I think Wenger would like to suit him up again before the end of the season. And the big question was whether or not Sagna is fit enough to play — since he is, I think he has to start, although Eboue really has been decent enough in the last couple of matches notwithstanding his little practical joke at the end of the Liverpool game.

In midfield, I suspect Song will start — he played a bit at the end of the Liverpool match, and although he looked a little rusty, I think we need him in there to deal with the likes of Modric and van der Vaart in midfield. And although it certainly wouldn’t surprise if Wilshere keeps his spot given how great he’s been this season, and you know he’d really be up for a match against Spurs, I think he’s looked pretty worn-down the last few matches, and I think Diaby might just keep his spot, given that he’s been pretty good lately and we might as well get some good performances from him before he gets hurt again. And Cesc will play in the more advanced role.

Up front, it will be interesting to see if there’s any rotation. I can’t really see Robin van Persie losing his spot, so he’ll start. But it really wouldn’t surprise if Arshavin came into the lineup for either Walcott or Nasri — probably Walcott. But obviously it wouldn’t surprise a bit if Walcott keeps his spot, because he has been pretty effective lately.

So does this match matter? We are 6 points behind Manchester United, and are getting perilously close to being mathematically eliminated. More realistically, we are getting perilously close to putting Manchester United in a position where they can win the league with a win at the Emirates next weekend, and that is a sight I would really, really like to avoid, as that would be the real cherry on top of a disappointing season.

Looking behind us, we’re just 2 points ahead of Chelsea, and so there’s a real chance we could find ourselves in 3rd if we don’t take care of business in this match. There’s obviously no trophy for 2nd place, but it would be nice to at least be able to console ourselves that we were better than everyone except for United come season’s end. So there’s that to play for against. And then at the very minimum we need to finish ahead of Manchester City, who is 7 points back, so we don’t have to play in that stupid qualifying round to get into the Champions League group stage.

So even though it probably won’t revive our title hopes, it is certainly a game we have every reason to go into hungry and win. A win would see us go 13 points above Tottenham with 5 games remaining (although they’d still have a match in hand), and St. Totteringham’s Day would be well within sight.

Tottenham have been quite good at home, and have only conceded 12 goals at White Hart Lane, so they will be tough to break down — we won’t be getting all that many chances, so we really need to improve our cutting edge in the final third, both in terms of creating chances in the opposition area and making the most of the chances we do create. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Tottenham may be in worse form than we are, and are coming off of crashing out of Europe in disappointing (but completely predictable) fashion, so their heads may not be in the right place for this one, either.

Although it’s not as big a match as it could, it’s still a very big match, and one that I badly, badly want Arsenal to win. Here’s hoping the players feel the same way. Let’s beat Spurs.

Come on Arsenal.

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview, Tottenham

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Premiership, Preview, Tottenham
Tweet « Wilshere Wins Young Player of the Year; Nasri, Sagna, Wilshere Make Team of the Year | Home | Fred Jacobyou Martin, i really would appreciate you stop calling injuries to players (you can think but don't print it) early this season you did it and guess what it happened. So enough of that talk please browCONASpurs fan here. Have to say this feels like a big one to us. Would be nice to get 4th (especially after a bad 2 month run). Wouldn't mind seeing Arsenal push Utd the whole way. Would love to see city not qualify for champions league too, which would be good for everyone cause if they make it then you can imagine the players they would sign and what that would mean for both of us next year.
Here's to another cracking game between 2 of the more entertaining sides in the league this season. COYS!!!WeedonaldCona....nice to read an intelligent and equitable comment from a Yid's fan....you may actually get 4th even if we beat you since you'll handle City with ease and have a good run-in to look forward to. It is amazing how similar our two teams are...error-prone keepers, unstable defenses, exceptional talents (Dawson,Bale,Modric, Van der Vaart/ Vermaelen,Jack, Walcott,Cesc) and volatile coaches who can get the most out of low-key players! All you guys need is a new stadium and to lose guys like Crouch, Jenas, King and replace them with better performers. Up the Arsenal!!!Fred Jacobyea dude i second that motion, just make sure next two weeks you beat Man City and you surely win 4th, honestly don't want bale to leave you'll and if playing in Europe would help then good luck. Cant stand they other dumb ass side like Barcelona and real Madrid trying to always claw away our players

Honestly if i was a coach i would let every one honor their contract and any player want to i will leave him let him rot on the bench, find players are little to ungratefulSairaxI think I've been pretty good at staying positive this season while still acknowledging our faults. However, if we don't pick up 3 points tomorrow I might finally snap.Darren_VI've wondered what a Sairax 'snap' would be like. But not v Sp*rsDanKing9after seeing it on LadyArse I can tell you its not pretty Darren ;)Fred Jacobyou know snapping, i snap since the Newcastle gameRedCapedWondermy thoughts exactly.RedCapedWonderOur title hopes, in my opinion, are far from over. United could have trouble with Newcastle or Blackburn (emphasis on could) and if they lose to us and Chelsea, we could have a tense run in.Fred Jacobyea right the football gods are against use this yearIllinois GoonerWe need a win so badly tomorrow. If we lose, I don't think I will be able to stomach watching any Arsenal games for the rest of the season. With an almost fully fit team, YOU OWE US THIS!! Don't let me down Arsenal.blog comments powered by Disqus

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Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Tottenham - Arsenal Preview

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