We Beat Arsenal

We beat Arsenal.  Did we beat Arsenal?  Spurs legend said "football is a funny old game" and while the result is a win, the question is how did Arsenal manage to cough this one up.  No matter what disaster has befallen Spurs this year, Spurs have not dominated any team to lose so inexplicably.  Being that this loss is the North London rival in what on Sunday was the 200th Derby - an empty stadium is what marked Arsenal's first visit to the new one. 

Arsenal had scored a wonder goal from Lacazette, their players surrounded him imperiously and they made a strange stiff gesture of superiority holding their heads very high.  Three minutes later Sead Kolašinac, the Bosnian left back gave every Tottenham fan a gift they did not expect to get, an errant back pass to the one of the two Spurs players you do not want to back pass to - one is Harry Kane, the other Son-Heung Min.  

Normally it is David Luiz who makes the Arsenal boo-boo's and sometimes it is the center back Mustafi but now  Kolašinac provided one more reason why Arsenal sits in the same mid-table position of mediocrity as does the equally under-performing Spurs team.   What is even more strange is that at one point the domination of the Arsenal team gave them 82% of the possession, but Mourinho's two banks of four in-front of this defense was a stone wall that kept this at bay.

Even after this it is hard to figure out how Spurs managed more shots on target and more total shots and twice the goals and twice the number of times the ball hit the woodwork of the goal.  The only time of panic for Spurs supporters was the introduction of teenage wonderkid Saka - but in this game his introduction added nothing to Arsenal's potency.  He may have had a one game wonder but today as he entered the field, he was subdued. 

A part of that may have been the Arsenal manager's fault.  While Saka is quick, Sissoko is stronger and as Saka was set to explode with his lightening speed and quick feet, Sissoko would be a brick wall that he bounced off.  Arteta is a very good manager, has been taught by a winner when he spent his time with former Premier League Champions Manchester City as their #2.  Pep has taught him a lot and some of that can be seen in the improved play by Arsenal.

Yet for every match that Arsenal look world-beaters, they come crushing down in displays like today.  Threatening to please but mostly toothless other than the moment Lacazette took matters into his own hands, and drove a thunderous volley into the Spurs net.  At that point one could have expected the floodgates to open, but this is not the ruthless Arsenal teams of old, those teams were mean in defense and blistering in attack.  They still have a strong attack but the back-line represents what still remains unfixed and unsolved.

Whereas Jurgen Klopp looked at the holes in his team, got the Fenway Group to invest and successfully solved those holes, it has not been a case of a hole suddenly developing this year, which is Spurs story, but a gaping and woeful problem that has now extended over many years.  Every year the pundits say the same thing, fix that defense and every year Arsenal oblige by not doing so.

Today Spurs and Arsenal both share similiar size grounds, but it is Spurs ground which is the attractive one.  Pity that under these Mourinho years there will no longer be the promise of attractive football to match.  When Bellerin was withdrawn by Arteta, Spurs supporters could express a sigh of relief - what possesses a manager to take off a really good player and replace him with lesser quality is only known to the Arsenal manager, but Spurs fans are so happy for once.

Yet "We Beat Arsenal" should not cut it anymore.  That should not be the top bar of achievement for Tottenham and in setting such a low bar, it is no wonder that Spurs have been the perennial under-achievers.  Then again, it did make this weekend real sweet - first Everton gave Spurs an easy 3 points, and now the gift of complacency that keeps on giving has given Spurs the gift of another three points.

With Manchester City's European Ban overturned - there goes the fantasy of a fifth place finish.  Now sixth place has to be the goal, because ironically if Spurs finish 7th, that place will go to Arsenal, if the Gunners win the FA Cup - and at that point Arsenal would have had the last laugh - so we as Spurs supporters better say silently under our breath "We Beat Arsenal" but at the same time enjoy winning - and thus have a few more days to smile.

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