| Match report
Going into this match, Spurs
were reported to be on a hiding and I must admit, after reading the
preview, I might have concurred, but Tottenham put in a first half
performance that made light of the fact that we were short in the
right back position and Arsenal were going all out attack with three
forwards to take a point home from N5, albeit a little disappointed
at the end.
Arsenal's tactics might have
worked if they were able to shoot straight or could defence
decently, but this afternoon, they could do neither and with a lot
of shots on goal, but few on target, they only have themselves to
blames, even more so, when from their point of view, both
Spurs goals were avoidable. For Spurs, the match gave them the
opportunity to hit Arsenal on the break and that always looked
like the most likely outcome of our attacks, with the three men in
Arsenal's midfield stretched and the likes of Luiz, Sokratis and
Maitland-Niles not able to withstand the pace when Tottenham did
come at them.
Pochettino kept Dele on the
bench and that is probably not a bad idea with him just coming back
after a hamstring injury, so Eriksen started, with Jan reinstated in
the middle of the defence. The manager chose Davinson Sanchez
to slot into the right back slot, which is not his natural position
and Arsenal decided to try to exploit this with regular moves up
that wing creating chances in the first five minutes.
Kolasinac overlapped and put some challenging balls into the
goalmouth, where Danny Rose did well to clear one and then later he
got his face in the way of a Pepe far post header to prevent an
effort on goal after Aubameyang had put the ball across. The
Arsenal winger had already skied one Kolasinac pull back from the
edge of the box and generally looked like he couldn't hit a barn
door, although he later fired a free-kick on target that Hugo
grabbed low down at the second go.
In the early stages Harry
Kane was more occupied in his own penalty box rather than the
opposition's with a header away from a corner and then blocking a
Maitland-Niles effort that might have been heading for the bottom
corner, but the Spurs striker's foot kept the ball from reaching
Lloris. With nine minutes on the clock, Lloris kicked
the ball long and Harry Kane won a header against Sokratis and Luiz,
just inside his own half. The ball ran to Son, who took
it forward, playing in Lamela in the right hand channel. Erik
took an early shot, without the greatest power, but it was enough to
catch out Leno, who could only dive to his right and parry the ball,
not particularly wide, to Christian Eriksen, who had followed in and
present him with a simple tap in from five yards out to hand
Tottenham the lead. With all the pre-match reporting, it was
not in the script for us to score, let alone take the lead, but it
was an excellent piece of anticipation by Eriksen to continue his
run into the box in case the ball was loose.
Spurs got their act together
on the right, with Sissoko helping out Davinson to counter the
threat that Arsenal were mounting down their left wing, but Moussa
also got forward, just over-hitting a chip into Lamela around the
penalty spot, allowing the keeper to come and claim it. Spurs
did hit the target on the quarter hour, with a pass from Harry Winks
giving Eriksen the chance to come inside from the left and drive one
from 25 yards out that looked as though it was destined for the top
corner, but Leno made a good save. The Gooner keeper was
also required when Spurs broke fro an Arsenal attack and Son went
left, cut inside and his curling shot was headed for the same far
top corner as Eriksen's, but the keeper made a spectacular diving
save at the expense of a corner.
With Arsenal players going
down under the slightest contact, it was unsurprising that the
feeble attempts at refereeing displayed by Martin Atkinson (when are
we going to ask for him to NEVER referee one of our games again ?)
showed yellow cards to Rose and Lamela for innocuous challenges.
Despite this, we kept plugging away and Winks set up Kane to turn
inside form the left to shoot at Leno, who fumbled, but Son wasn't
able to get an effort on goal, as there were too many red shirts
around him. Seven minutes to go to half-time and a Christian
free-kick was fired at goal and pushed aside by Leno, but when Winks
won the ball 20 yards out on the left side, he played it into Son in
the box. Heung-MIn turned, looked to square it to Eriksen, but
was clattered way after the ball had gone by Xhaka and Atkinson had
no option other than to point to the spot for a penalty. Xhaka
escaped a booking (not sure how), but Kane took the ball and waited
for the whistle to take it and sent Leno the wrong way, putting the
ball low to his left as the keeper dived the wrong way.
2-0 certainly wasn't how
anyone had predicted this game would go, except for perhaps Stephen
Fry on the BBC's predictions v Mark Lawrenson, but it was something
we took quite gratefully. Unlike the Gooners, who seemed to be
a bit miffed that we had spoiled their afternoon out and they hurled
plenty of bile over the no-man's land between us. Things might
have got worse for the home side as a shooting chance was created,
working the ball to the right, but it was Moussa Sissoko on the end
of it and it cleared the goal by some distance. Atkinson gave
them a weak free-kick when Sissoko stood his ground and Aubameyang
ran into him. 25 yards out, Lacazette took it but it was
cleared to their left and when the ball came back in Pepe slipped it
outside him to Lacazette, who fired past Lloris at his near post
from a tight angle. Coming a minute into added time, it wasn't
how Spurs wanted to go into the break.
Pochettino's half-time team
talk was then different to how it might have been a minute before
the whistle for the interval. How would the second half go,
with Spurs usually strong in the latter stages of games ?
The home team came out fired
up for the second half, perhaps knowing that an early goal after the
restart would give them a chance of emulating their win of last
season after coming from behind.
Lacazette tested Lloris early on with a header that Hugo dived to
his right to hold and then the Spurs captain played a short hospital
ball to Toby inside the box and it was almost picked off him by
Aubameyang, but they got away with it. When another Arsenal attack
broke down five minutes into the half, Lamlea knocked it inside to
Sanchez, whose pass to Son was played on to Lamela, who had run up
the right wing. He returned the ball infield to Son, who was just
inside the box. He stepped over the ball and hit a left foot shot
that was deflected and pushed wide by Leno. The Spurs keeper also
had to be alert, when Torreira played the ball in front of Guendouzi
in the box and his low shot was going along the floor and inside
Lloris’ left hand post, but the ball was kept out by a full length
dive to his left and a good strong left hand. From the corner,
Lacazette met the ball with a flicked header at the near post and
coming in at the far post, Kosalinac could only get his studs to it,
taking it wide, with Aubameyang coming in behind him.
Lacazette teed himself up for a volley that went a couple of feet
wide from 25 yards, but Kane went closer in the 58th minute. The
ball was played into him from the right by Lamela and his touch took
the ball to Eriksen behind him in the D. It was played to him first
time wide of the six yard box on the right and he drilled an effort
at goal across the keeper, only to see the ball rebound off the
inside of the far post and out to Luiz, who put it out for a corner.
After Aubameyang went down theatrically in the area trying to meet a
cross with Sanchez, Spurs broke away, but Son was blocked by four
players in the middle of the box as he looked for an opening to
shoot.
It was quite unusual that when Lacazette pulled back Eriksen as he
looked to break over the halfway line, earning a deserved booking,
Xhaka threw the ball away, which was similar to Eriksen getting
booked for. No consistency from Atkinson once again. Arsenal brought
on Dani Ceballos for the disappointing Torreira and he made room for
a fierce shot that Lloris did well to ti[ over the bar. From the
corner, Sokratis went down and wanted a penalty, like he always
does. Arsenal took Lacazette off and brought Mkhitaryan on, making
more space for Aubameyang in the middle and that proved decisive.
When Guendouzi picked out a pass inside Vertonghen, the Arsenal
striker got in behind him to volley past Hugo from five yards out to
equalise. It was a goal that saw Jan not realise who was behind him
and Rose had a man outside him, so the lack of awareness and
communication cost us.
Xhaka tried a long range effort that Hugo dived right to push wide
and there followed a period where Tottenham could not clear the
ball, with it coming back in time and again, but despite conceding
corners, there were few moments when the Gooners threatened the
Spurs goal. One clearance from a corner fell 18 yards out to Pepe,
who blazed it wide. The despicable Sokratis thought he had won the
game with a goal from a left wing Kosalinac cross that he slid in at
the far post, but the man who put the ball in was offside and VAR
confirmed that. Xhaka brought down lo Celso as soon as he came
on and still wasn’t booked, but while waiting for the free-kick to
be taken, Sokratis was pushing Spurs players offside on the edge of
the box before the ball came in and when it did, Ceballos wrestled
Dele to the floor off the ball and none of the officials on or off
the field saw it !!
Arsenal broke and were using their left wing, where Mkhitaryan was
playing, to get some balls into the box; one of which fell to
Aubameyang, but as he turned to shoot Vertonghen was in the way.
Xhaka made a foul on Kane as he turned away from him and then a long
ball by Arsenal was poorly headed by Sanchez, with the ball dropping
for Mkhitaryan, but he made the wrong decision to come inside and
was only able to find a white shirt with his pass. Pepe shot wide
from the right in a good position,
Sokratis got his usual booking after failing to let go of the ball
when Winks tried to get it to take a throw-in. Sissoko took the ball
a[out after it came to him inside his own half and ran it up to the
penalty area, but his pass was too far ahead of Kane and the game
moved to the other end, where Toby blocked a shot by Mkhitaryan and
Winks was winning the ball when danger looked close.
Xhaka made a blatant pull back on Kane as he went across the halfway
line, finally encouraging Atkinson to book him, when he possibly
shouldn’t have been on the pitch. Harry was also involved three
minutes into added time, when he was played in down the left of the
box and Sokratis went with him, untidily bundling him over, but all
Atkinson awarded was a free-kick to Arsenal for him laying on the
ball (with Sokratis in front of him). Nothing was done either about
Sokratis waving a finger in Kane’s face provocatively. With
the final whistle imminent, Spurs broke away with Kane on the left.
He had time to slow down and play the ball square to Sissoko, who
took the ball a little wider to the right and smashed a shot at goal
that went way over the bar.
The game ebbed and flowed, apart from the referee's whistle
interrupting the game's natural pace and passion, but five bookings
for Spurs was a bit of a joke when Xhaka got away with so much and
all the talk of Kane diving should be weighed against the ease with
which Aubameyang went down in the box too. Spurs played better
than recently in going 2-0 ahead despite being under pressure from
the start and finished strongly too, with a couple of good penalty
shouts. With Walker-Peters and Foyth missing, it was a brave
move by Pochettino to play Sanchez at right back. Although he
was targeted in the first half, he grew into the role and looked
better in the second half.
There will be questions about how quickly Tottenham reacted to
situations, with players not closed down and allowed to make runs
unseen, but overall, they defended manfully, while the midfield put
in a lot of effort to get back to help them out. The forwards
made the most of the possession they had and with a bit of luck
Kane's shot against the post might have gone in off it or off the
keeper, but luck is not with us at the moment and nor is VAR.
If you had offered a draw
before the game I would have taken it, but coming away disappointed
with a point (which is more than we got there last season in the
League) is a positive, but we must now knuckle down as the squad we
have is what we have to select from until January and games will be
coming thick and fast. The sooner we get our new players fit
and up to speed, it might add a new dynamic to Pochettino's plans,
whereas, it has been using what he has at his disposal so far and
that is slightly less than last season with injuries and players
having left.
William Hyde |
