Saturday’s North London Derby threatened to turn into a fascinating and epic battle between two contrasting styles. The first half went that way, anyway. Then the second half just went Arsenal’s. Which is fair enough because really they were much, much better than Spurs. Bonus conclusion for free there…
1. So, about that question we asked last week that caused a lot of consternation. Today’s answer was pretty clear in the end: Spurs are a bit shit.
2. Arsenal are not shit. Arsenal might actually be really quite good, you know.
3. While we’re on about our own mischief-making, we’d also noted that much had changed on both sides of North London since the last Emirates clash almost exactly a year ago. So there was a slap-in-our-smug-face inevitability about this game ending precisely as that one did: a 3-1 victory for Arsenal in which the scoreline was ultimately pretty flattering to a well-beaten and frankly embarrassed Tottenham.
But shut up, because it was still a very different game from last year’s, and we would argue – as we pretty much have to now – that this was still a game that did highlight the changes of the last 12 months. The change, obviously, is that both teams are better than they were then.
Last season’s Arsenal would not have beaten this Spurs team 3-1. We prefer not to dwell too long on what this Arsenal would have done to last season’s Spurs. For the first 45 minutes, this was a fascinating and excellent game. Chiefly because those first 45 minutes went exactly as anyone who has watched these sides would have predicted. Arsenal dominated possession and played with fizz and confidence and always, always, always on the front foot. Spurs, by contrast, lived on the counter-attack and relied on the diligence of those charged with first keeping them in the game to make those counter-attacks matter and then launching them when the opportunity arose.
At half-time, Arsenal remained the likelier victors but it wasn’t far-fetched to imagine an alternative scenario in which Spurs got their counter-attacks right and kept the back door shut. Sure, that all exploded in the space of about five minutes once the second half began, but still.
4. At half-time it was even likely Antonio Conte was the happier manager. His gameplan was high-risk but working well and Arsenal’s high defensive line more than once had the look of a high-wire act that while thrilling to watch but could go horribly wrong at any moment. Had…
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