Match report – By the numbers – Player ratings – Video
“We played better than them, we exposed their cracks,” said a disappointed, but still passionate, Tim Sherwood to Sky after the game.
“What cracks were those, Tim? What cracks did you see?”, asked the reporter.
“Well … er … they won the game,” he said.
Some cracks all right. I’ll take cracks like that all day long. I don’t know if Sherwood went off and threw any more bits of his clothing around after the interview. I’m sure he did, because he’s got ‘passhun’ and all that, but in the end, for all their dominance of the ball, they troubled Arsenal very little.
In fact, their most dangerous moment came not through their own creativity or skill, but from an Arsenal mistake. As yet another long ball was lumped in the direction of Adebayor, Wojciech Szczesny came, fumbled, and left the ball at the feet of Chadli. The keeper was stranded, the goal was gaping, but thanks to Mertesacker and Koscielny doing as much as possible to deny him space, he hit the ball straight off the Frenchman and Arsenal got it clear.
In contrast, Arsenal had some excellent first half chances after Rosicky’s opening goal. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain did not have his shooting boots on, it’s fair to say. He went clean through on goal and could have a) side-footed it around the keeper or b) played it to the back post where Podolski would have had a tap-in. Instead he tried to emulate Rosicky’s FA Cup finish and miskicked it completely.
Podolski and Rosicky then provided him with good shooting chances from the edge of the Sp*rs box, each time his finish was more wayward. But make no mistake, these were good opportunities to score after good Arsenal play. We might have wasted them, but we created them, unlike Sp*rs who were the football equivalent of throwing your jacket off in a temper. Feel that ‘passhun’ and desire to win, but to what effect? Very little.
Rosicky’s opener will go down as one of the great derby goals. Scampering up field he got a bit of luck with Oxlade-Chamberlain’s control let him down slightly, but just inside their box he unleashed an absolute belter of a shot which flew and swerved past Hugo Lloris. His ‘Oooh, that was a bit good, eh?!‘ face afterwards said a lot about the quality of the strike and the context in which it was made.
It didn’t settle us down though, as I thought it might. Sp*rs responded pretty well, in fairness, while we seemed able, if not content, to simply repel everything they threw at us. Long ball to Adebayor, long ball to Adebayor, cross from Rose, cross from Townsend, long ball to Adebayor, cross from Naughton, long ball to Adebayor, it was nothing if not predictable.
And when you’ve got a centre-half partnership like Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, that’s meat and drink stuff to them. The stats tell the story. As a team we made 66 clearances, 31 interceptions, 13 tackles and won 22/38 aerial duels. They’d lump it in, we’d deal with it. Mertesacker alone made 20 of those clearances, and watching the two of them work to deny Sp*rs time and time again was fantastic.
It was a masterclass in positioning, organisation, reading of the game and defensive discipline. I know there are probably ways you could look at Arsenal’s performance yesterday and pull it apart. We didn’t have enough of the ball, we didn’t get forward well in the second half, but defending is as much a part of the game as scoring goals. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and rather than bemoan the paucity of our attacking play we should be applauding an outstanding defensive performance.
I thought both full backs contributed really well too, and the back four deserve credit as a unit even if the centre-halves stood out. Bacary Sagna was at his best – as he often is in circumstances like this – and his ability to make the right tackles in the right area is something that’s often overlooked.
The minutes counted down. Tim Sherwood threw on their £26m striker with 9 minutes to go. Where was their £30m record signing? Arsene Wenger simply shut up shop. Monreal, Flamini and Vermaelen all came on and I think that was the right thing to do. There was little point in trying to change the way we were playing just for the sake of trying to look better as an attacking unit. We were defending well, why not keep doing that? It’s a bit risky, I suppose, but ultimately it proved to be the right call.
Flamini got a brilliant yellow card too. One of the cards he was brought here for. With Sp*rs looking to break from a rare Arsenal foray forward, he quite deliberately halted that attack in their own half. Cynical, yes. Annoying if you’re the team trying to get an equaliser? Of course. When it happens to Sp*rs? Glorious.
Sherwood’s temper got the better of him late in the second half when he threw the ball at Sagna, much to the displeasure of some of the Arsenal players (look at Mertesacker). But the best reaction of all was from Sagna who did not give one single shit, and Sherwood, determined to show everyone how much ‘passhun’ he’s got, had to back down and shake hands because he failed to spark the mayhem he wanted.
A few more long balls aimed towards Adebayor, a few more Arsenal clearances, and that was it. Game over. Three points to the good guys, and they celebrated well because they knew how important it was. Podolski ran into the Arsenal fans, Mertesacker and Szczesny threw bits of their clothing in (but not out of temper like Tim, out of thanks to the fans who were there), and the keeper took an on-pitch selfie which isn’t something I’d want to see again, really, but under those circumstances it’s pretty hilarious.
Afterwards, Arsene said:
It is a huge result. We were under pressure to win. . For me they were absolutely up for it and we needed some special resilience to get away with it. As long as we didn’t score the second goal of course it was a very tight game. But in the end for us it’s three massive points.
Special resilience, I like the sound of that. And to me it was reminiscent of games that we won towards the end of last season, scoring early and digging in to get the points. If you want to complain about the performance, or lambast individuals after the fact, that’s entirely your prerogative, but days like yesterday really aren’t made for that much analysis.
The only thing that matters on derby day is the result. It’s one of those weird, horrible games where the quality of the two teams can’t be measured. Nor should it be. Performance is entirely secondary, but as I said above, if you look at it and judge it from how we defended, then you could easily say Arsenal were outstanding.
Sp*rs played well, and what did they get for it? No points, that’s what. No points and a manager who I sincerely hope stays there forever because he’s goddam hilarious.
Meanwhile, we did what we needed to: we won an extremely difficult away game, put ourselves back into the title race, and forged a little more belief and togetherness in a squad that looks readier than many in the recent past to go the distance for each other.
A good day at the office.
We’ll have a mirth filled Arsecast Extra for you before lunchtime, more on the main blog tomorrow.
