Nine Jimmy Rimmers – Arsenal and Football

It would be nice to claim that I knew we could do it.  But I must confess that I was a pessimist yesterday morning.  The terrible, effort-free performance at the San Siro and the downward momentum from going out of the FA Cup as well left me very fearful.

Strangely, that feeling began to lift even before we scored.  OK so the first goal was soft, Vermaelen’s defensive colleagues had left him with the impossible task of covering two advancing forwards single-handed, but it was clear that Arsenal really had come to play.  Tottenham had the run of the first ten minutes, but not over the Arsenal team of Milan or Sunderland.

At one-nil down I was even wondering if I could feel good about a narrow defeat if it was accompanied by signs of regained fight and skill.  As it was the North London Derby I swiftly pushed such soft thoughts out my head, of course it would still hurt in the morning.  But such were the hopeful signs that it did cross my mind.

After the first goal we stepped up our attacks rather than fold and Spurs’ second goal was against a turning tide.  And it was never a penalty!  I really don’t think that either Gibbs or Szczesny brought Bale down.  Mike Dean gave the penalty immediately, but then seemed uncertain what to do next.  If it was a penalty then surely someone had stopped a clear foal-scoring opportunity?  Surely someone had to get a red card?  Dean consulted his assistant for a long time.  What were they talking about?

It was one of those occasions when you wished you could hear, rugby style.  Clearly the assistant couldn’t tell Dean which player had felled Bale, because no card followed.  Did he even agree that it was a penalty?

Anyway, Tottenham were two goals to the good and Adebayor was obviously enjoying his birthday.  But not for a lot longer, because despite being two goals down, Arsenal were now flying and creating chance after chance.

Perhaps being two goals down rather than one actually helped.  The Arsenal players had nothing to lose now but their souls.  There were some frustrating moments though.  Walcott burst through on goal brilliantly with a fantastic burst of pace and then wimped out of the responsibility of shooting, passing to Van Persie who was surrounded by three defenders.  Rosicky had a great flicked on header superbly saved by Friedel.

A lovely ball from Walcott slipped Van Persie into the box and he hit the post.  Surely all this pressure had to pay off?  It did, Van Persie was still picking himself up while Gibbs and Arteta rescued possession and fed the ball back into the box for Bacary Sagna to head home.  Fantastic.  Even more fantastic, Sagna picks up the ball and sprints back to the centre spot.  He hadn’t come here to lose to Spurs.

More pressure, more chances and then, out of nothing much, a beautiful curling shot from Van Persie beats Friedel and we’re level.  We might even have gone into half-time ahead, but it was progress enough.  Spurs player’s heads were dropping and their fans were stunned.

Sagna and Van Persie may gave been the scorers but the pressure was created by Song, Arteta, Benayoun and most of all Rosicky.  They dominated midfield and were unrelenting in closing down, tackling and feeding the ball forward again.

Redknapp certainly noticed, swapping a striker for another midfielder at the break but it made no difference.  It was all Arsenal after the that.  Soon Rosicky got his just reward with his first goal in two decades or something and no-one deserved it more.  Tomas Rosicky was our overwhelming choice as Man of the Match – over 70% of the vote in our poll.  Spurs were beaten from that point.  Nothing left.

Theo Walcott, his mind now cleared of self-doubt surged and shot at goal again and again getting two.  It seems to be all about confidence with Theo.  Once he found it, Spurs couldn’t handle him.  They couldn’t handle anything by that stage.  The substitutes had no impact and their play became more ragged.

Scott Parker lunged in on Vermaelen and knew immediately that he was off.  We might have had more but who care.  FIVE – TWO to the Arsenal.

It was one of those unforgettable games that we will think back to for years.  I’m guessing that the White Hart Lane shop won’t be doing a special DVD this time! Maybe just a replica of Bale’s Oscar.

Who cares that it’s Monday morning, nothing can go wrong today!

We will return to earth at some point, we are still clinging on to fourth by just goals scored and we have Liverpool away next week.  But time enough to think on that one later – we ARE fourth and we beat Spurs FIVE -TWO.

Now, what time does my Spurs supporting colleague get to work?  I promise not to be any harsher than his text at 2:0!

Four central defenders can work, but four full-backs fail

Arsenal kept a clean sheet on Saturday despite not having a single fit fullback available.  Admittedly Everton are not the biggest threat but Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Vermaelen still had a job to do.  Perhaps on these days of more athletic ‘total football’, central defenders have to be more mobile and more comfortable on the ball.  Of those four players, only Mertesacker would have struggled at full-back and back-up Ignasi Miquel has also filled in well playing out wide.

Does it work the other way though?

The answer from Newcastle certainly seems to be no, as their back line of fullbacks shipped four goals at Norwich.  With injuries to Stephen Taylor and Fabricio Coloccini, I think they’re going to struggle now.  There are only so many that Demba Ba can get at the other end.

It is possible to feel sorry for Spurs?

Well it is nearly Christmas and they were playing Stoke, so let’s be big-hearted over this!  Spurs were robbed of a win yesterday by some dreadful refereeing.   Tottenham players were twice prevented from leaping for crosses as Stoke defenders clung on to them.  Ryan Shawcross made a goal-line clearance with his elbow.  Crouch used his arm to control the ball before setting up Etherington’s first goal.  Adebayor was no-where near offside for his disallowed goal, the Assistant Referee suffered severe tunnel vision and ignored the Stoke player, returning to the pitch after sliding out, who put three Spurs a yard onside.

Chris Foy and his assistants have helped tighten things at the top I suppose, but crap refereeing turns games into stupid lottery. I didn’t include the red card in the list as the second yellow was definitely a foul and quite a few referees would have done the same.

Blackburn and Bolton are in trouble

To be truthful, that isn’t just a lesson of this weekend.  But whilst these showed that they are consistent in their lack of talent, Sunderland and Wigan showed that they have some answers if only they can make it work often enough.

Meanwhile…

David Moyes apparently took the chance of Arsenal’s Birthday Party to cheekily ask Thierry Henry if he fancied a spell at Everton.  I’m sure Thierry was gracious enough to give him a sympathetic smile in return.

The media have decided that Szczesny isn’t the only ready to kiss Van Persie’s feet and that he is Real Madrid’s top transfer target.  I guess that for as long as Van Persie is fit and scoring we’re going to have to put up with these stories constantly.  Hopefully Robin will tell the Special One to kiss some other part of his anatomy.

Arsenal are still the favourite media whipping boy this weekend, with various hacks and has-beens having a go.  Sadly we’re all just going to have to take this on the chin for now because our club is the obvious story.  To add to the pounding fron the pundits, there’s news that Jack Wilshere may be out a while yet.

There may be twenty Premier League clubs, but in truth it’s the fight for the top four places that dominates the coverage.  There’s heavy commercial logic here right across the media so don’t expect this to change.

Whilst there might be some nit-picking over various aspects of United, City and Chelsea’s squads, no-one thinks they are going to be uncompetitive.  In contrast, even the most blinkered Gooner would admit that we have had a traumatic summer that followed a terrible closing third of the season.

So we’ve got it all to prove against the challengers for our top four status. To aid the media, this can easily easily be characterised as matey Kenny and ‘arry verses too clever by half Arsene.  So this is our lot until the team can prove otherwise.

What of the challenge from Liverpool and Tottenham?

Everyone agrees that Liverpool have got stronger this summer, but I think the jury is still out on quite how much stronger.  They beat us two-nil, but we were poor and understrength. I didn’t think they looked that special.

I don’t think anyone has really made their minds up about Spurs yet.  They have kept their two most influential players, Van Der Vaart and Modric, but have let go of a number.  In come Parker, Friedel and Adebayor.  Adebayor had just 15 starts last season.  Who knows just how much he’s got to give.

Gooners have been on an emotional roller coaster.  Depths of despair at old Trafford, the surge of relief from the closing stages of the transfer window.  Now we’re sat stationery, we’ve paid for another ride but we don’t know how it will go.

If the Arsenal as a team can be more than the sum of its parts, competition with City, United and Chelsea beckons.  Or will the ‘big top four’ turn in two groups of three?

Hold very tight now!

Arsene Wenger says that his main focus is on a new defender but it isn’t easy. No kidding. I’m sure he’s right but then again he’s a top manager so that’s what he’s there for!

Defender talk in the Sundays is about renewed bids for Jagielka or Dann.

At his last press conference Arsene Wenger appeared to rile out Mata and Jadson. I think he was quite explicit on Mata, but all he said on Jadson was that no bid had been made. Doesn’t mean no discussion.

Anyway, the papers today are concentrating on midfielder Marvin Martin from Sochaux and winger Andre Ayew from Marseille. Both interesting prospects but I would have thought we had wingers a plenty now.

Interesting to note that the stumbling block to Adebayor’s loan move to Spurs is his £160,000 a week salary. Spurs want City to carry on paying more than half. That’s the trouble with inflating the market as City have been doing for the last three years. It makes it more expensive to move on the out of favour players because, naturally, they don’t want a pay cut.