There is a saying that Arsenal fans might want to think about as we try to get over the pain of losing to our north London rivals Tottenham for the first time since goals from Bale and Lennon beat us at White Hart Lane nearly two years ago. The saying goes, ‘show me a good loser and I will show you a loser’.
That previous defeat was a time of real pressure on Arsene Wenger and the players as it left us below the spuds, having been knocked out of both domestic cups by Bradford and Blackburn and having lost at home to Bayern Munich in the Champions League. The Gunners responded to that intense pressure by beating Bayern in Germany in the next game and by winning eight and drawing two of our remaining Premier League games.
We need something similar from the lads this time, although we are still in Europe and the FA cup. Now is the time for them to stand up and be counted. That is why I was pleased to hear how much the derby defeat had hurt our England international forward Danny Welbeck, in an Arsenal.com report.
Welbeck said, “The boys are devastated to lose the game and it’s not nice for us to come here and lose the derby. It’s a massive game for the whole club, the fans and it’s something that we’re really disappointed about.
“We came here with good confidence and we thought that we could get the three points today. We went ahead, started well and then tailed off towards the end.
“As a team, going forward we didn’t do as well as we could have done and they took advantage of that. It was really disappointing and on a personal level it was difficult for me to get back in the swing of things after being out for a few weeks.
“That’s a plus point in football. We’ve got a couple of days turnover and then we’ve got another game in the Premier League, so we’ve got to prepare well for that game.”
It is vital for Arsenal to bounce back and beat Leicester and as long as his Arsenal team mates are as hurt by the Spurs defeat as Welbeck, then we should see amuch better performance and result on Tuesday. If they really feel devastated by defeat, it will make sure they try their hardest to not let it happen again.