Arteta doesn’t need excuses, Arsenal always beat Tottenham at the Emirates

I can’t stand Jose Mourinho, but I can’t be biased. If it had been him who complained this week about us playing at home on the same day, they had an away fixture, I’d accuse him of moaning and making excuses.

That’s what our manager has been doing with Spurs playing at the Lane on Thursday while we were travelling back from Greece on Friday.

Both London clubs were due to be away for their first legs as reward for winning their groups.
Yet UEFA have a rule where they don’t like two clubs from the same city both hosting ties on the same day so ordered Tottenham and Zagreb to reverse their original dates. I’m let down that our manager has gone down the route of arguing that Spurs have an unfair advantage based on who was home or away.

I have often wrote to be a big club you need to act like a big club. We shouldn’t be crying over who has to travel, who played what time, etc.

On his first day at work, Arteta spoke about the standards of the club and how he wouldn’t tolerate anyone who didn’t want to adhere to those expectations. Well at Arsenal the expectation is to compete at the highest level. History shows that requires playing every 3 or 4 days. That’s what your Barcelona’s, Real Madrid’s, Bayern Munich’s, etc do.

Messi and Ronaldo are the best talents in my life time and never needed a schedule of only playing once a week. There are players who have that kind of calendar most months, but you tend to find they are the ones who are not successful.

The sad reality is unless we win the Europa League, fixture congestion won’t be an issue next year because for the first time in two decade we won’t have any European Football to worry about.

I would hope that, instead of a dressing room feeling they have an unfair disadvantage on Sunday, that every single player is demanding they play in the NLD as well as the two Olympiakos games. If instead they prefer rest, then they don’t have the attitude needed to be at a club our size.

This is a group who are on course to better last campaigns worse League position in 25 years. They have been defeated 11 times in the Prem with the likes of Burnley, Wolves and Villa comfortably getting three points at the Emirates.

The bare minimum is that they should want to make it up to gooners by beating our rivals, they should have pride in the shirt and be hurting to see how far we have fallen.

I’m amazed, having been taught by Pep Guardiola, that Arteta would try and wrap talent up in a comfort blanket instead of reminding them they have fallen way short of any expectations.

When Aubameyang extended his contract he said he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ian Wright, Adams, Bergkamp, Henry, etc and leave his own legacy. All of those legends won Domestic Doubles which proves that doing well in multiple competitions does not cost you success.

When the likes of Henry and Vieira were returning from Champions League outings I never once recalled them talking about what Spurs were doing. Back in those days, for the majority of time Spurs didn’t participate in Europe so would have a whole week to prefer for a Derby. I never remembered anyone suggesting Spurs would have an advantage because they had more rest while we were travelling.

Nor did they have any advantage.

You want to know how many Derbies Henry lost? 0
For how many of them would he have had a whole week of preparation?
Arteta has shown weakness by paying Spurs too much respect.

Don’t worry what their week looks like, convince your players that if they do what they are good at they can win.

Remember for all the talk of a shift in power, Spurs have only won at the Emirates in the Prem ONCE, a stadium that’s been opened since 2006. That was under Harry Redknapp’s tenure (2010). So even in the famous Pochettino years they never won at our ground in the Prem.

Yet by referencing such a small detail (we travelled/they didn’t) you are giving them way too much credit. We are Arsenal, we don’t need advantages to beat Spurs.

To be a big club, you think like a big club….

Dan Smith

13 Comments

  1. It’s all pre match hype.
    As the writer says Arsenal rarely lose to the Spurs at the Emirates.
    Spurs have had three soft EPL games and before that were in free fall.
    Arsenal have been playing Thursday-Friday four years now so we are used to it.
    As Jose pointed out prior to the last NLD Spurs played Lask away while Arsenal played Rapid Wien at the Emerates yet that did not disadvantage Spurs who went on to win 2-0.
    So fatigue won’t be a factor .
    I think Gooners 2-1..

  2. But we don’t have the supporters at the Emirates now and Spuds have longer rest time since they didn’t have to travel for EL. So if we can get a draw without any injury and red card, that would be good enough to me

  3. I give up trying to predict which Arsenal will show up, I actually feel sorry for the bookies when it comes to our games 🤣

  4. Dan, Remember in life ALL things change so let;s not count our chickens before they hatch

  5. None of that banter matters now…this will all come down to team selection and who’s willing to show some courage and play some more direct football

  6. With Arteta’s statement, it shows he is not the right guy for the job. How can you inspire confidence in your players when you nag about frivolous issues that never mattered if you really know what you are doing. We may not win because of his defeatist attitude.

  7. We have only beaten Mou in games that don’t matter to him. Community Shield & a league match that got in the way of his Europa League thing.
    Our third ever Derby loss at the Emirates beckons. For Sure.

  8. I want Arteta to succeed because I love Arsenal. That however doesn’t change my belief that he’s not fit for purpose. I would be chuffed if we could get a win but under Arteta it’s very difficult to know which Arsenal will show up. Spurs are in a run of form right now and a win will be good for the morale. That said I am not confident at all we will win this game. When was the last time this happened when the Spuds come to the Arsenal home?

  9. Nelson wzs emulating hid boy dancho i’ half season spell in Germany, brought him for that. Then bring Pepe, and add Willian…Senf him nack to U23!

    They stop his progress, put him o’n pause 18months and now U23.

    He went from new rising star to back on U23. Bellogun sees him as he sees Nketiah, Martinelli all there on pause!

    With Ozil episode, blamed then gone, we been just so lost , stock with no coach and a dumbo’ard!

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors