Tottenham Hotspur will thank their lucky stars after they stole the three points at home to Arsenal this evening.
The Gunners were the better side for much of the match, but only lead on the scoreboard for around three minutes of play.
We opened the scoring from a sublime powered effort from Alexandre Lacazette inside 20 minutes, but before we could even settle back down into a rhythm we were pegged back.
Heung-Min Son levelled the scoreline minutes later after breaking in behind the defence, and Spurs began to put us under some pressure after that.
The remainder of the half was pretty even, while we had more possession, the defence was very much a Jose Mourinho special, and we were limited to very little inside the box.
On the outside we were the dominant team, but their organisation with the Mourinho bus firmly in its place proved too tough to break.
We started the second-half on the front foot again, with Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang carving out chances, but most of our efforts were coming from range with little space on offer from our rivals.
Tottenham began to make headway inside the final 15 minutes, with Spurs troubling us down our right-flank, and Emiliano Martinez had to save our necks a few times, only to beaten by a corner, their fourth of the match.
Despite bringing on fresh legs, we failed to get any clear-cut chances to try and level the match in the dying minutes, and our hopes of qualifying for Europe now look slim.
Was today the result of a Jose Mourinho masterclass? Or were our players too wasteful with the chances we had?
Patrick
Same old same old…A defensive blunder,Long periods of pointless possession and Concede a late goal…Someone remind what has changed exactly…
A lot has changed, the pressing, the determination, the team spirit, an improved performance from musti, cebalos, Xhaka, bellerin.
Don’t fault the process because of one bad game
its not necessarily knocking the process. Just a lot of things that have not changed that we really want to. Not all of it will come immediately, but it is frustrating nonetheless. Changing an organization with a loser mentality will be a hard job..
Too much passing the ball sideways or backwards that’s how they got the first goal he could have passed the ball to Tierney he was in space but No it has to go to Luiz and as for PEPE he has nearly as many yellow cards as goals sell him he is not EPL material and those upstairs should hold their hands up they bought him against the managers wishes
Oh yes the process must be faulted. I watched Tierney play the ball backwards with Auba waiting / making runs upfront. Frustrating…. Kola was doing the same thing. The left side was devoid of any attack. A manager of Arteta capability should have seen this and made changes to players or tactics. This type of football will win nothing.
This defeat hurts badly………
1. when we topped Spurs weeks ago, we were delighted. Mourinho was not happy about it. Now on derby day, Spurs won and they went back on top of us. so painful. mourinho is the delighted one. derby day isnt about whos on form. any team can win and Spurs wanted it more…
laca with a screamer then typical answer, we threw the lead in matter of mins…. we were so casual when we started. Some players dont understand Derby day. Ye no fans but some dont understand this day and its bragging right. our Defense will always give you chance. Mustafi has improved, now Kola and Luiz are the culprits and rightly so……
One minute we are improving, another moment we are useless…
We didnt start well….we were so casual and didnt lool up to it … then we scored a beauty and i thought we will kick in from here but we just cant hold a lead.
So painful to lose this derby against Mourinho and then he went over us…
let me sip a cup of water. i will be fine……
Mustafi may have improved according to many but he’s still poor and to me irresponsible because he doesn’t accept blame even when he’s at fault
I hope it’s finally obvious to the people in charge which players just don’t cut it.
What’s the point if you know they will make at least two stupid mistakes every game. We’re battling ourselves more then the opponent.
This is who mustafi is. He can have good stats, put in good performances, then have a blunder at any moment and lose the game for us. He’s just lucky that this time they missed. Needs to be let go. Defenders that cannot be relied upon are useless.
This is the perfect window for us to sell him because he’s in some good form according to his standard. I just hope we don’t make the mistake of keeping him. However, I don’t think Sokratis and Luiz are any better tbh
Agree. Those rumors about a contract extension better go after the shambles today. He’s no good. None of our CB’s are. Not a single one. Amazing.
I do rate Mavropanos from his initial showing and I’d still like to see if there’s something about him bevause I read he’s been great on loan and I’ve watch some comps of him in action. We also missed the chance to sell Chambers who might be better than most if our CB’s
Don’t blame LUIZ
Hopefully it dawns on those who haven’t realized that Pepe was never a £72m kind of player. Infact, the PAL forward line is overhyped for the way they play. Auba’s not an effective winger, Laca’s inconsistent and Pepe isn’t great. Saka imo. I also feel our midfield will never reach its full potential with Xhaka in it. His attack and defense are nothing special and his strength is for games where there is space to operate. I would also not sign Ceballos because even though he’s good we need a more adventurous CM to partner the DM imo. AMN to me could’ve been a very good CM if only we spent time to develop him. He would’ve provided some physicality and darting runs from midfield. That is why we need to sign Partey. Our defense was poor as usual. Harry Kane and Son just cruised through anytime they wanted to. I’m still longing to see the back of most of our CB’s. Poor showing today and Spurs looked there for the taking.
If a club wants to buy Pepe for 80 M, Arsenal have to sell him. I wonder who scouted and decided to buy that slacker
His first touches, passes and work rate were awful. He is also so one-footed and doesn’t seem clever
8 -goals
8-assists
His 1st season
or would you prefer we bought back the Nigerian pirlo from Everton .
Strange how some fans only comment when we lose a game .
He only made five goals and six assists from 27 EPL appearances. A 72 M attacker should have produced more, or at least be useful in retrieving the ball
Pepe scored 2 free kicks in one game. How are Hazard and Greizeman fairing at Madrid and Barcelona?
The coach should utilize Pepe effectively. He is very composed on the ball. Pepe is not the problem. Buying more ball playing players like Isco, Asensio, Nabir Fekil is what we should be doing. Also. Thomas Partey. We need big investment in the creative side of midfield. Imagine if we have a Mahrez on one side of the flank, and a Sterling on the other side. The present squad is flawed. Of what use are four strikers without quality wingers and attacking midfielders?
We should go to Madrid and get one of Asensio or Isco. Bid 35m pounds for Nabir Fekir. Get in Thomas Partey.
That is what we need.
Kev, Pepe overall performance so far, isn’t bad, don’t judge on his price tag,
@Dan Kit the Nigerian pirlo lol 😀😂
Dan and 4 yellow cards to his name
did u even watch the game without pepe (the last 23+ minutes)
he has nothing to do with whatever arsenal wants to pay ($72m went to Lille, NOT him!)
he’s still the best player we have
he’s lazy on defense but that’s not his job, i never see messi or ronaldo defend
Stop it! Saka has been better than Pepe this season and I’m not even joking. He’s not great and I’m considering what he offers in attack not defense. The excuses we make for some of our players is just pathetic. Why can’t we just demand a high level of performance from those to which it is due??
stats this season
saka 1610 mins 1 goal 5 assist 6.69 ratings
pepe 1823 mins 5 goals 6 assists 7.10 ratings
i’m not joking too, pepe > saka
Pepe has not been better than Saka and those stats can’t convince me. It only takes eyes to watch them to know who’s been better. Even so Bukay Saka is way younger but has been more consistent. The stats can’t tell you everything
Let’s not put Messi and Ronaldo in the same sentences as our players. What is Pepe doing exactly? Drawing the occassional foul? Hazard drew fouls too. Also was the creative nucleus of the team, scored and assisted on a consistent basis. Best player we have? That’s just a joke, right? Pepe’s price tag is the only reason he’s relevant in EPL.
Now you compare Messi and ronaldo with pepe.
Pepe is like ozil, he can do something from nothing, but both needs temperature, hearth….pepe plays like he doesn’t care (in fact, i wonder ir he does)
Arteta playa 3 at the back to be More solid but they dissapointed because of their lack of nerve and concentration..mustafi second half was his old clown, makes everything easy to kane.
We sacrifice offensive power to go 3 at the back but even that’s not enought
sekman I think you need your eyes testing he is utter rubbish
We are in the 88th minute, 2-1 down and all the team is doing is sideways passing. What’s the use of all this possession?
Pepe needs to do much much more. He shows flashes of why we bought him but it’s just not enough.
This season should just end. 10th,11th,12th it really doesn’t matter anymore
Our attackers didn’t get much passes from everyone that plays behind them. It is surprising to see that after Spurs scored their second goal we tend to improve on our pass forward. We need to know who’s is responsible for those sideways and backwards passing.
Mou the guy every gunner hates, yet he’s able to back his words with actions. He’ll be able to have a dig at us for years to come, knowing we always f up against one of his teams. Even ten statues fielded by Mou can beat us.
Pretty spot on…
Mourinho will always get better of us…
And why we complain about his parking of bus??? He has that ability to organise Defense and exactly the same thing we don’t have and that’s why we are loosing….
No wonder why Luiz was much better defender under Mourinho and Conte era because they both are better organiser of defence..
The whole team just needed to travel to the other side of London, but they were so lacklustre like zombies:
– Lacazette: Great shot and commendable work rate throughout the game
– Aubameyang: Unlucky. He didn’t work as hard as before, probably because he was tired
– Pepe: This slacker/ passenger gave the ball away many times because of his atrocious first touches, passes and low work rate. His mind was definitely at home
– Ceballos: The best CM in the game, unfortunately his teammates were so sluggish
– Xhaka: Worked hard, but nothing special as usual
– Bellerin: Played well, but had to defend alone without Pepe’s help
– Tierney: His long crosses from the byline were useless, because there was nobody who could receive them
– Kolasinac: One awful pass to Luiz, but played okay afterwards
– Luiz: Slept in the first twenty minutes. He’s got his contract FFS, but he still daydreamed in the game
– Mustafi: Aside from one clownish fall against Kane, he defended very well and very steady
– Martinez: Fantastic saves. If Leno were the GK, we might concede more goals
You need to stop giving ratings mate.Second half Mustafi was atrocious.
I believe Arteta and Arsenal think highly of him, hence I heard about new contract for him
PAL trio is overhyped. It’s all fantasizing that when they play together we’d be great. It can even be debated that Saka has outperformed all of them this season. The defense and midfield were very poor. I just hope if Martinez keeps up his performances and Leno comes back he’s not benched to accommodate Leno
Agree on PAL, kev. We just had two central midfielders, who were outnumbered by Tottenham’s
Kolasinac: One awful pass to Luiz, but played okay afterwards, what game were you watching because he was the worst player on the pitch. Always going backwards absolute crap and we need to dump at least 5 players who started the game
He played as CB, so he had to pass backwards. He played as attacking LWB before and he was more adventurous
Ridiculous comment
I am not aware of a football rule where cb has to pass the ball backwards
Not only was his backpass the wrong decision it was also inaccurate
K. Tierney and kolasinac were the poorest today.
They offered nothing going forward.
70% of the balls given to Tierney went no where but backwards..
Pepe was equally as bad.
We all know that mustafi does not cut it and luiz is way past his best.
I actually blamed Arteta for today’s loss..
I personally would have brought in saka for kolasinac and ask Tierney to drop back for saka to play upfront..
Nothing was practically happening with Tierney and kolasinac today..
Why can’t we just go forward and PRESS them instead of backtracking giving them space all the time Xhaka the hell is he doing
Tierney put in several crosses. You may need to rewatch. We very often only have one man in the box tho.
Totally agree
Kolasinac is just not good enough for this club needs to be sold this summer.
The same can be said of Luiz and Mustafi
Pepe is grossly overrated and and considering what he cost he provides little
Arsenal is doomed to mid table status with the current crop of players
It is depressing to see the steady decline of this once great club.
Sorry gotanidea but Auba was probably tired We work at least 8 hours a day not just pop in for a bit of training and then have the rest of the day off he should take them on a 10 mile run then see if they tire if they do do it again and again the penny will soon drop
Third worst PL season here we come. Could even be first worst if we don’t surpass the 51 and 56 points of those campaigns
One word.. PATHETIC! Beaten with a p*ss poor spurs team and a has been Mourinho! He could pick a team off the streets to beat Arsenal 🤦♂️
Since the restart ..Spuds have managed only 11 shots on target in 5 gamesm.Today they amassed 9shots on goal…With (wait for it)37% possession..
They’ve only scored 2 goals against West ham..They registered no shot on target against BOURNEMOUTH..But today they not only managed to get 9 shots on target…thay score 2 goals against us…..Could this season just come to an end already!.. Enough of the rollercoaster
Summary….
Laca,ceballos were good,the others were not good enough specially kolasinac and aubameyang.
COYG
Most of them seemed to party hard last night. Almost all Gunner fell asleep in the first twenty minutes, especially the CBs
We don’t deserve better, a midtable team bitten down in defence, Luiz as our top CB and an assistant coach.
Some did not agree, we are a midtable team in less than 2 years time!
Luiz extended shows were we be next year, midtable!
Mid table? If we’re lucky…
No Kane goal or Oliver penalty… but that’s alright, they still got over the line… this is beyond embarrassing…
Sue I feel your pain about the back pass. I was going mental myself with each one of them. We lost because of it and I’m not referring to the one from Kola to Son the ones by our midfielders with Bellerin and Auba. I lost a count on how many times Pepe was waiting for a return pass from Bellerin that didn’t come. If Auba doesn’t score goal I don’t know what he does on the field. We threw away another game we should have won because we don’t want to loss.
There was far too many back passes today, Mobella, more so than usual..
They didn’t look like winning… or even scoring!!
I felt for Laca, his goal was worthy of winning any game…. but as this is Arsenal, you just wait for the brain fart – that is our only consistency!
Lord only knows who will be picked to play on Wednesday, so many poor performances today… best of luck with that!!
Just when you think we’re turning a corner, boom!! We’re as far back (as one of our passes 😆) We might calm down, say in a year’s time haha!!
Exactly, I have also noticed that Bellerin was running like a headless chicken. I can’t count how many times Pepe asked for the killer passes only for Bellerin to run inside and finally make backward passes. Cedric should have started the game. He is way better than Bellerin
👍 Or AMN.
And people still hates Mourinho….
Just like Arteta he has also taken over from Pochettino when Spurs were pretty bad…
And we say Arteta needs time so Too Mourinho…
It has been a disappointing season so far. We take a step forward and two steps backward.
Sell Ozil, Elneny, Mustafi, Mavropanus, AMN, Guendouzi, Aubameyang, Kolasinac, Mhykitaryan and Socratis
10 players out.
In: Thomas Partey, Lewis Dunk, Asensio/Isco, Nabil Fekir.
4 players in.
Make Ceballos loan move permanent.
We need to trim down the squad.
That is what we need.
well they did not steal a win, we gifted them a win on a platter.The likes of Xhaka, Kolasinac, Luiz, Bellerin, Mustafi will never win you titles, average to good players, never title winning players. We always knew that Jose parks the bus, so we should have done so after the first goal. Mikel is a novice and will take ages to prove his worth, till then enjoy a victory here and there and hover around mid to lower end of the table.
Oh and sod tuning in on Wednesday night, for a complete annihilation… then to top it off, dumped out of the cup on Saturday. The end….
The week from hell…..
Don’t let that team ruin your week Sue, they have no passion or commitment and don’t play for the fans, they only play for the money they could not care less they’ll be clowning around again in training tomorrow.. absolute bottle jobs all of them. I’d keep Tierney, Martinez, Saka, Leno, Ceballos and Martinelli and I’d sell everyone else including Aubameyang.
Sod it, Kev… I don’t fancy being blinded by Klopp/Firmino’s teeth…those pearly whites will be on show all bleedin’ night – no thanks, not for me!
Oh that Liverpool game means absolutely nothing Sue this season is already done! We will get hammered by Man City next week 3-0 and that will be that 🙏 if Mourinho played arsenal every week he would win the league at a canter 🤦♂️
I most say i am still all for Arteta but I must ask is
4231 with ozil before the break or
343 after the break with the shirt seller banished a better system of play
The bs about getting the best out of substandard players will produce nothing more than a mid table team … until the likes of xhaka kolasinac mustafi Luiz Bellerin etc are on the bench or preferably out the door I can’t see sustained improvement .. a run here a slump there … ceballos will probably not stick around with kind of support he gets and aube may go now with no European prospect … arteta needs to think harder
It’s a painful loss, especially the one that gave spurs chance to leapfrog us on the EPL table, however, it’s not the end of the world, the season already lost long ago, and it could not get worse than this, hopefully we don’t finish 2nd half of the table
Nowadays Attacking football is not the answer if you don’t have funds to buy players..
It’s defensive football is the answer…
Look at Wolves and Sheffield United…
They don’t hefty spending spree but still they are ahead of us, why??? Their side a are so much drilled defensively that it’s pretty hard to breakdown…
And unless and until you are not conceding a goal, you are not loosing match…
Even though we beat Wolves, we are still below them…
Attacking football can’t make you winners unless you have 200 Millions as spending cash which you can spend on players like Salah, De Bruyne…. if you have players like City or Liverpool then you can say okay, you score 2 we will score 4…
Over the Wenger’s era our mentality was same like this that you score 2, we will score 4 but that time we had those kind of Players….
Fabregas, Nasri, Cazorla, RVP, before that we Henry, Pires, Freddie, Arshavin who used to unlock defence pretty easily….
The only fault which we that time was we Wenger was unable to install winning mentality…. And players which he bought are still living with his mentality…
Kolasinac, Mustafi, Xhaka, Bellerin.
We need new set of faces who can absorb new winning mentality which Arteta trying bring…
A strong defense has always been the basis of a strong winning team.
We have an assistant coach extending Luiz hairs for a year. What else can we expect?
Ridiculous!
Broke in behind defense? Luiz gifted it. Spurs had the best chances despite your red tinted glasses. Wenger-ball continues. Say goodbye Auba. At least you’ve got Ozil and the usual array of brilliant young potential *yawn*
We have a bunch of high maintenance Queens and an assistant coach pampering them
We got exactly what we deserved. Very laboured, performance. Asleep in the beginning of this game. Zero urgency in 2nd half even after they went ahead. Can’t play like that. These players just dont get it. Their hearts aren’t in it and it’s as clear as day.
And though David Luiz wasn’t at fault for the first goal, he looks slow and uninterested today. Why in the world did he get a year extension. Get rid. You want to know why the Luiz/Pablo Mari signings frustrated us so much? Because we all know they are bang average players at best. We dont even need to see Mari play to know he’s average do we? Our CB scouting and decision making is that bad….
David Luiz signing in the first place didn’t make sense. I still wish we kept Kryatian Bileik because he seemed like a proper defensive talent compared to all those who have failed at academy level. If many bere say Koscielny was a poor defender then I don’t know how I would even rate Luiz
👍
Because ATRETA wanted him to stay that’s WHY
As much as i support arteta, i do not like the early signs of his transfer business. Bad bad decision to keep this player, and sign Mari. One is already deadwood, the next is future deadwood.
Next year is going to be worst of course, everyone else reinforcing.. We extend Luiz hairs
Well Look at the moaning returning.. We all know our defense is shite but with what we’ve been able to achieve with them so far we should just be glad the season is ending.
Kolasinac putting in a masterclass to gift them a goal immediately.
Overall, I don’t balme a single person, the whole team played dreadfully today.
Ceballos and Partey next season won’t solve it, we need to sign a creative midfielder.
So far I’m glad bout our position, y’all know I’ve never been quiet about the fact that I don’t want us playing Europa league next season.
I hope it ends this way, yes we’ll lose money, but let’s focus on balancing and restructuring the team.
COYG, Trust the process, Trust Arteta
Eddie, I am a moaner, but a consistent one 😂. Definitely still trust Arteta as well. We really are just no good and atrocious recruitment is backfiring big time. A long term mess that can hopefully be sorted out.
Lol… You and I know our recruitment level has been poor.
Finishing this season outside top seven would make us focus more on the problems we’ve been facing.
Let’s forget the fact that we need the money, what we need is balancing the team.
We will do that when we focus on just the league games
The next 2 games will be very embarrassing 1-4 liverpool and 0-5 man city if we are lucky
👍👍
Toxic, toxic gunners,
Toxic, toxic Gooners if this thread is any indication. Arteta has this team going in the right direction but it will take time. I dread to think of what this board will be like in a week’s time if we lose to two of the best teams in Europe.
The kids tried their best, but luck was not in their side. I think Mustafi and Luiz should be our bench, but no money for new CB,
Today’s game showed that we need new AM and new DM
Today? Lol. Guess u have not landed yet
Not toxic, under severe reality check!
#thfc have now gone unbeaten in six consecutive home league games (W4, D2) against
@Arsenal
for the first time since January 1968. [BBC] 😳
Hehe! We are getting new statistics courtesy of a Kolasinac brain-fart! Oh well, he had not been so bad till now so I won’t go so hard on him. I just hope Mustafi does not default back to factory settings. Another whooping from Liverpool and City and am not sure guys will still be behind MA.
Kolasinac is not a better playrr than AMN or Cedric Soares; why does Arteta select him? Can anyone explain to me, please?
pepe lovers this 8 goals 8 assists rubbish,real footie fans know hes a dud lasy god 4 nothing poney soldier..kola do again and again yet guen showed some heart and hes finnished ..
As I said on another site.
Going to use a quote that I read, “we are a team of poverty!
AFC needs investment at the back and in the center this summer or it is going to be a very long decade of mediocrity.
It’s not the amount of money spent, it is poor scouting, recruitment, contract and financial management. Why can other clubs find good players at reasonable prices and Arsenal can’t?
Lol, the prophets of doom are out full force. I’m outta here!!!
Kolašinac’s brain fart has cost us the bloody game. There’s always got to be that one idiot in our defense in big games, ffs. So now our EL hopes are done for and we most probably won’t even have the effin pleasure of celebrating the St Totteringham’s day. The one thing that would make this season great again and they couldn’t do it. Shameful.
This team must be tottenhams all time favourite selection if asked
Out: Guendouzi, Elneny, Mustafi, Ozil, Kolasinac, Mkytaryan, Aubameyang, Socratis,
In: Partey, Dunk, Asensio/Isco, Nabil Fekir
If only wishes were horses
So much negativity from so called Gooners. Yes we should have won, yes we lost to the scum, yes a typical defensive error but we will finish above them and this little blip will be forgotten. Forget Mourinho, the spuds hate him more than we do .
Not sure we’ll finish above Spurs this year Declan but agree with your sentiments. Give me Arteta ball over Jose ball any day of the week.
Unfortunately we don’t have any ball carriers in midfield which I feel could help the team a lot. Our midfielders barely run at the opposition or beat opposition players. A pure number 10 would help Arsenal creatively. Our back three looks vulnerable every game, maybe a shift back to a traditional 4-2-3-1 could help. It has proven to have given us a lot of balance.
👍
Well at least Harry Kane didn’t score.
😅
In Arteta I Trust