Roy Keane has claimed that Tottenham as well as other Premier League sides are now ‘ahead of Arsenal’, and former Gunners’ defender Lee Dixon supposedly nodded in agreement.
The North-London club have been in the firing line this week after surrendering the lead against Watford before losing at Vicarage Road on Saturday, and every pundit and fan alike has somehow become an expert on Arsenal.
There have been a number of pundits and fans moving to turn on the manager, and a number of the players, but as we sit tied with champions Chelsea in joint-fifth place after only eight matches, there is still plenty of time to resurrect a title challenge and cement a place in the top four.
Regardless of the early stage in the campaign, pressure is mounting on our club, a regular occurrence after any defeat for us especially, and now it is being claimed by Roy Keane that we have fallen behind our neighbours Spurs.
“I think most teams in the Premier League are ahead of Arsenal,” said the former Manchester United captain . Former Arsenal right-back Lee Dixon then nodded his head in agreement.
Keane continued: “Spurs now are rock solid, a really good team. They went to Real Madrid, they were very brave and showed a lot of courage,” he stated.
“They manager and players deserve great credit because this is a top Tottenham team now. They can be a threat in the Champions League, getting into the knock-out stages and getting to a quarter-final maybe.”
Tottenham were impressive in earning an unlikely draw away to Real Madrid on Tuesday Evening, while we have been banished to the Europa League for the current campaign, but to say that they have overtaken us after finishing above us ONCE is a little bit farfetched no?
Is it biased to think we are still the best team in North London?
Pat J
Objectively speaking, Spurs are ahead of us right now. If we can’t even accept the truth, we’ll never improve.
Who from Arsenal can walk into the Spurs line-up now? Sanchez and Kolasinac are the only 2 that I can think of.
We need to bring Wilshere into the first team, give Giroud more game time in the PL asap
No.
Because they have not
won anything for years.
To be fair Spurs with their new stadium,
top manager and decent 15 players are
probably momentarily on par with us.
ECL will drain them,and they will tire, get injuries and slip off the pace.
They can blame having no home field for any failure to win this season.
Next season will be the test new stadium and all.
To be fair its good to have some comp from the Spuds for a change.
Popularity and achievement wise, not yet. But performance and entertainment wise, in the last several years, Spurs are ahead of Arsenal.
Wenger’s football system looks very obsolete compared to the Spanish and Latin American football styles, that Pochettino, Guardiola and Pellegrini brought to England. The worse thing is Arsenal are losing the opportunities to get new fans, because of their ugly way football.
But 5th place in the table
FA Cup and Community shield winner
trumps Spur’s 2nd place no trophy finish
But we used to say that top 4 is a trophy, or that applies to Arsenal only coz we can’t reach no.1 and stay there??
Spurs are better than us this season, if we played Madrid ??? we would have wished we played Bayern, coz we are used to losing to Bayern and they’d feel sorry for us but not Madrid
You have that the other way around, Arsenal got stick for only managing a CL place. It was a stick to beat us with for near a decade, then it was said a trophy is better because you have to have silverware. Just participating in the CL I thought Gooners were saying they’re sick of it. Spu finish one season above us and one season from twenty we don’t make it and people take it all back.
Wenger usually got bartered for thinking top 4 is trophy and suddenly Spurs are ahead of us because we missed out on top 4 and they are in it even with our fa cup and community shield. Keane statement is all about perspective and in every perspective as far as I’m concern spurs is not ahead of arsenal just as i feel arsenal is not ahead of Liverpool trophy wise. If there is a coefficient for finishing first , second , third and fourth arsenal is way ahead of spurs ever considering our achievements in league and fa cup even in cl. But if he thinks they are ahead of arsenal base on couple of base on their performance on the field seasons ago and not trophies won then they are ahead Manchester united, Manchester city, Chelsea and Liverpool.
Much as I would like to see us continually dominate them as in most recent years, I’ve got to admit that’s a pretty crackerjack squad they have there now.
If I was a neutral I’d be relishing watching matches with any combined duo among Chelsea/Man Utd/Man City especially, and also very keen on those involving Liverpool and Arsenal. In some ways, my escalation of commitment/support for Arsenal has kind of ruined my enjoyment of the Premier League more generally, with rooting for the other top teams to drop points rather than enjoying the artistry of the players.
Fortunately, the quality is so terrific also in the rest of Europe there are still ample opportunities to enjoy watching giants battle it out without going a bit mental about rooting for just one side.
If that Tottenham squad were managed and coached by Wenger, I think they would play ugly like Arsenal. One of the reasons that Kane, Alli and Eriksen thrived is because they are managed and coached by Pochettino.
Pochettino (and the other hungry and young managers) has different mentality than Wenger. His philosophy en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauricio_Pochettino#Managerial_style):
“Where did I get the idea we had to (press)? It’s about your personality, who you are. You show on the pitch who you are. If you are brave in your life, you cannot behave in a different way on the pitch. I don’t understand how to play in a different way. Always, be brave. I like to be brave.”
And his style:
“Pochettino favours a very high-pressing, attacking style of football. He often employs a 4–2–3–1 formation at the clubs he manages. While doing so, he instructs his team to build from the back, intimidate and unsettle opponents with a quick press system and work the ball into the box.
Pochettino’s team selection tends to include quick players with excellent stamina, likely due to those players having the attributes to excel in a high press system. He is also hailed by many pundits for his focus on developing local players from the clubs’ youth academies.”
Exactly, the difference is in fact the managers. We have players, who can easily compete with the Spurs’ players, if they were requried to work as hard, and we would be ahead of Spurs, if our manager could organize the team defensively, especially with modern pressing.
Wenger only gets 80-90% out of the players individually and as a team. Pochettino gets 100%.
Talking about a test.
Lyon did us no favours beating
the Toffeeman who now
got dem blues big time.
Everton are going to come out like the dogs of war on Sunday.
Losing at home to Lyon means Koeman is as good as gone if they lose to us.
After selling top scorer Lukaku the debacle with Barkley
the loss to injury of Seamus Coleman Everton are imploding.
Ideally we beat Everton who then sack their manager
get all their players back and beat all our rivals .
Gonna be some game.
We need our big cahunas on 🙂
Indeed, Everton could be a hell of a battle and a great match, especially in their house when they are not in a great mood. Hoping for a strong and rational team selection and our players fighting all out. If we have prominent cases of coasting or not being fully committed and/or if Arsene makes a twilight zone team selection I’m going to be a little pissed.
It will not a “battle”. We will get slaughtered, you know it..
I’d say it will be a scrap, both teams have accusations thrown at them so I’d expect a tight game. Maybe by one goal either team or else a draw. A draw is no good for either side though, so hopefully Lacazette will try and show Arsene he needs to leave him on for any late chance like Ozil Bellerin and Iwobi got before our capitulation.
…After defeat @ Watford, Arsene FC is not even the 3rd best team in London
yes since last yr we accept spurs has overtake
Watford have overtaken us ???
Yes they are above us in the league and are certainly playing better football than us but until they actually win something will not overtake us as a club. Btw we are not joint 5th, we are 6th, it makes a lot of difference!
Arsenal is still ahead of Spurs. A draw away to Madrid does not mean they are now ahead of us. They could not get out of the group stages last season. Wenger should sort out Sanchez and Ozil. Offer Ozil 300K per week and sell Sanchez in January. Buy Draxler and A very mobile DM(Nzonzi, Carvalho) in January. We should play Lacazette and Giroud together at times. Xhaka and Carvalho in Midfield. Ozil, Draxler, Lacazete, Giroud, Welbeck, Wilshere, Iwobi, Walcott all competing for the front 3. Increasing the tempo of our games and build up play is key. If Ozil rejects a 300K per week wages, he should be sold as well. Football is evolving. You need goals. Your front 3 in a 343 formation should shoot more. Xhaka is a deep lying playmaker. Playing long balls. High tempo, playing closely and not as a disjointed unit. The team is so close and yet so far.just some minor changes and approach. We will get there. No need of saying Wenger out. That won’t happen very soon.
I agree except for Ozil. You made a good point with the front three shooting more and basically having more goals in them. I also think Giroud and Lacazette could strike up a difficult or awkward to nullify combo, not always but it is a tool that Arsene hasn’t tried yet. Ozil is one of the three, his shooting is like a limp d**k. Also unless we get CM players who have it all and are hard as nails, we are vulnerable. Ozil can go to Manu, that tall team suits him better, it’s better for us and it’s better for Ozil. I’d have loved to see Alexis and Eriksen or a player like Eriksen.
Yes I admit that Spurs have overtaken us ?
It had to happen eventually. Can’t live in the past it’s now that matters & I do believe they have a better squad & manager than us! ?
I can’t stand any of them though, especially Alli what a k**b
So*D’s are competing with Real Madrid and we are arguing what?
Let’s accept reality and think of how to reclaim our status.
I still believe that Wenger has to go as part of the rebuilding process.
As per team performance on d pitch spur has overtaken us, but Arsenal is still a bigger club than spur, trophy wise, n as per fanbase n money. But I am sure bigger clubs will soon onsettle spur good players like they did to us. Kane, Dele Ali n others ll soon leave. How they cope matter
Yes. I accept it. Spurs have overtaken Arsenal.
And now we should shut up about it and put this obsession to bed. You don’t see any of these articles on Tottenham fan sites. They don’t care to talk about Arsenal much at all. They talk about the games they’ve just played, the games coming up, their players, their team etc.
Our relevance isn’t defined in relation to how well Spurs are doing, it’s defined as how well we’re doing on the PL and European stage. And we need to be bucking our ideas up!
People just keep saying they have overtaken us and didn’t say how. My first language is not English maybe that is why I’m struggling to see how. But i believe you can overtake someone momentarily but to be ahead you have to out achieved the person .We are taken about a team that has not won anything since league cups in 2008, that only won i think 2 EPL their history. I know they are playing good football now with some of the best inform players in the league but if they are really that good as people make us believe they should having beating that struggling and yet -to – get – their -rhythm Madrid team. Being nearly there doesn’t mean you are there. They are playing good football and arsenal is winning trophies and people think they are ahead. When we are playing good football and not winning trophies we were no good but spurs is good now.
As long spurd not add any single thropy in their cabinet,
They still way below us.
Better performance, yes
But for how long, spurd have same situation like us,
Remenber after invicibe era, our stars 1 by 1 is gone to other club, we dont afford to rise the salaries couse paid for new stadium.
It same situation to spurd, how long they can keep their stars when they havent win a single tropy and pay for their new stadium
There’s no way spurs have overtaken us and a quick look in their trophy cabinet will confirm that but the scum do seem to be progressing quicker than us. In terms of the team I think player for player we are just as good if not better than them but I begrudgingly accept that their manager is far more ‘modern’ compared to Wenger, this isn’t a Wenger out rant but the sooner we all admit that while Wenger has been a brilliant for us he is so outdated tactically and coaching wise. Winning 3 fa cups is brilliant but that doesn’t mean we’re great it just means we’re a cup team, inconsistent and one defeat away from meltdown.
Tottenham are doing loads of things right; Arsenal are doing loads of things wrong. Pochettino is a progressive manager who is tactically aware; Wenger is a dinosaur who thinks tactics are mints. Tottenham have physically strong players all over the pitch; Arsenal rate Koscielny because he’s good on the ball, but petrified of anyone strong. Football moves very quickly; Wenger stands still. Deeney’s comments are what everyone knows, but Wenger is too arrogant to address. He still thinks winning (or playing) beautifully gives you the moral high ground. Tippy tappy football is not even beautiful anymore – Man City are taking that to a new level. If Wenger stays nothing will change. He claims they cannot compete with the financial dopers, but in reality Arsenal are now struggling to compete with a club who have well under half their income. He has allowed Walcott to take the piss for 10 years and earn £150K per week for playing cup games; his top 2 players to run down their contracts; Wilshere to have no kind of fitness program; players show no sign of developing; the Academy has dried up producing good prospects. The fact that he is still manager is a scandal. Two more seasons of this to look forward to.
0 cups is not progressive. You started off with them doing loads of things that are good, but all you say is they have strong players who won nothing, and a progressive manager that never progressed to winning anything. The fact is we had them beaten to a pulp when it came to making CL, we won cups along the way too. They finish one season above us while we win a cup. Can you hear yourselves, you are talking nonce.
The Spuds are above us for now … but we won’t always have Arsene Wenger at the Emirates making it easy for them.
No team has in fact overtaken us. We aren’t even running – we are falling down.
If you think that Giroud should be given more playing time in order to overtake Spurs, then that will be a dream. Giroud has failed to score 20 goals in a season, since coming to Arsenal. The engine of Spurs is Erikssen who can shoot from a distance, that guy has got energy to control the tempo of the game.
In Arsenal we just miss Carzola, the guy with magic feet. I would pair Carzola and Elnerny. then put Wilshere/Welbeck/Sachez behind the striker. Arsenal needs players with energy for counter attacks. These players are Sanchez, Walcott, Welbeck, Lacazette, Carzola, and Iwobi. Dont even mention Ramsey, Giroud, and Ozil