The Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino certainly had his players ready to fight Arsenal in the North London Derby this weekend and they certainly seemed to want it more than us. They dominated the game and it looked like Arsene Wenger’s team were not prepared to fight or even go forward and try to hurt them until the last five minutes of the game.
The Spurs boss was obviously happy about beating their ‘sworn enemy’ but he says that he doesn’t care where Arsenal are in the table, he just wants to make Tottenham into a side that can challenge for the title and he feels that his side have hit top form. “After United, Liverpool and now Arsenal, this was a very tough period,” he said. “I think we showed great maturity, great character and the performance was so good. For me, it has been one of the best periods since I’ve been at Tottenham. Arsenal is our sworn enemy and I know what it means, the derby, but we don’t care if Arsenal are behind us, or where they are.
“It is more important to build something special at the club with these players. We are winning because we are building something special in the Premier League. We are close but not so close to win the title – but getting closer, no?”
They are certainly a lot closer than Arsenal this season, and they were last season too in fact, but they are a very long way from challenging Man City just yet, and it is still ten years since they won a trophy of any kind, so they can hardly start bragging about being a bigger team than Arsenal just yet.
But Saturday’s result still hurts a lot. A LOT!
Darren N