A draw would have been a good result for Arsenal as well, but if either of the top two teams was to win I think that the best thing from an Arsenal point of view was a win for Tottenham, even if we really do not like our north London rivals, and it appears that Arsene Wenger feels the same way.
The 2-0 win for Spurs at White Hart Lane does mean that they stay in second while a draw would have seen us leaprog them, but with the Pep Guardiola revolution taking instant effect at the Etihad I think it was important for something to knock them off their stride sooner rather than later.
The Gunners are now withing touching distance of Man City and just one result could see us overtake them at the top, which is why Wenger and his comments on the Arsenal website sounded thankful to our local rivals for giving Arsenal the chance to close that gap to the leaders and why he feels the late goal against Burnley was so vital.
The Frenchman said, “It’s a big win because City lost today. We were five points behind them and when you are five points behind a top quality team, when you have an opportunity to get a bit closer you cannot miss it. And that would’ve been the negative aspect of our game today had we not won.”
The other big plus point from the spuds beating City is that it ends the chances of Guardiola matching Wenger’s feat of going unbeaten through a whole league season. Tottenham remain unbeaten so far but we don’t really think that will last do we?
So was this a massive weekend that will play a big part in the destination of the EPL trophy next May?
Bob.