Right then, that’s us. Thanks all for your company and comments, sorry I didn’t get to use them all. Ta-ra!
Mourinho says it “a big game in every sense” and here we go. “I want to give big congratulations to Mikel, because he gave us a very difficult game”! Yes, he’s back. Ouch! He goes on to say that Arsenal have a good “tactical culture” and good players; they’re a good team and Arteta is a good manager.
He praises two brilliant goals, and they read the game and made the changes to win it, dropping into a low block, and praises Arsenal for forcing them to, but also makes clear that he didn’t want to take any risks given a 2-0 advantage.
When it’s put to him that Kane and Son are world-class players, he adds “Working like animals, all the respect for animals, I love animals, don’t get me wrong.” Yeah, he back. He reckons the run of games, City, Chelsea, Spurs, might’ve been an excuse for his team to drop, but they’ve taken seven points from nine and are top of the leagiue.
Here’s our match report!
Spurs are 11 points ahead of Arsenal after 11 games. Goodness me.
In fairness, some of these were good – it’s not Moyes’ Man United v Fulham territory.
Arsenal attempted 44 crosses against Spurs, the most by any team in a single Premier League game so far this season.
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) December 6, 2020
Nothing to show for it. 🙃 pic.twitter.com/HKqeBqJSoY
Man United fans slate David Moyes on Twitter after shock 2-2 draw with bottom of table Fulham http://t.co/eOsdNb9Jco pic.twitter.com/q8L8eqc05d
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) February 9, 2014
If I was a Spurs fan looking to be concerned, I’d be slightly concerned that in order to win today, they needed two incredible finishes, the quality of which you won’t see every week. But otherwise, it’s easy to see how and why the method will work: they’re brilliant on the counter, and have players to kill you if you invite them on. They have options.
Elsewhere, the Sakhir Grand Prix is nearing its end...
“Not a great watch,” says Graeme Souness of Spurs. I wonder if, now they’re settling, we’ll see them play a little more expansively in the easier games, because though Souness says Mourinho’s always that way, it’s not really true. His first Chelsea team did it both ways.
Spurs have Palace next, then Liverpool. If they win both, we’ll know they’re title contenders.
“Exactly what we set out for,” says Harry Kane. He thinks Spurs played well in the first half and ground it out in the second, and he’s pleased to be the leading scorer in Spurs-Arsenal derbies – “Yeah, no, it’s niiice.” He reckons he and Son are nearing their peaks in understanding the game and goes on to explain that the team are extremely together – “It’s one of them” – and says Arsenal played well in the second half, but didn’t create many clear-cut chances.
“I’ve never known anyone agree with me Keane was the best Premier League player,” says PB. “Ferdinand though ... nooooo way. He had a mistake in him til the end. And that year off....”
Keane won Keane won seven titles in nine seasons, and in one of the ones he didn’t, he did his cruciate in September. I’m not sure what to say about Ferdinand – he was extremely consistent, and for years.
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“I’m a bit late for the party,” confesses Alexandre Chesneau, “but I wanted to react on the debate about the best players. It always amazed me how football has this kind of disdain for its predecessors. Past scientists not knowing a thing about basic stuff like relativity, or past generals having no clue about how to use planes or tanks efficiently, is not a factor when speaking about them because we know they simply couldn’t know about that and can’t be judged with these factors.
Yet with football, I often see arguments like ‘take 1960s Pelé and play him today, he wouldn’t hold a candle to modern day players because of tactical and physical considerations’ (and that’s not mentioning even older geniuses than Pelé who aren’t well known because of lack of media attention in their time). It’s nonsensical, isn’t it? It’s like having your descendant from 2200 appear in front of you and says you’re stupid because you don’t know how to time travel. How would you react ?
So yeah we just have to admit that comparing players across eras is just going to be flawed. Nobody knows just how good Sindelar would be had he been born in this time, just like we don’t know how Messi would be seen today had he been born in 1960.”
I agree with all of this but the last line: Messi would’ve been brilliant in the 60s. Otherwise, though, the best players in any era would be among the best players in any era, and I’ve found that in every era, there are some players who look like they’re playing in the future. Duncan Edwards, Pele, George Best and Ronaldo Nazario stand out in that aspect.
Of course, Spurs will only stay top if Liverpool fail to beat Wolves by 10 goals. Join Rob Smyth to see how they go, NOW.
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That’s one win in seven for Arsenal, who are 15th. Dearie me.
Full-time: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Arsenal
There you go. Spurs are top of the league!
90+2 min “I think Jose is beginning to like this team,” says Gary Nev, and that’s a fair point. In his last job, it seemed like he was personally offended and disgusted by the players he had – the ones left him and the ones he bought – and that’s not so now.
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90+1 min Rodon replaces Bergwijn. Spurs now have a back six.
90 min There’ll be three added minutes.
90 min “One of the intrigues of latter-period Wenger,” says Christopher Faherty, “is that there were little sparks here and there that he recognised a need for change in the mentality of the dressing room with various transfer targets (Suarez in 2013, Vardy four years later) without ever carrying it through. Letting the memory of summer 2011 (‘You cannot say you are a big club if you sell Fabregas and Nasri’ – sells Fabregas and Nasri) ghost him into giving Ozil that big contract because Sanchez left was unforgivable though.”
I agree on the mentality point, but he seemed to buy a lot of touch players - Hleb, Rosicky, various others - and very few who could go on the outside. So if a team sat back against Arsenal, they could only go side to side.
88 min Son departs, with Moura arriving. Bale remains sitting at the side.
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88 min Tierney swings the ball in and Nketiah touches it back, but Ceballos can only drive wide.
86 min You’ve got to be impressed at the buy-in Mourinho has got from his players – they’re following his instructions to a tee, and it’s working. My guess is he got Kane on-side and everything else followed.
84 min Decent ball from Lacazette, which Aubameyang takes in stride, attacking Alderweireld. I’m sure he wants to shape outside and pop inside, but mindful that the defender knows that, he drives onto the his left foot and drills a shot which is blocked at source with a fine slide-tackle.
82 min For all their pressure, Arsenal have only created one proper chance – that Lacazette header. But here comes Gabriel, driving forward to find Willian, and his cross is a decent one ... but Reguilon does just about enough, forcing Saka to jump over the back of him which stops his man from making a decent contact.
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81 min Son curls in the free-kick and both Dier and Kane are well-placed to score; Kane heads wide, but both went early in any case.
80 min Reguilon, now a wing-back, skates forward, so Lacazette yanks him down. He’s booked.
78 min The thing about Arteta is that when you appoint an inexperienced manager, you have to expect it to take time to learn. It worked for Dalglish when he got the Liverpool job because he took over a fully-formed team, and it worked for Guardiola at Barca because he had the greatest midfield ever and maybe the greatest player ever. But management is absolutely nails – Alex Ferguson got fired from St Mirren, his second job.
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76 min Arteta sends Nketiah on for Bellerin. I’m a little surprised at that, as Bellerin has been a decent outlet.
75 min Xhaka goes in the back of Son on a matter of principle. Well, I think that’s the reason because there was no other compelling case, and he’s booked - for his third tackle worthy of such.
73 min “Yes, no question,” says Brendan Murphy responding to the same question. Two reasons: 1) Spurs won’t suffer the injuries that 70% possession teams will have to bear; 2) Mourinho. This season is set up for a counter-attacking team. He’s the best in the business at this kind of sneaky, morally dubious playing style.”
No style is morally dubious, I don’t think, but an injury to Son or Kane – who do their fair share of dynamic sprinting – will change everything.
72 min Yup, Davies replaces Lo Celso. Good luck finding space in amongst that.
71 min “Playing like what?” asks Mike. “I presume you mean lower-possession, counter-attacking, semi-bus parking? I might agree with you, except, if we go by what they’ve shown thus far (not a huge sample size, but reasonable), why not? They’ve beaten different teams with different proclivities. Notably City, also United, Southampton, Brighton, who play more attacking...but also your Burnleys, West Broms, etc.”
It’s not about whether the system works now, and who against – players are fit, things are going well – but whether it will work over the course of 38 games. Leicester are the only team to win a title playing like that, and they were the only good team in the league that season.
69 min Mourinho is seeing it too. Ben Davies is getting ready - he’ll either replace Reguilon, or come on for an attacker to make a third centre-back. I think we can guess which it’ll be.
68 min Arsenal have kept at it and again they try to go around the sides, Bellerin clipping a cross for Lacazette on which he gets a decent head ... but Lloris is able to scramble it around the post. The corner comes to nowt, but we’re seeing how you take it to Spurs – either outside the full-backs, or in the space between full-backs and centre-backs.
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65 min “Good afternoon Mr Harris,” says Chris Ross. “You could have walked it in about an hour.”
That’s true, but it was caning it down with rain, my phone was dead so though I think I know the way it would’ve been a bold step, and once I got on the first bus I ended up not an hour away.
63 min “I had hoped for Xhaka once,” says Zach Neeley, “but, from many choices, for me his constant inclusion is the most damning sign of how bad we are.”
Yes, I can see that. He’s not dreadful, and the reason he keeps getting picked isn’t because managers think he’s brilliant, it’s that the alternatives are worse. But I do wonder if Partey and Ceballos will be the two who start most games, along with a more attacking player.
63 min Arsenal try and go around Spurs, which Hojbjerg and Sissoko force you to do. Again, Tierney slings over a decent cross, but there’s no one in the box to attack it.
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61 min I guess the other thing is you look at a game like this one, and Spurs have barely mustered an attack save the goals, both of which required unbelievable finishes. You don’t get those that often.
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59 min Do we think it’s possible for Spurs to win the league playing like this? My inclination is not – there are games against teams who’ll sit back – but they have plenty of guile and loads of different options too. Assuming a fair run with injuries, it’ll be the defence that costs them – if anything. If I was Mourinho, I’d already be pestering for a right-back when the window opens.
57 min “With the advent of The OvergroundTM, surely this is the Under-Over grudge match,” emails Dvid Hunter. “No direct route, naturally.”
Trudat. It once took me three hours to get home from a game at White Hart Lane to Stroud Green, where I lived. My phone was dead so my wife was intrigued to know whether or not I was still alive.
56 min Ceballos has made a difference to the game; I wonder if, when Partey is back, those will be Arteta’s two to start. But Arsenal need a goal because the flow won’t be like this for the next 35 minutes.
55 min “Every time United and Arsenal play, one sees the familiar lament about fallen giants and so on,” says Digvijay Yadav. “The result at OT notwithstanding, the talent at United’s disposal is significantly superior to the one present at Arsenal. It’s never as bad as it seems etc etc. but Arsenal seem light years behind the rest of the top teams. If they don’t qualify for it this year, then next year will be their fifth consecutive outside the CL.”
Yup, that’s Arsenal’s level now and it’s hard to see it changing in the short-term because they don’t have the money to chuck at it and because their young players, though good, aren’t necessarily world-beaters.
53 min “Interested to know who your top keeper would be,” returns Richard Hirst. “Given the difficulty of comparing across eras because of fitness, kit, pitches etc, I think you’d struggle to find someone better than Yashin, era-adjusted.”
I don’t know how we adjust by the era, but the best I’ve seen is Schmeichel, who looked like he was keeping in the future. I’d also allow Buffon.
50 min Arsenal have started the half well and make good ground, this time down the right. But Bellerin’s low cross eludes is too good for Lacazette, who doesn’t slide for it, and Spurs counter; my Sky cuts out so I don’t see what happens next, but they don’t score and Mourinho is laughing, so presumably there’s someone suffering something somewhere.
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49 min Better from Arsenal, Tierney swinging over a terrific cross from way out on the left that picks out Aubameyang in the middle! It’s a free header too, he leaps well ... and can’t get over it so the ball goes over. That’s a bad miss – a terrible miss in the context.
48 min Gary Nev is also struggling to find a way for Arsenal, saying that the dynamic here reminds him of losing to Rafael Bennitez’s sides: you dominate possession, think you’re better than them, and then lose the game because they defend deep and break well.
47 min Arsenal win a free-kick down the right which Saka curls in, fast and flat ... and Lacazette gets the flick, but Lloris is down sharply to save.
47 min Ah, Arsenal have made a half-time change: Partey, who stepped off the pitch hurt – that doesn’t sound right, does it? – when Spurs were in the process of breaking to score the second, has been replaced by Ceballos.
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46 min I really don’t know what Arsenal do here. They’ll be petrified of committing to attack, but how are they going to score without serious numbers inside the box?
46 min Off we go again.
“I’m probably not the first and hopefully won’t be the last to credit Jose with adding a little extra to Harry’s game,” emails Shane O’Leary.
They’ve done a lot for each other – to me, Kane’s done a lot to restore Mourinho’s Missing Mojo, which should be the third song on Abbey Road.
“We may have no chance of top four,” says Louis Allen, “but I’d be more than happy with 10th and another FA Cup final. Let Spurs have their third place. As Arsenal fans were constantly reminded 2005-14, trophies are everything and we’ve had two victories over Chelsea in recent years I wouldn’t swap for much.”
Yes, that’s fair. I wouldn’t say trophies are everything, but they absolutely contribute the memories and moments that stay with us. The thing is, qualifying for the Champions League gives a club revenue that allows it to build towards more of those moments.
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Half-time emails: “All your best players are either attackers or attacking midfielders, no defenders or keepers,” says Richard Hirst. “Is that because our defenders and keepers are mediocre or because of inherent bias towards attack? The same issue arises in the debate about whether Pele, Cruyff, Maradona or Messi is the GOAT. What about Yashin, Zoff, Beckenbauer, Moore?”
I don’t think Yashin, Zoff and Moore were anywhere near as good as the best ever in their positions, and I also son’t think the current standard of keeper and defender is that high. But I agree we do underrate players who play there – when discussing the best of the Premier League era, for example, once you’ve done the top four – for my money, Keane, Ronaldo, Cantona and Henry because they decided who won most pots – I’d be looking at players who were legitimately the best at what they did, so would move on to Cole, Ferdinand, Schmeichel and Terry (if I didn’t object to including him on such lists, which I do).
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Spurs haven’t had to play all that well to get to this point, but they’ve playing more than well enough for Arsenal, who have so little going forward and not a whole lot at the back.
Half-time: Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Arsenal
This is over, isn’t it?
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Arsenal (Kane 45+1)
Hit the rewind. Lacazette sends a lovely ball in between left-back and centre-back that feeds Bellerin, but his cross is behind Aubameyang and Spurs break. One pass from Aurier sets it all away and Lo Celso carries the ball through centrefield – it’s four v two! – before finding Son, nashing down the inside-left channel. He waits for Kane to chug along his outside, lays into his stride, and WHAT A FINISH! A rising, whooshing howling bullet cleanses high past Leno, in off the bar at the near post. Decent player, I reckon.
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45 min Willian hits the first man. Of course he does.
44 min Lacazette goes over the near side of the wall but it’s got a lot of tall men in it and Kane heads behind for a corner. It yields another...
43 min Arsenal win a free-kick 20 yards out, right of centre. Lacazette fancies it, for reasons known best to himself.
41 min Willian skips away from Lo Celso, who hacks him down. He’s booked and that’s fair enough, but I’m not sure how, in that context, Xhaka escaped the same sanction, twice.
40 min But they’re having a better period now, and when Aubameyang goes down the left and crosses, a bouncing ball causes problems and Willian looks to tame it with Reguilon mithering from behind. He does just enough to prevent his man from turning to shoot.
38 min Arsenal have no idea how to attack.
36 min “In Arteta, Arsenal thought they were acquiring early-period Pep,” tweets Gary Naylor, “but they appear to have late period Arsene.”
I’m not sure about that yet. It’s true that Arteta wasn’t qualified for the job in terms of stuff he’d done, but perhaps his plans for what he’d do were impressive. Either way, he’s only had the gig a year and was left a lot of work and not a lot of money, so we don’t yet know if he’s good or not. I doubt he’s forgotten that football teams need power and pace as well as guile and skill, which I always thought was Wenger’s problem from about 2006 onwards.
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36 min The corner comes to nowt.
34 min Gary Nev and Jamie Redknapp observe that Spurs’ coaching staff “are like the mafia”, up and about complaining and challenging everything. Meanwhile, Lo Celso nicks the ball off Partey and dashes down the side of Holding, looking to find Kane inside the box, but Holding does really well to see him off at cost of a corner.
33 min “Amazed and jealous you heard from Shooby Taylor earlier,” says Peter Pearson. “I thought he had passed on to The Great VAR Review in the Sky. Spurs v Arsenal is behind a paywall here in the USA so I’m revisiting some of Shooby’s greatest hits while keeping up with the MBM.”
31 min Hojbjerg sticks his coupon in in amongst the ball and boots, so takes a few on the side while a small spot of bleeding is addressed.
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31 min Tierney sticks the ball into the box and Spurs clear towards Kane, so Xhaka drags him down. Again, he avoids a card.
30 min “Charles Antaki asked what degree of collywobbles Arsenal fans are allowed to have,” says Kári Tulinius. “As an Arsenal fan myself, I just allowed myself to wonder if there are three worse teams in the league. I could think of two. I don’t believe this team will go down, but only because I think Arsenal panic buy an aging star in January who’ll bring enough.”
I think that’s harsh. Arsenal aren’t anywhere near as bad as the worst, but they’re miles off the best and don’t have anywhere near enough money to close the gap quickly.
29 min Spurs knock the ball about – they’re not that good, but they’re miles better than Arsenal and they know it.
28 min “Is it time to acknowledge that Son and Kane are not just two of the best 10 players in the league but also should be included in the top 10 players in the world in 2020?” asks Niall O’Keeffe. ‘Incredibly consistent. Could be their year. Jose knows a thing or two about winning.”
They are absolutely among the best in the world. I’d say those two, Salah, Mane, De Bruyne and Fernandes are the best in the league.
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26 min Reguilon, who look as good as he looked for Sevilla, flies down the left and collects a pass from Dier. His cross is headed clear, but only as far as Hojbjerg, who panels a shot directly into Leno’s midriff.
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24 min “Good point about Harry Kane,” emails Yash Gupta. “Even in documentary (although a PR exercise but still good nonetheless), he was first one to sit there before his teammates to listen to manager’s instructions most notable in Everton game. I also think it helps Jose that his main talisman is not the one with big ego and not doing defensive work. It might be a too much but it brings the dressing room level and leaves no room for big egos.”
Though I’d not say Kane is devoid of ego, he mainly has the sort that the best players have, I’m absolutely certain that he’s a joy to manage, and because he’s so consistently brilliant, no one in the dressing room has any way of undermining his authority. He’s like Roy Keane in that sense.
23 min Arsenal have had a fair bit of possession, but done very little with it. They need to get Saka and Partey on the ball higher up the park.
22 min “I have to say I didn’t realise how much i have missed the ‘ironic’ Cheers when an opposition player passes the ball straight in to touch,” laments Brendan Large. “Comedy gold!”
I’m looking forward to an “Ooooooh you’re **** .... ahhhhh!” from a goalkick.
21 min In commentary, Gary Neville notes that Bellerin is marking Dier – goodness me – but a decent corner, hit nice and flat, is headed away well by Holding. The problem for Spurs there was that it avoided the areas in which they had players waiting.
2o min Son drifts right and swings over a decent cross for Kane, but Holding is there to head behind.
18 min That goal really does encapsulate the problem for Arsenal. They’ve forgotten how to attack, and every time they try to remember, they open themselves up to be scored against.
16 min “Arteta is getting more credit than Emery, being likeable and a former player,” says Damian Durrant. “But owner Kroenke is all about money from European competition. If Arteta gets kicked out of Europe League and he is still in the bottom half he could well be out this season in my view.”
I think there’s more to it with Arteta – he’s an unknown, whereas Emery was a solid mid-ranking manager, which is why he’s back doing well with Villarreal. I agree things look bad at the moment, but unless things get a lot, lot worse, I’d give him a bit longer. He won a trophy last season!
14 min Looking at the goal again, Gabriel steps off Kane when he takes the ball down. You can’t be doing that.
OH MY DAYS WHAT A GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Arsenal (Son 13)
Dier throws a head at cross and Sissoko helps it on to Kane. You think you know the rest, but you don’t. Kane does brilliantly to control, coming off the front, then spreads it to Son – you guessed that bit – and he advances, while Holding back off, wanting none of him. But instead of attacking the space in behind, he opens his body 20 yards out and suddenly the whole world, Bernd Leno included, know what’s coming, but it’s done so perfectly that he nor anyone else can do anything about it, it being a screeching, howling curler that flies around the keeper and into the side-netting, halfway up. What a goal ! what a player! What a parnership!
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12 min Is this match the culinary highlight of the Premier League season? I can’t think of two others clubs whose grounds are in such close proximity to so much bazzing food.
11 min Bellerin crosses and Spurs don’t get it away, so when the ball is recycled back to Partey on the edge, he’s got time and space to pagga a shot miles away from anywhere.
10 min Ah there, another little coming together between Hojbjerg and Lacazette. We don’t actually see it but Gary Neville does, and reckons it’s one to keep watching.
9 min “A couple of early observations,” says Stephen Carr. “Firstly, both teams look like they’ve been instructed to kick the opposition and secondly, Tierney and Bellerin appear to be in a competition to see who can hoik their shorts up the highest.”
But for very different reasons. Bellerin is fashun darling, while Tierney is showing how much cold he can take.
7 min Hojbjerg and Lacazette both chase and somehow trip each other, Lacazette flicking out a leg to register his disapproval. Nothing comes of it, but it’s one on which to keep an eye – hopefully it’s the start of a beautiful relationship.
5 min “What degree of collywobbles – justified or not – is it allowable an Arsenal fan to have in the face of a game against Tottenham?” asks Charles Antaki. “And what degree of amplification of those collywobbles is to be further allowed given the spectacularly dismal form of the team so far? Are we in pure funk territory?”
It’s hard to see the big picture when it’s a derby, but Arsenal’s problems will not vanish if they win here, so my advice wold be to appreciate the context: lose-lose.
4 min Incidentally, when did this match become called the NLD, why is it not the 29 bus route derby, and why does it not feature here?
3 min He loves an empty threat and here’s another, Dier floating well over the bar.
2 min Xhaka dives across Kane and between him and the ball, somehow avoiding a booking. Free-kick Spurs, 28 yards out, just right of centre. Dier fancies this....
1 min Kane and Son double-team Partey, who complains he was elbowed. Welcome to the derby!
1 min Off we go!
The players take the knee. What we saw at Millwall yesterday reminds us why we do it and why it’s not enough.
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Ah man, it’s so good to hear fans in the ground.
A forgotten goal from this fixture in 1982-83...
Here come the teams!
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“To your point on Lacazette,” says Matthew DeMaio, “I think you are more or less correct about Laca as a player rapidly ageing and declining in value and that this is a sign of the issues Arsenal face. I also think that he’s as good a bet as any of our strikers to score this season. Auba is struggling and I’m not sold on Nketiah.
It also seems that Arteta has not represented a clean break from the past of spending big money or handing out large contracts to ageing players. Willian is the obvious example, but Partey, while he might represent what we need right now, is no spring chicken. Years 1, 2 and 3 of the deal might make sense but come 2024 and he is 31 with a year left on his deal, he might start to look a lot like the other ageing players we have been dragging around.
To that point, when the clock turns to the start of the 2022 season, we will have:
Partey, age 29, with 3 years to go:
Soares, age 31, with 2 years to go
Mari, age 29, with 2 years to go
Willian, age 34, with 1 year to go
Auba, age 33, with 1 year to go
Leno, age 30, with 1 year to go
There are also a slew of players that will finish that year in their late 20s (Pepe, Bellerin, Holding) who, on Arsenal form, will probably be handed large contracts between now and then that take them into their 30s. I feel like Arsene never used to give anyone contracts of more than 1 year when they reached 30. Would be wise to go back to that mantra.”
On Partey, if Arsenal get three great years out of him, he’ll be a great buy. I agree that Willian made little sense, such that you wonder about how that might quite’ve happened, without really wondering at all. But I think Nketiah will be a really good sub, at worst – he knows how to score, a fairly useful skill all in all.
Absolutely nothing to do with football, yet absolutely everything to do with football. Just watch it.
We’d had a HUGE response to our interview with Kevin Sinfield this morning. There are a lot of tears out there...
— Dan Walker (@mrdanwalker) December 1, 2020
What a wonderful display of friendship 😭
Incredible stuff from Super Kev
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 @Rob7Burrow @leedsrhinos @mndassoc #BBCBreakfast pic.twitter.com/h6msge3UUY
“‘Won a few big games?’” asks Drew Lundgren. “I hate the FA Cup and think it is has robbed England of a dominant decade of Champions League champions, but do you?”
I couldn’t agree less, I’m afraid. I love the cup, and I don’t see many English clubs who’d be European champions if it didn’t exist.
Mourinho says that it’s dangerous to look at the league table and forget how good Arsenal can be. He tells us that Ndombele is ill – they thought he’d be fine, but this morning “he decided – of course – that he’s not ready.” It’s hard not to detect a hint of criticism there, but I couldn’t be certain.
Arteta, meanwhile, says that a good result will change the mood completely, and his team are here to win. He hopes it’s the ideal game – last year Arsenal lost in on small details, so need to be better this time. And on Partey, he sys that they didn’t expect him to be ready, but he’s pushed himself and has been training well.
“Interesting little discussion about Mourinho you’ve got going,” emails Tim Farnham. “I always thought the problem with him wasn’t anything other than arrogance and an inability to understand he’s not the greatest thing since sliced bread. He’s got a childish need to insult everyone. Clearly he’s a top manager and also an immature prat who just doesn’t care much about anyone but himself.”
I think the first thing to say here is that Mourinho is a lot, lot better than sliced bread. You don’t inspire the shamanic devotion he did – and in serious, cynical personalities – without being a lot more than you say he is. I’m absolutely certain that many who’ve played for him will tell you he’s kind, sympathetic and self-deprecating.
Cam someone please confirm that Mikel Arteta’s nickname is “Artetz”?
...they do not.
At Bramall Lane, Jamie Vardy has scored in injury-time, celebrating by sliding towards the corner flag and splitting it with a studs-up challenge. Great stuff – though not for poor Chris Wilder, whose team now trail 2-1 and will remain bottom with one point from 11 games, unless they score from this corner....
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“Care to make a bold prediction Daniel?” asks Shooby Taylor. “A safe ‘Jose special’ of 0-0 is not allowed, of course. I’m going for 2-1 to Spurs, which seems one hundred percent completely fair considering I am relentlessly pro-Mourinho no matter what club he is with.”
I think Spurs will win because they’re by far the better side in by far the better form, and I don’t think sitting back and waiting – how Arsenal have won a few big games – will work tonight. But if they press how they pressed Man United, that might make things awkward.
On that point, I never subscribed to the theory that the problem with Mourinho was an outdated style of football. I’m absolutely certain that his first Chelsea team would be top of “this league”. The problem was that he’d allowed his less good traits to consume his absolutely brilliant traits, and he was also trying to impose his style of football and management on players and personalities not suited to them. At Spurs, though, he’s got a dressing room run by Harry Kane along with a team prepared to do what he says who are fantastic on the counter. I do wonder if there’s a level they might not get to, though – a midfield of Hojbjerg, Ndombele and Lo Celso would give them the option of competing with the league’s better midfields – but for now, things are going pretty well.
“It was wise for Certain Media Outlets to run those Mourinho is ruining Spurs articles early on,” says Jason Graff, “because with his track record, they would’ve otherwise had to wait until his third or fourth year in charge to do so.”
I’m not sure anyone said Mourinho was “ruining Spurs”, especially as he was only appointed because things were already pretty bad. I also think it was fair to wonder if he was finished as an elite-level manager, given the state of things when he left Madrid, Chelsea and Man United. For which reason, there was nothing wrong with fearing the worst when he took the Spurs job, and when things started to go badly. Moreover, Spurs have had a decent start to the season, but that’s it. They may go on to win stuff, but the likelihood remains that they will not, so we’re not yet able to say that Mourinho is back. I hope we get to that point though, and if we do, I’ll be happy to say I was wrong.
Lacazette, then. I’ll level with you, I thought he’d be away from Arsenal in the summer because I thought that when Arteta was appointed, he’d have been identified as someone on decent wages, whose value was rapidly decreasing, who’s neither good enough nor young enough to take the club where it wants to be. For those reasons, I expected him to play very little in the second half of the season, essentially forced to find another club. But, more or less, Arteta opted to pick his best side at the time rather than settle a side that might become good in the future, which (I think) is one of the major reasons for the current situation. I’m not surprised he’s back in today because that’s what happens when a manager doesn’t seem sure about anything – you go from this to that and back again, in the hope that something you know is a long-term bust gets you a short-term win.
Arteta, meanwhile, changes things yet again. David Luiz is out so Rob Holding comes in, but the most important alteration is Partey for Ceballos. Arsenal have been missing him for about a decade, but they’ve particularly missed him these last few weeks, and how good he is – very – will be elevated by how good they need him to be – very very. The best players are like that. Otherwise, Lacazette, who scored in midweek, comes in for Willock, for Aubameyang moving back to the left wing.
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Reflections: Spurs make two changes from last weekend, one at the back and one in midfield. Joe Rodon, who had a pretty decent game apart from the bit where he almost gifted Chelsea a goal and the other bit where he nearly gifted Chelsea a goal, sits this one out, because Toby Alderweireld – “Toby” to some – is fit again. Otherwise, Mourinho brings in Lo Celso for Ndombele, who isn’t in the squad. You’d assume he’s injured, but there’s always the chance that he missed out Wayne Rooney when listing the young players to whom Mourinho handed league debuts, or similar.
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Nihilits and Crybabies
Tottenham Hostspur (a deliberately inflexible 4-3-3): Lloris; Aurier, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon; Sissoko, Hojbjerg, Lo Celso; Bergwijn, Kane Son. Subs: Hart, Rodon, Davies, Winks, Moura, Bale, Vinicius.
Arsenal (a what can you do 4-3-3): Leno; Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Xhaka, Partey, Saka; Willian, Lacazette, Aubameyang. Subs: Runarsson, Mustafi, Elneny, Maitland-Niles, Ceballos, Willock, Nketiah.
Poor man, poor man, poor man: Martin Atkinson (Drighlington)
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Preamble
Even if he doesn’t win another match, José Mourinho is an all-time great manager, coming form nowhere to impose himself on the game through force of talent, personality and will. When he took over at Porto – earned through years of toil – they were fifth in the league and just over two years later, they were Europa League and European champions; at Chelsea, he won consecutive titles and inspired a a team which lasted a generation; with Inter, he took an alright team to the treble; at Madrid, he finished above the greatest club side ever; and at Manchester United, he finished a distant second to Manchester City. Incredible.
But because football is a continuum there will always be new questions, and another one stands before Mourinho today: can he spoil the English game’s most reliably entertaining fixture? The portents are positive. Last weekend, he returned to Chelsea and deliberately restricted Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Kane and Heung-min Son – three of the funnest players in the country – to counters and scraps, in aid of a goalless draw that did little for either club. Expletive Nihilists 1-0 Expletive Crybabies.
Today, though, is different. Both Manchester clubs, along with Chelsea, have already won this weekend, Spurs are at home, and a third game without a win sounds like a sequence. In addition to which, Mikel Arteta is a lot of what Mourinho despises: a preaching discipline of Pep Guardiola with even better hair, who did little to earn his privileged path into a plum job. Taking dastardly pleasure in booting him when he’s down would Mourinho – and football – incarnate – and he knows has the the team to do it.
Arsenal, meanwhile, desperately need something today. In the league, they’ve lost four of their last six games, scoring just twice – a penalty and a header from a corner – looking staid and weak in the process. Though the significance of Thomas Partey’s absence must not be overlooked, things were not right even with him, the co-ordinated patterns of attack that Arteta was meant to bring looking like they were designed by a sleepy toddler with Etch-a-Sketch access.
And Arteta will know that in an open game, his team will probably take a hiding. Their defence is ill-equipped to deal with Spurs’ attack and their attack is insufficiently coherent to frighten Spurs’ slightly dodgy defence. So actually, today’s question should be: can he spoil the English game’s most reliably entertaining fixture? This is going to be intense.
Kick-off: 4.30pm GMT
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