Tottenham Dents Arsenal’s Title Hopes: A Disappointed Fan’s Rant

Hello and good bye. Hello to the readers of this article and good bye to Arsenal’s title hopes. What a suitable way to end them though: to lose against one of your fiercest rivals. Nevertheless, I have nothing against the Spurs.

They played their game and won. It makes that win look even more respectable after their hardships in the FA Cup, losing to Portsmouth after having played for a long tiring 120 minutes.

They defended perfectly, in a very organized manner. Well done, Harry Redknapp, and well done, players of Tottenham. You deserved your win.

But what side did you play against?

A side that had 8 days to rest; a side that had to rely on its reserve team after being crippled by injuries. But this is no excuse. All the teams with the title in mind have pretty much the same number of matches. What I was shocked about was how almost the same players who made an inspiring come back against currently the best team in Europe, Barcelona, looked so helpless this time.

Since the beginning of the match Arsenal looked sluggish. Sure, they had more possession of the ball, but the attack was as dull as a stick. They passed the ball in the centre of the park but met the well-organized defense of Spurs with a surprising lack of inspiration and creativity.

It only took ten minutes for the Spurs to exploit their North London rivals’ main weakness.

Manuel Almunia came out to collect what seemed an easy ball, but unknowingly why decided to punch it. The ball was met by the volley of the young revelation of the match Danny Rose. Almunia still had a chance to reach the ball, but slipped and failed to counteract, the ball passing just an inch away from his fingertips and into the goal.

It was one of those baffling mistakes that we have seen a hefty number of times this season. But, hey, Arsenal has come back from behind after similar stuff. Why not now? Well, not this time. It took me some time to perceive that.

Samir Nasri was not himself.

He rarely dribbled or attempted to use that killer dribble that he possesses. His passing was under par. His creativity – in the past.

His team-mate Thomas Rosicky was down there with him. He attempted a couple of shots which turned out to be very disappointing.

Emmanuel Eboue reminded me of that infamous match of his against Wigan in 2008: too many inaccurate passes and unsuccessful dribbles, just far too many mistakes.

Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner were pretty much like twins tonight. Both of them were terribly slow and ineffective. Diaby’s strength was useless against the massive pressure that the Tottenham players amounted every time he received the ball. The Dane up front was almost completely cut off from the rest of the team. He should have tracked back more often. Not to say that his feet were sluggish at best.

The only thing that was exciting about him was his chewing gum. It was fun to watch how calmly he chewed that gum while things were going the wrong way.

The only light beam in all that darkness was the man who returned from a long time out of the game, Robin van Persie. How unfortunate for Arsenal not to have had a footballer of this quality at their disposal throughout basically the whole season.

Immediately after his involvement in the game, the Arsenal attack gained another dimension. A couple of defense-splitting passes reminded us of what the team had missed. But as it most usually happens inspiration can be stopped only by inspiration from an opponent.

Heurelho Gomes is the name. He made three superb saves to keep his team in the lead, two of which from a terrific and on-fire Van Persie.

One goal near the end was not enough to clear the shame off the Gunners’ faces after this terrible performance. Arsenal looked totally clueless and unmotivated for the bigger part of the game.

While some will make excuses with the explanation that key players such as Fabregas, Gallas, Vermaelen, Ramsey, and Song were out, I think slightly differently. This side had to prove themselves. Something they completely failed to do.

What was scarier was the lack of passion, a total lack of passion.

I’m much more willing to forgive my team after losing 3-0 after playing their hearts out on the field. That, however, did not happen tonight. The silly mistakes are part
of the game, but passion is what this game is about.

Come on! You are playing against you fiercest rival in a match that you have to definitely win to get your first title in five years. If that doesn’t motivate you then I don’t know what will.

Not all was hopeless though. I cannot skip to give credit to Gael Clichy for his stamina and to Van Persie for his exquisite skills. Thomas Rosicky was unlucky, and so was Thomas Vermaelen who sustained an unfortunate injury so early in the match. That battle-scarred veteran Sol Campbell was a joy to watch too. He gave his best and tried to rally the troops, unfortunately to no avail.

Another hard-to-swallow year. But hope seems to have become an inseparable component of the soul of the Arsenal fan. So, we’ll wait. Maybe Chelsea will stumble. You never know.

Decide Already; Is Arsenal Capable of Winning the League or Not?

The Premier League has started. There were some surprising results as well as there were some expected results. Interestingly enough, there was one match that contained both of those things.

It was as surprising for some; expected for others. Arsenal won by 6-1 as guests to Everton. Now, the result might have been unexpected by some due to summer problems that Arsenal supposedly had.

The pundits talked and wrote millions of words; they gave thousands of opinions, explained, discussed and argued how Arsenal is about to fall apart or how they are still found wanting. The club was labelled as the fourth-place-to-give-away team this season. They have been considered as title rivals by very few.

In contrast to another team from the Premier League—Manchester City, which was also hugely debated throughout the summer, spent mind-blowing sums of money to buy players; Arsenal sold two of theirs and brought only one.

For some, that signalled the capitulation of the London club; it signalled the transformation of the club from a top European football club to a mediocre one, annually fighting for a place for the European tournaments; it signalled its inability to contest with the big teams.

They were dismissed as title contenders even before the season started. But let me ask why?

If the answer of this question is because they will get a lot of injured players sometime along this season, then I will ask you how you know that.

A lot of people have learnt that history does not lie. Arsenal has not won anything for four years now. Wouldn’t a statement saying that they will fail for another year be considered as a safe bet?

The truth is that it is exactly that.

It is a safe bet; it is safe because it has already happened in the not-so-distant past; it is still fresh in our minds; nothing has been changed, and failure for Arsenal expected to happen again.

But let me try to disrupt that up-to-date notion.

During the previous couple of years, Arsenal has been labelled as a young team without the needed experience to adequately compete in the tournaments. Well, four years of drought have passed. Aren’t the players who were considered green two years ago more experienced now? Have footballers like Denilson, Alexandre Song, Gael Clichy, and Abou Diaby matured since then?

Logically, the answer must be yes.

So, why are then Arsenal being dismissed from the title chase when the same team, only more inexperienced, finished with 84 points two years ago (82 points is usually enough to win the title in most of the cases)?

Some will say because Mathieu Flamini was in that team then, and Aliaksandr Hleb. But Song and Denilson have matured, and Andrey Arshavin cannot be disputed as an adequate replacement for Hleb.

If you remember, it was the year when just before the season Arsenal lost their captain and legendary player Thierry Henry. What were the pundits saying then? Did they expect such a performance by the Gunners? No, they didn’t.

Pundits have argued that Arsenal do not have the needed depth to challenge for the title. While this may be true, there was another team that lacked depth, and still was able to win the title—Manchester United.

Many will remember the period of the last season when Sir Alex Ferguson had to use youngsters like Jonny Evans, Rafael Da Silva and versatile players like John O’Shea, when his first-team starters Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville and Nemanja Vidic were either injured or suspended. But still Manchester United won the title in the end.

So why is Arsenal being dismissed? That’s a team who has the same manager who took them to three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and all that happened not so long ago.

One thing should be remembered. This is football. Sometimes it defies logic, whatever that logic it might be.

The “invincibles” were not the “invincibles” before they became such.

Who could have known that Arsenal would complete a season undefeated.

Surely, the football pundits had not expected that. But it happened.

A new season of the Premier League has started. Twenty teams will battle for one title. No-one should be dismissed, especially a club that has won it in the not-so-distant past.