Life just seems jolly unfair sometimes. We might I suppose have lost 6-2 if Adebayor had stayed on the pitch, but the first 15 minutes at least suggested that our heroes had bounced out on the right side of bed this morning and sneakily indulged in an extra Weetabix at the breakfast table to boot.
A thousand violent curses then upon the devil on Adebayor’s shoulder. No complaint at all about the red card, but it is nothing short of maddening that the game swung so completely (and so early) at that moment, something l’Arse did not earn at all but had gifted to them entirely by us. Pardon me while I wince at the sourness of the grapes in the AANP fruit bowl, but I cannot help grumble that this ages-old affair between l’Arse and Lady Luck continues. Still, ‘twas a mistake by a Tottenham player, so ‘twas only right that we reaped accordingly.
A 5-2 defeat in this game of all games would not ordinarily endear the glorious leader to fickle armchair followers such as yours truly, but I rather fancy that AVB earned himself a few points today. The selection of both Adebayor and Defoe away from home was a most unexpected gamble from one who has been peddling conservatism quite so sedulously, but by golly for those 15-odd glorious opening minutes things seemed to pootle along swimmingly.
Similarly, the half-time switch to a vaguely 3-5-1-looking formation seemed to put a little fire into bellies, at a time when I suspect I was not alone in fearing we would submit like resigned lambs philosophically accepting slaughter as just part of life. 5-2 was hardly the desired scoreline, but the manner of the second half performance and AVB’s second half tactical adjustment gave grounds for optimism. To live by the sword and die trying to claw back a two/three-goal deficit is infinitely preferable around these parts to simply limiting damage and accepting defeat with a whimper.
Elsewhere on the pitch
Hudd and Sandro fought the good fight well enough, and until his dismissal Adebayor looked to be making a sterling contribution, while this is unlikely to be a day that will be talked of fondly in the Naughton household for years to come – although the poor lad might have benefited from a tad more assistance from Bale. The handsome young Welshman had a strange sort of day, having seemingly made an early executive decision that team-mates are overrated, and consequently decided to take on the entire Arsenal team, solve the economic crisis and cure AIDS all single-handedly. Not a particularly bad call, for there was further net-rippling evidence today that a Bale on the charge takes some stopping, but the second half chance to pass for Defoe, at 4-2, rather than shoot, would have made life a lot cheerier (a sentiment that is admittedly remarkably easy to express with the benefit of hindsight).
Defeat it is then, but vastly less painful than the Wigan capitulation. AVB remains a curious fish (the goalkeeping selections continue to appear entirely arbitrary) but today it did at least feel like he earned his corn. There are flashes in there, that this season might yet bear fruit.
15 replies on “Arsenal 5-2 Spurs: AVB Emerges With Some Credit, Oddly Enough”
Bear fruit??with a defence that will always concede a hatful?? How can you come to this conclusion?? Arsenal won’t score 5 again this season that is how bad Spurs are.
The notion that the red card cost us the game is utter rubbish. We have made a habit of losing from winning positions this season, and we were a goal up when Adebayor was sent off. We never looked likely to defend that, even with 11 players. It was a disgraceful performance and the red card should not be an excuse for a shoddy showing without pride or spirit. If I was in charge I would fire that young kid AVB tonight and ask Norwich City for permission to speak to Chris Hughton.
Totally agree that both the opening 15 minutes and the second half provided much to be optimistic about. The introduction of Tom Carroll also gave us an insight into the graduation of players that we’ve not seen a great deal of over the last few years. We made them look good, even at 4-1 with ten men we gave them plenty to be concerned about and worked hard at maintaining possession despite leaving ourselves open to the inevitable wide attacks, Walcott’s goal was merely icing for them and injustice for our players that were able to retain their discipline. Adebayor made a foolish decision and a rash challenge. He, and we paid the ultimate price for that.
Wow.
Just how deluded are you?
Not sure we saw the same game
Straws and clutching spring to mind mate
I am a retard who should be banned for life
Spuds will also be a laughing stock with fans like this who say their Manager comes away with credit and earned his corn after a 5-2 dicking by the Arse. What a comedy blog.
Yeah, I’m so happy we got done 5-2 by Arsenal I can’t stop smiling. I know I’m pathetic. Seriously, we were well and truly chain-whipped, and its not going to get better with this youngster in charge. He says he doesn’t blame Adebayor. I don’t either – I blame him!
I have been loathe to criticise AVB but it simply is not working. There clearly is a lack of spirit in the team.Harry for all his faults was never this bad.
Sure we miss Modric but there are other creative players around. I would sooner start Carol and let him grow in stature. When I consider the class creative players we have let go it is criminal e.g. Berbatov, VDV, Dos Santos. Much is made by supporters of the famous Blanchflowe quote “The game is about glory”, but there is little of that obvious in this team. AVB seems to want to reduce them to a squad of autonomons–and that is not the culture of this club.
Spurs lost today for many reasons, none of which are any fault of AVB. I cannot believe some of the ridiculous comments I am reading. Spurs had to play 70 minutes of the match with 10 men against 11. Due to injuries they played yet again with a makeshift defence. You cannot have a solid defence if you play a different lineup each game. No Kaboul, Caulker, BAE. In midfield we are desperately short without a playmaker. No Dembale is a telling loss. Who thinks that Parker wouldn’t have started that game if fit? No team, other than maybe Man City could cope without so many key players. Spurs must sign a midfield playmaker in January and get these missing players back to fitness ASAP. Personally I was impressed with AVB today. I think those asking for his removal are being very silly indeed.
Gotta agree with you Madcap. None of what happened today was AVB’s fault. And Howard Webb IS a prick and a useless excuse for a referee. He needs to bugger-off to Italy. I hear they pay even better for referees decisions than Arsenal.
Real mixed bag of comments from you lot. What’s Webb done? Talk about an easy decision. I thought it WAS refreshing (and to be honest surprising) to see that AVB has some tactical nouse. I think Dawson deserves a mention though. Just when we look interested at 3-1 he again showed his penchant for lunging for a header, being beaten to it and thus being horribly out of postion as they scored number 4. Not good enough I’m afraid.
Credit to the manager for making actual tactical changes when we went to 10 men. If we’d have made some changes when we were 2-0 up last year (but being totally outplayed), maybe we’d be in a completely different position right now.
Poor guy can’t win. He puts out an attacking team as so many people have been demanding, makes an bold attacking change to try to salvage something when 3-1 down – and he’s now getting flak because we lost 5-2. These same people probably want Harry back!
Also, it is somewhat annoying how the media’s main talking point seemed to be about Arsenal missing their left-back – we were missing something like half our first team! Oh didn’t they do well considering they’re missing a player.
Ahh well.
Dawson should be playing week in week out, Gallas was at fault for three of the goals naughton was out of position, walker was injured and shouldnt have played and lloris should nt even be a spurs player never mind in the squad. all these decisions are down to AVB. the guy has no idea and im beginning to think the win at Man u was a fluke. from last seasons hope to this seasons despair. Harry must be laughinghis head off.
Unbiased thoughts…well, I’ll try…
Was there so that sometimes mean u get caught up in the game rather than notice the small things, and bar the first 10 mins, I really don’t know where avb is coming from with his comment about being on top from 1st minute to the last. And all that ‘big’ stuff????? Its like he uses a thesaurus, picks a word, and uses it in the wrong context….
That fella does say some odd things, but so do I in Portuguese…to balance things off, if I hear Wenger say we have a ‘special’ spirit one more time…
Anyway, granted it wasn’t a capitulation like last season, and I guess avb should take some credit for that. He was proactive in his changes…and if memory serves, old arry (despise that man) , literally stood and watched as the momentum shifted and shifted last season. Tho 3 at the back was asking for it.
Though at least avb knew naughton was a weakness and walker too (what’s happened to him???) and took them off. That said, and it doesn’t just apply to last weekend, if bale or Lennon don’t perform, spurs don’t. All the threat is down the wings…said before the game…. our defence and esp fullbacks should just play deep, and give them 2 no space. U were unlikely to create anything through the middle. So what they do??? Mertesacker and sagna push right up for your first goal?!?
We were relatively comfortable in the 2nd half, which is dangerous for us…then u had a 10-15 spell where we inevitably panic, and had bale had picked our Defoe, then who knows what would’ve happened.
One thing that has got on my wick tho, is spurs fans using the red card as an excuse. Yes it may have contributed to the loss, but teams have been known to grind out a draw with 10 men… and even win… u were 1-0 up too. If it did anything for us, it wasn’t the extra space, it was a kick up the arse we needed. Still, the way cazorla was playing, I would’ve fancied us to score a few anyway.
Oh, and u can never trust adebayor … not the sort of player u want around when the chips are down, tho I guess we all know that by now.
Lastly, I’ve seen him at close quarters…moutinho would ‘make’ ur team