April 28th – Sp*us 2 Arsenal 3

North London was Red, is Red and will forever be Red.

TOTL

The End

More stressful that in needed to be care of our goalkeeper, but thoroughly deserved victory against a rather toothless Sp*rs. This team picks itself nowdays. And from the beginning, though under pressure in an intense environment, this team held fir, was mature and largely untroubled.

Sure, we rode our luck a little care of a post or two and a favorable ref. And VAR that only wanted to sparingly intervene. As should be the case.

For all their bluster, this was a controlled mature performance. For all their claims to being at our level, they were unable to trouble us aside from our self-inflected wounds. The gulf in class was evident. We were destined to win this game. And deserved to. I hate playing this lot. It’s like playing your defective, useless younger brother. You are always expected to win but you know the odds are you’ll have to lose one of these games. That one in a hundred game. That they will then wallow over (and issue a DVD). Especially today with their desire to (undeservedly) join the Champions League elite and deny us a chance at the title.

But as we demonstrated with the Invincibles, when playing this lot you can always be assured of the result you require. They are just not – and never have been – in the same league or class as us. But my, are they noisy and loud. The chutzpah they have to claim equality with us when they have literally won nothing in decades. When they continuously fail to deliver on anything. But yet somehow they consider themselves to be our peer. It’s a joke really. They are not so much the noisy neighbors but the irrelevant neighbours. They are the Ruttles to our Beatles. They are the Prince Andrew to our King Charles. They are Liz Truss to our Tony Blair. You get the drift. They are upstarts that are unworthy of being a competitor.

White was charmingly annoying on each of our corners distracting their keeper and helping us, care of Hojbjerg, taking the lead. As good as cross as that was from Saka that was soon superceded by Rice to allow the wonderful Have-That to grab the third goal. But before that we had a few sliding door moments. Though they might have had some possession they really weren’t that threatening. Aside from corners. Romero had come close once. And then there were two penalty penalties decisions as a prelude to our second goal.

Trossard, who was wasteful with the ball most of the game, blew on Kulusevski as he ran into the box, stumbled and then passed to Maddison (I think). Rice proceeded to tackle him before he also fell over. While my favourite referee, The Right Honorable, Sir Michael Oliver of Highbury, waved play on, Rice feed Saka you released Have-That. Rather than pass to Trosard he switched the play to the unmarked Saka whos first touch was delicious. He then proceeded, in a Henry-esque manner, to skin Davies and put away the all important second goal. As brilliant as the finish was by Saka, that vision and execution by Have-That was exquisite. Yet again Have-that was the standout player. One assist and that third goal. And his overall work rate, link-up play and physicality – along with his slightly edgy but quiet personality – was crucial today. Compare that to their most annoying substitute. That Cunning Ungrateful Noxious Temperamental Richarlson who, from the first minute, was trying to wind up and hurt  our players.

Unfortunately, Raya made a colossal mistake. Dithering and indecision causing him to set up Romero. Until that point they were thoroughly beaten. In the second half they had nothing. No threat. This game was petering out. The crowd were subdued, and they created nothing. Their acclaimed manager, The great Big Fat Ange, had done nothing to change the game. No tactical tweak or adaptation. Nothing. Glory be to Ange the great next wonder of the world. Nothing. But here were here, care of Raya, failing to manage the situation. There was absolutely zero reason to be cute or take a chance in this situation. Sure, anyone can make a mistake. But not in this game, not in this situation. Unforgivable. And, if they had managed a third and caused us to lose the race for the title, he would have been crucified. Instead, Rice finally allowed them to win a penalty and we had to suffer through the last 10 agonizing minutes.

As unconscionable as that Raya mistake was, he really did not have a save to make during this game. Our defense was rock solid. Son, aside from his penalty, was anonymous. Maddison, who was substituted off way too early by Mr. Big. Brain. Ange, irrelevant. They had possession without any clear intent. Four of the five goals today came from set-pieces and clear mistakes. Only the Saka goal was from open play.

In prior season you would have bet on us to end up drawing this game. But this is a different team now (even with Raya). There was a backbone and resilience we did not see last year. Having Saliba and Gabriel at the core of the defense with Rice and Partey sitting in front of them provide the type of protection we’ve not had since the days of Koscielny. Partey can still get caught dithering on the ball too often but his finding his game again. And with Rice there, who was again relentless in his defense, enables us to defend a lead in ways we’ve not been able to do.

Back to White. Another impressive performance. Dealing with first Werner, then Brennan-Johnson and finally Son. Winning headers and being a general nuisance on our corners. Prior to that first goal there was a nice shot of him being an annoying little irritant by picking, in a child-like way, on the keepers right hand. Cheeky but effective.  

Tomi was needed at full-back. He had some support from Trossard. But it was not Trossards day today. He was caught in possession too often and he took too many risks with the ball in dangerous areas. And, arguably, could have given them that all important first goal care of a penalty. But this was payback for the Cedric penalty given by Paul Tierney (and the sending off). Justice served.

We turned up today. Odegaard, Rice, Saka, the defense and, of course, Have-that. We again asserted our title wining credentials. The contrast to this team from last year is dramatic. No drama and all results. There is backbone and craft. Sure, we should have won this 3-0 but a win is a win. Look at Liverpool. Winning Derbies away is not so easy. Let’s see who they call chokers now. Not this team.

A fine week. Winning two London derbies on the trot within 5 days against teams that have had a more favorable schedules is no mean feat. With three games left we could conceivably now win all three matches and still not win the League. I’ve never thought we would win it this year. And City will destroy Sp*rs if they play like they did today. So, I’m not sure there are many instances in which they will drop any points.

Today though we put our ugly, distance, mentally challenged little relative back in their place. We reasserted who was the best football team in England. And the best team in London. We demonstrated that North London was Red, is Red and will always be Red.

-LB7

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