Gunners crumble again

> Arsenal’s derby defeat against Tottenham shows shiny new attacking talent cannot fix the fundamentals

TEN months on from the last time, and 10 miles across London, but with the outcome just the same. This Arsenal collapse away at Tottenham was almost identical to what happened at White Hart Lane’s last ever derby, in April last year. On that day Arsenal were blown away at the start of the second half when Spurs turned it up. Today, again, they had no answer when things got serious, and only profligate second-half finishing kept the scoreline down.

As Arsenal away-day surrenders go, this was a classic. Given how the constant loop their seasons are stuck in, with the same repeating storylines, perhaps that should not be too much of a surprise.

But this time was meant to be different, or at least had the promise of being so. Because last month Arsenal signed two new top attackers in Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, as well as securing Mesut Ozil’s future. And on their double-debut at the Emirates, Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang shredded Everton for a 5-1 win. It felt like a reminder that sometimes clever players just play well together and not everything needs to be meticulously built.

On Saturday, at a wet Wembley, was a reminder of the opposite: two new signings cannot turn a team around, and cannot give them the resolve, discipline and focus required to hold their nerve in games like this.

For Mkhitaryan this was as different from last Saturday as could be imagined. That day he looked like he had been an Arsenal player all his life, instantly fitting into their instinctive creative play. Here he looked like a stranger, stuck out on the left wing but with no influence on the game.

Three times he overhit crosses to the far post and Arsenal’s few good moments owed far more to Mesut Ozil on the opposite side. When he was hauled off after 65 minutes, Arsenal instantly improved.

For a counter-attacking game like this one, Aubameyang should have been perfect. Arsene Wenger even compared him to Thierry Henry this week, for the quality and speed of his running in behind, and the quality of his receptions. He was – with not much competition – Arsenal’s most dangerous player in the first hour, at least until he was shunted onto the left when Alexandre Lacazette came on.

But neither Mkhitaryan nor Aubameyang could make the slightest difference to the spell when Arsenal lost the game. They were more intense and more direct and that was the moment when Arsenal needed to stay with them, to ride out the pressure and hang into the game.

Arsenal losing this game like this – and they should have lost it by more – is not Aubameyang or Mkhitaryan’s fault. They will deliver Arsenal far more good days than bad ones.

But this was a day when all of Arsenal’s problems were exposed again to the world: the lack of organisation, the lack of fight when things get tough, the inability to cope with the physical intensity of the top sides. Tottenham know how to beat Arsenal now, at least in these home games, it is no different here at Wembley and will surely be the same at the new White Hart Lane. The problem for Arsenal is that they spent so much money last month without fixing the fundamentals. – The Independent