JOSE HAS THE LAST LAUGH
Spurs boss beats sloppy Gunners again
There is a reason that Jose Mourinho has never lost a home game to Arsenal during his career in english football.
True, by the time he came here, Arsenal were on their way down from a lofty summit and his first Chelsea team made sure that trajectory continued.
equally, though, he has faced them in the years when Arsenal teams often find ways to lose.
Poor investments, players lacking the necessary resolve; Mourinho’s experience is of the soft- centred Arsenal and it was much the same yesterday.
Arsenal played the brighter football, had some reasonable opportunities but lost their way in the second half — as did the game — and fell to a set-piece sucker punch with nine minutes remaining.
Twice Mikel Arteta’s side have led games in the last five days — against Leicester and Tottenham — and they have taken one point from six. Leicester’s equaliser and Tottenham’s winner both came late, too. That’s why Arsenal are now ninth with the hope of any european football, let alone the Champions League variety considered vital to their rebuilding project, gradually receding.
Tottenham are not much better off but are still in with a europa League shout, given three points separate them and sixth-placed Wolves. If they were ordinary after half-time, too, they deserved this if only for their resilience, pressuring Arsenal in the last 10 minutes, hoping they would crack, which they duly did.
Simply, there are too many weak defenders at Arsenal. The goal came from a corner, won after Lucas Moura had played in harry Kane, losing Shkodran Mustafi far too easily, and forcing standin goalkeeper emiliano Martinez to save at his feet. From that, Son hueng-min whipped in the dead ball and, despite the attention of several Arsenal defenders, not least Mustafi again and the outmatched Kieran Tierney, Toby Alderweireld got a glancing header to collect the win.
What was it Gary Neville said of Liverpool and Manchester United’s midtable meeting in 2014? The Dog and Duck versus The red Lion. There was something of that about this game, too.
In the end, the Dog and Duck won because there are too few red lions in Arsenal shirts these days.
Spurs were steelier, even if they struggled to get their forwards in the game. The two starting players with fewest touches were Kane and, after him, Pierre-emerick Aubameyang. Those charged with scoring the goals.
Tottenham will not mind that, though — and this was a score settled. earlier this month, after Tottenham had gone down in flames at Sheffield United, they were mocked by their north London rivals on social media. Arsenal had removed Chris Wilder’s team from the FA Cup the weekend before, and a short video clip of the goals was uploaded with the message: ‘Its not easy beating Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. here’s how it’s done.’
ha bloody ha, as Mourinho didn’t say. Of course he bit, as he always does, announcing that if Arsenal had more to be proud of in their own season, they wouldn’t need to make remarks about other clubs.
It was a fair point. Maybe ascend beyond the lofty heights of eighth, as they were then, before cracking wise. And who’s laughing now?
Arsenal used to have a little more style than that. And if Tottenham’s social media team were not instantly compiling a hasty list of burns of their own on full-time here, they didn’t need to.
The wittiest riposte was contained in Alderweireld’s header. And there was no coming back from that.
At times, it was easy to understand why this derby continues to command attention, no matter the positions of the protagonists.
Great goals, lovely moments of individual skill and ample evidence in the physicality that, even without fans, victory was more than a matter of accumulating points.
There were five bookings on the Tottenham side and three from
Arsenal. equally, however, there was much to explain why these teams went into the game with a combined league placing of 18th.
Those players who are increasingly considered weak links looked suitably weak. The parts of each team known for their flaws looked suitably flawed.
So that means Serge Aurier was given a hellish time at full back, while David Luiz was just as fragile at the heart of Arsenal’s defence.
And if either man seemed to have got away with one, there was usually a team-mate on hand to ensure calamity ensued.
Both goals — as beautifully taken as they were — came from defensive errors, and neither coach can have been happy with what he saw in the first half, despite the occasional outbreak of fine football.
Nor can either recruitment department think it is in for a quiet
summer having watched this game, whatever the economic difficulties.
It was only 19 seconds old when Luiz let in Moura, whose shot was saved by Martinez, and that rather set the tone for the early exchanges.
Moura was again at the heart of the action after 10 minutes, delivering a neat cross, allowing Kane to give Luiz the slip, before attempting a lob that Martinez did well to keep out.
Then it was Aurier’s turn for a bad turn. He was always overstretched by an Arsenal attack in the 17th minute, his clearing header falling short and Moussa Sissoko no help mopping up, before Aurier took a lousy touch attempting to redeem them both, beaten by Granit Xhaka in the tackle. The ball fell to Alexandre Lacazette, whose shot flew in from 25 yards — the only bit of class in the several phases of play.
With defences like this, the lead could not last, but even by Arsenal’s standards just 137 seconds was a depressingly fleeting moment of superiority.
Sead Kolasinac played a woeful pass back to Luiz, which ended up more as a through ball for Son. To be fair, Luiz was already scuppered by his team-mate’s looseness, but his attempt to shackle Son was shrugged off comfortably, before the ball was lifted sublimely over Martinez. Fortunately, in the first half at least, occasional moments of wonder made up for all the blunders. In the 31st minute, Ben
Davies struck a magnificent shot from 35 yards that smashed against the crossbar, Martinez getting the merest of touches to it, a stunning save. Soon after, Pepe burst through from midfield with a powerful run, completed by a shot that travelled just wide.
The second half was considerably tamer, Arsenal enjoying plenty of possession but doing little with it, Tottenham happy to contain, and looking a little leggy with less recovery time. Aubameyang hit the bar after 59 minutes and had a shot turned wide soon after, but Spurs offered little until late.
It remained compelling, though, as long as the viewer was not hoping for perfection — or a place in the Champions League any time soon.