***OMT - Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal***

[diego_maradona]

Haven't said this for a long time but that was very disappointing today. Second best to everything. I thought Davinson Sanchez was great.

Probably the worst time to play a top 6 side away from home, fresh after an international break and with Kane and co clearly not 100%. Fair play to them, they actually showed me something I haven't seen in years against us.

 

[DubaiSpur]

That is why football isn’t played by robots but humans. I agree man - for man our team is better. But man for man Real’s team is better than ours. United are better than Huddersfield. So what?

Today, their key players played well, ours didn’t. Get over it. Why was this? In my opinion, a variety of reasons.

Wanyama and Toby missing. Dier playing in the middle of the back four not DM.

Toby was missing when we went to the Emirates last season. Dier did not play DM - he played in the middle of the back three, like he did last season. Wanyama was missing - but then, that is not new (has been the case since August), and is something we clearly didn't give two sh*ts about when we were floating around the field against Real Madrid. Yet, we drew 1-1 last year (deservedly so) and looked League 2 level this year.

Dembele not match fit. Eriksen hungover, . Dele off form. Kane not fit.

Eriksen hungover from *what*? He scored a hat-trick against Ireland, so he thinks it's okay to coast in a North London Derby? If so, he's mentally far weaker than his counterpart on the other side, Ozil. Ozil played for Germany - came back, and ran us utterly ragged. Eriksen blew his load with Denmark, and then looked like a League 2 player against Arsenal. So who really is the mentally stronger player? Who *gave more* of a sh*t?

Dele 'off form'. He wasn't 'off form' against Madrid, but he was here. He ran like a demon against Real Madrid, he barely lifted a finger today. Why? What is the difference?

Combine that with a quality Arsenal side full of quality players who all played well on the day, then we were going to struggle. Add in a couple of crucial dodgy referreeing deCisions and we were always up against it.No lack of effort or application for me. They were simply the better team on the day. End of.

Why were they the better team on the day? Quality-wise, we are even. It is a North London derby. Why did they make us look so ordinary despite that?

Why couldn't we compete? Why didn't we *want* it?

Eriksen scoring a hat-trick against Ireland is nice for him, and nice to celebrate. If he thinks it entitles him to show up to a North London Derby and look like a League 2 player, his mentality is *wrong*. Alli running the game against Madrid and then looking utterly lost and uninterested is *wrong*. Verts and Dier bumbling about like disinterested OAPs is *wrong*.

We had the skill to match them today, if we wanted to. We just didn't want to. The players didn't care. This is the key point we disagree on.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Haven't said this for a long time but that was very disappointing today. Second best to everything. I thought Davinson Sanchez was great.

Probably the worst time to play a top 6 side away from home, fresh after an international break and with Kane and co clearly not 400%. Fair play to them, they actually showed me something I haven't seen in years against us.

Agreed on all the above

Sanchez was brilliant and robbed with the free kick call

We looked like team that and all been away or were nursing an injury

They looked like a team with apoint to prove and plenty of fresh player s

 

[StephenH]

In two or three days, I wonder how many SPurs fans will actually truly believe that any/many of our players didn't care about the game today.

This banal suggestion that players ‘don’t care’ for this or that reason is a typical reaction from fans who judge our players by their standards!

 

[Rorschach]

I'd drop Dean for the next match. He's not fit to wear the jersey.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I'd drop Dean for the next match. He's not fit to wear the jersey.

Shockingly bad
Wanted to be centre of attention

 

[Pirate55]

We had the skill to match them today, if we wanted to. We just didn't want to. The players didn't care. This is the key point we disagree on.

You have clearly never played football at a decent level - or have forgotten much if you did.

Was your performance the same in every game? Were you sometimes affected by tiredness, injury or lack of match practice? Did you nevertheless consider you put in the same effort and cared in each of those games? Sometimes you may have played out of your skin other times you were completely ineffective. It happens - even in top level sport not every day is a player at the top of their game. Get over it. It wasn’t lack of effort, our key players simply played poorly.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

Was out all day with my wife and son, not seen the goals yet just the result.

Though I have not seen the match or any highlights I would like to say the ref got it wrong and we were robbed.

 

[JerusalemMan]

Because they cared more. Because they wanted it more. We did *not*. We showed up beaten from the start, for reasons I can't possibly fathom. And we fell to the limpest of defeats in a manner that would have *appalled* many of these same players just over a year ago, when we battled to a 1-1 draw with a worse side,in worse form, than the fancy dans who showed up today, thinking they could get away with being totally listless and uncaring.

Pray bring your telepathic skills to the fore in a more public manner and you can transform the world for the better.
Or cease stating as a fact something that cannot be proven unless stated by the players.

I grant that you are hurting and are probably speaking out of blind emotion. But most of us are a mite peeved too.

 

[StephenH]

Sanchez was brilliant and robbed with the free kick call

We looked like team that and all been away or were nursing an injury

They looked like a team with apoint to prove and plenty of fresh player s

Sánchez was super super good!
Arsenal were HAD to step up today........their fans would have gone beyond apebrick if they had not won imho

 

[We are Tottenham]

Aurier should have played!!!

 

[DubaiSpur]

This banal suggestion that players ‘don’t care’ for this or that reason is a typical reaction from fans who judge our players by their standards!

There's a real case for arguing that they really don't, though. If I recall correctly, Poch said as much a while ago - he said the players lost 5-1 to Saudi Sportswashing Machine at the end of 15/16 because they didn't understand how badly the fans wanted to finish above Arsenal. For them, the season was over as soon as the title was gone - the pride of the fans didn't matter to them at that point, and all the motivation, fight and heart was utterly gone.

Poch himself hated that, and drilled it into them *relentlessly* until they kept their heads up to the very last second on the final day of last season. But it shows that the players might not see it like the fans do.

Maybe local lads feel differently - Kane, Winks and KWP probably feel differently. But the rest of them might just think this is another loss away against a top six side (as usual) that means we are 11 points behind City, ho hum. We're in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, we'll come up against another giant (Juve, PSG or whatever) and we'll turn it on again to show how good we really are. No harm done. In their bubbles, this sort of stuff might not filter through to them (Poch's words, not mine - from Brave New World).

I don't know why, but Arsenal cared today. We didn't. And, much like the West Ham CC game, in London derbies, commitment and a determination to win the game usually triumphs over lily-livered fancy dans who think they can win just by showing up.

Sánchez was super super good!
Arsenal were HAD to step up today........their fans would have gone beyond apebrick if they had not won imho

And we didn't need to? It's a derby, there is no letoff - if you play for Spurs, you have to win every one, or at least believe that there is no excuse for not trying to. Otherwise, you don't get Tottenham Hotspur, as a footballer.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Sánchez was super super good!
Arsenal were HAD to step up today........their fans would have gone beyond apebrick if they had not won imho

100%
Let’s see them next weekend and judge
Today they befitted from playing brilliant, a shocking call to give them the lead, a marginally bad call to extend the lead and playing a team that looked like they had all played mid week ro were injured

As i said on the pub their Sanchez deserved MOTM for his last ever NLD

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I don't know why, but Arsenal cared today. We didn't. And, much like the West Ham CC game, in London derbies, commitment and a determination to win the game usually triumphs over lily-livered fancy dans who think they can win just by showing up.



And we didn't need to? It's a derby, there is no letoff - if you play for Spurs, you have to win every one, or at least believe that there is no excuse for not trying to. Otherwise, you don't get Tottenham Hotspur, as a footballer.

I reckon we would win the league if we were not in London, but then if we were not a London team I would not support as we would not be Tottenham and possibly even be a northern team may GHod forgive me but i hate the northerners more then I do arsenal or chelsea, i went to the north once and they put their washing out in the front gardens right next to main roads and also they eat babies.

 

[DubaiSpur]

You have clearly never played football at a decent level - or have forgotten much if you did.

Was your performance the same in every game? Were you sometimes affected by tiredness, injury or lack of match practice? Did you nevertheless consider you put in the same effort and cared in each of those games? Sometimes you may have played out of your skin other times you were completely ineffective. It happens - even in top level sport not every day is a player at the top of their game. Get over it. It wasn’t lack of effort, our key players simply played poorly.

I was a goalkeeper - highest level I ever got to was representing my university in a couple of games. Other than that, rec league level, just like most here. I don't deny that I had horrible games at times - hell, I'd say I had more horrible games than great ones, and usually there was no middle ground - I was either great or sh*te. Like Gomes.

But I tried - I don't think I ever left the field feeling that I had allowed my opposite number to put more of an effort into the game than I did. I was thrown into a game without any match practice whatsoever, conceded six and was hauled off - but I left my blood on the left post from dashing into it to make *absolutely* sure I got to a ball before an opponent. Occasionally, I was just sh*te - no excuses, I got down slowly, was weak in the aerial challenge and was far too slow coming out to close strikers down. I was horrible, and throughout those games, I knew it - 'this is going to be a bad day'. But I was the first to get up from challenges, the first to shout for a backpass, the first to show when the captain asked who wanted to take the penalties despite missing my fair share.

I didn't see people stepping up today. I freely admit that I judge the commitment of players based on my gut instinct - does it look like something I would have done at a much lower level, or not? As such, I might misread some things or get angry about things in error.

And of course, I'm bitterly, bitterly disappointed and angry. Everyone here is - you and everyone else here, unless they simply don't *get* what this fixture is. But more than that, my gut feeling told me that we didn't put in the effort we could have today - we didn't step up and take responsibility. And that hurts more than anything else.

 

[DubaiSpur]

I reckon we would win the league if we were not in London, but then if we were not a London team I would not support as we would not be Tottenham and possibly even be a northern team may GHod forgive me but i hate the northerners more then I do arsenal or chelsea, i went to the north once and they put their washing out in the front gardens right next to main roads and also they eat babies.

I've always felt that being a London side has both its positives and its negatives. Positives are that we're more likely to get players than a team of similar stature up north or elsewhere in England - players like to live in London, and that's what we have. On the downside, we have so many local rivals that it sometimes feels that half our games are London derbies of one sort or another, and the extra intensity of those games really does make a huge difference to how likely we are to win the league at any given point.

 

[Rorschach]

I reckon we would win the league if we were not in London, but then if we were not a London team I would not support as we would not be Tottenham and possibly even be a northern team may GHod forgive me but i hate the northerners more then I do arsenal or chelsea, i went to the north once and they put their washing out in the front gardens right next to main roads and also they eat babies.

So do gooners

 

[thfcsteff]

I understand your anger.
I am angry.
And disappointed.
And upset.
But there are things you need to seriously consider (in bold below)...

He looked clumsy and comical. Maybe, although his runs were bloody menacing - I'll grant that his *passing* looked clumsy and comical.

But everyone else save for Sanchez and Lloris looked League 2 level. Not even clumsy and comical - just useless.

Eriksen, slayer of Ireland - looked like a Sunday League player.

Wenger got his tactics right, pressed high and hard, nullified space and supply, plus Eriksen was playing his third BIG match in 10 days. He was flat. That's all.

Dele Alli, hero against Madrid - couldn't be arsed.

Nah, not true mate.

Harry Kane, our leader and talisman - utter sh*te.

Again, the problems were deeper, plus he was playing 70% fit IMO. Our leader and talisman, had he been a fudging giant clown shoe, would've declared himself unfit! Instead, he tried.


Dier, Verts, Davies, Trippier - just useless.

Oh christ, MORE gonads.

He cared. He tried. He ran. He fought. He tackled He pressed.

And, in doing all that, he proved our very best attacking player.

People get far too hooked up on the reputation of our lads like Eriksen, Kane, Verts and co. They can look as sh*te as Sissoko does, and today they looked far, far worse - they didn't even care.

They were 'off' for whatever reason, most (I thought) gave it their best effort on the day (which wasn't good enough) but I did NOT see a 'lack of care'. I know you get extra emotional - I was (and am) not best-pleased, but there has to be reason in the posts IMO>

 

[PochettinoPochettinoPochettino]

So the ref in 11 minutes into the United game just now, books Hayden for taking down Mata after united break. Dean did not do this for Xhaka rugby tackling our player when we broke.

I know we were brick today, he been booked then he may have got sent off later.

Had Dean had not given that free kick which was clearly not a foul, we may have got to half time at 0-0. Instead we were 2-0 down. Goals change matches and I thought we were ok before that foul.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I've always felt that being a London side has both its positives and its negatives. Positives are that we're more likely to get players than a team of similar stature up north or elsewhere in England - players like to live in London, and that's what we have. On the downside, we have so many local rivals that it sometimes feels that half our games are London derbies of one sort or another, and the extra intensity of those games really does make a huge difference to how likely we are to win the league at any given point.

Well typically a 1/3rd are derbies is sorta on average