Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 1 Arsenal: Another defeat caused by poor defending

And by poor defending, I don't necessarily means the players the played in defence though they are certainly not without fault.

Wasn't this just a typical North London Derby? Neither team could defend well on the day and the difference maker is one bit of individual brilliance from one player. If it's not some flukey volley from a kid on his debut, it's a flukey shot from distance from another kid.

All throughout, our defending was just poor. Specifically, the full backs and midfield gave our two centre backs little to no cover and this is where the goals originated from.

First goal: Ball comes over the top. Van der Vaart finds space between Mertesacker and Sagna. Mertesacker had gone with someone making a run into the box, so Sagna should have come across to cover the space. He didn't, van der Vaart took it down, albeit with his arm, and scored. Ignore the fact that it was handball. That does not change the fundamental error of not covering space.

Second goal: Spurs throw the ball to their player, who's made a run in behind without being tracked by anyone. He cuts it back and the ball eventually finds its way to Walker, who drives it in from a long way. Szczesny should have done better, but the defending before that was, again, poor. Arteta and Ramsey just stood there and watched as a Spurs player ran in behind. It's another fundamental thing; mark the player during throw-ins and stay with runners.

It was like this all game. Spurs really weren't that much of a threat going forward, but Mertesacker and Song were frequently exposed because the full backs were out of position and the midfield did not drop back to help them. This is just fundamental stuff that has been lacking in Arsenal's defence for who knows how long now.

Then there's the offence... not good enough. Van Persie and Walcott were pretty much anonymous, while Gervinho was wasteful. Ramsey and Arteta were poor in midfield; Ramsey especially so. We failed to sustain posession for decent periods of time and it hampered us both defensively and offensively.

The last ten minutes or so really summed it up. Arsenal, chasing the game, were all over the place at the back and unable to keep the ball in the Spurs half.

We can sit here and say "oh, if we had such and such we would've won" but for me, I'm fed up of that excuse. It just simply wasn't good enough from the team and for the upteenth time, we only have ourselves to blame for our defeat.

Player Ratings:
Wojciech Szczesny - 6. Was having a fine game until Spurs' second goal. Even if that ball moved all over the place, I think Szczesny could have done better. I won't give him too much slack over though it since it's the first major error he's made this season and he'll bounce back from it.

Per Mertesacker - 6. Caught flat-footed at times but otherwise I actually thought he had a decent game.

Alex Song - 6. Didn't look anywhere near as good at the back as he did in mid-week. Struggled with the strength of Adebayor.

Bacary Sagna - 5. Had a poor game overall. Even so, let's all pray he's not out for too long with that ankle injury.

Kieran Gibbs - 6. Did okay overall. Spurs rarely attacked down his side.

Francis Coquelin - 7. Our best player today. Was energetic, won his tackles and even had an 88% pass completion rate.

Aaron Ramsey - 5. Scored, but was just poor throughout.

Mikel Arteta - 6. Had an average game.

Theo Walcott - 6. Anonymous.

Gervinho - 6. Frustratingly wasteful.

van Persie - 6. Anonymous.

Sick of it tbh.

My head is throbbing.

this game was there for the taking

seriously man, when are we ever going to learn to screw the nut ??

piss poor defending...basic stuff, really gutted because we actually played well.

no caused by our pathetic midfield, our defence was left out to dry. Our midfield kept carelessly giving the ball away and that was the problem. I WANT A TOP CLASS MIDFIELDER.

this team has NO focus NO mental toughness. it really pains me seeing our team break down as the game goes on and watching the players lose concentration.


i dont want to hear any of that "When we get so and so back we'll be better"


its about the players who are out there. they have to be held accountable. just giving balls away in the midfield, freezing up in defense, this stuff is just not acceptable. no way in hell we'll finish top 4 performing like this. and forget the hype, tottenham arent even a great side either, that's what has me really angered

lenear1030 wrote:this team has NO focus NO mental toughness. it really pains me seeing our team break down as the game goes on and watching the players lose concentration.


i dont want to hear any of that "When we get so and so back we'll be better"


its about the players who are out there. they have to be held accountable. just giving balls away in the midfield, freezing up in defense, this stuff is just not acceptable. no way in hell we'll finish top 4 performing like this. and forget the hype, tottenham arent even a great side either, that's what has me really angered

forget about the champions league....lech poznan and club brugge, here come

Next 6 league games: Sunderland (h), Stoke (h), Chelsea (a), West Brom (h), Norwich (a), Fulham (h). Massive points return expected.

tsgooner1 wrote:no caused by our pathetic midfield, our defence was left out to dry. Our midfield kept carelessly giving the ball away and that was the problem. I WANT A TOP CLASS MIDFIELDER.

Thank you for noticing the real problem. I was getting tired of people picking on the defense when the actual problem lies in the freaking midfield.

You play as a team, you win as a team. When individuals make mistakes, its called blunders. When the team makes mistakes, its because they are not one unit. When you play as a team, you don't need individually brilliant players, you would do fine enough with mediocre players who'd lay down their lives for each other. Then, the shortcomings of one player are made up by the team around him. When was the last time you saw a team like that play in our colours? [Hint: We went a season unbeaten then.]

EDIT: I'm not saying that team was made of mediocre players. Just saying team comes before individuals.

league table

Yeah.. I expected this to happen.. Happy scoreline didnt look worse... You have to agree their frontline is too good for us to hold by Met-Song...
*
Sczeny 6 great match.. But could have done better with the 2nd goal..
Gibbs 6.5 good game
Song 6 mixed.. With some sloppy defending.. Admit that he is not playing his position
Met 5 cant blame him.. But too slow to be able to hold such a fast attack.. And some sloppy passing
Sagna 5.5 got beaten by Bale throughout...
Jenkinson 6 nothing much
Coquelin 6.5 good game
Arteta 6 i think he held the ball nice.. He was playing a deep role and so couldnt do much in attack..
Ramsey 5 flop of match.. Lucky to be in scoresheet
Gervinho 5.5 flop except for one or two moments..
Walcott 6 average
RVP 6 tried his best
ben and Ars.. Didnt get the ball..

gunnerlistick wrote:

lenear1030 wrote:this team has NO focus NO mental toughness. it really pains me seeing our team break down as the game goes on and watching the players lose concentration.


i dont want to hear any of that "When we get so and so back we'll be better"


its about the players who are out there. they have to be held accountable. just giving balls away in the midfield, freezing up in defense, this stuff is just not acceptable. no way in hell we'll finish top 4 performing like this. and forget the hype, tottenham arent even a great side either, that's what has me really angered

forget about the champions league....lech poznan and club brugge, here come

lech poznan..! He.. He..

El_Gunner wrote:Tbh, Spurs really didn't play that great.

But no new news, same old stories from Arsenal! Fecking poor defending, giving the ball away and it looked like we were scared to attack, and shoot from outside the box.

I told ya'll that we would win, i was pretty confident about that. The game was there for the taking, Spurs didn't have the best defense and we juz didn't tried to dominate and attack after Walker scored.

And look, when we dominated, we scored through Ramsey but that was all attacking wise. We juz attacked and dominated that first 10-15 min of the 2nd half.

Ramsey had a piss poor game, even though he scored. And Szczesny.?.?.MY GOD! A North london derby and you make a mistake like that

can't really blame Chez....he expected that ball to be defended

Arteta was a huge fail today. Him, Ramsey and Benayoun (our Cesc replacements) gave the ball away and made elementary mistakes. Change better come. Wenger's rep with the fans depends on it.

Updated the first post.

Wow, I actually thought your midfield was good, better than Spurs' and at Tottenham's home game, too.

You had slightly more possession, you looked more composed bringing the ball up... Some creativity was needed in attack, but in the middle of the park Arsenal did fine, imo.

Spurs had 3-4 one-on-one's so your defence was caught napping too often, but your MF was fine, I think.

One thing I've been noticing in the last few games:

Even if our game is based on possession of the ball, our players in the midfield rarely support each other. For example, in today's game, there were countless occasions when Arteta/Ramsey had the ball, had no one to play a short, system-component based pass to, and hence tried an awkward, complicated pass and lost the ball. Walcott and Gervinho rarely complimented our natural game, and had to face the Spurs defence and outpace or outwit them. Sadly, even that failed today. Apart from our bad defending(which was partly down to dreadful midfield display) we need to work on our game tempo as well. Instead on trying to play at a high tempo and pull something out of our asses, the players should be told to keep a cool head, look for a pass before executing it, and be patient. And above all, they must be told to show composure on the ball and when they lose it, make it a matter of life and death to get it back.

Also, Gervinho MUST be told to alter his style of play. From what I've seen, he'd rather run straight at 3 defenders while doing 10 stepovers and giving 15 touches than pass to an unmarked teammate in a goal-scoring position.

Wenger on 'non-handshake' with Clive Allen. 'I shook the hand of the manager & assistant. How many people do I have to shake hands with?'

Tbh, I feel sorry for Coquelin.. He played 2 games, both away, to Man Utd and the Spuds.. And both losses.. And yet he put in good shifts in both these games..

VanPersecutor wrote:
Also, Gervinho MUST be told to alter his style of play. From what I've seen, he'd rather run straight at 3 defenders while doing 10 stepovers and giving 15 touches than pass to an unmarked teammate in a goal-scoring position.

Yep, and I've noticed this every single match. He gets tunnel vision and just decides to take players on, doesn't matter how many defenders are on him. Countless times especially in the last few matches, he's had RVP in goal scoring positions where just squaring the ball would probably net us a goal.

dmize wrote:

VanPersecutor wrote:
Also, Gervinho MUST be told to alter his style of play. From what I've seen, he'd rather run straight at 3 defenders while doing 10 stepovers and giving 15 touches than pass to an unmarked teammate in a goal-scoring position.

Yep, and I've noticed this every single match. He gets tunnel vision and just decides to take players on, doesn't matter how many defenders are on him. Countless times especially in the last few matches, he's had RVP in goal scoring positions where just squaring the ball would probably net us a goal.

thats one thing i worried about before he came, because ive seen him do that for the ivory coast and lille

just basically dribbling till time stops lol

hopefully he learns quickly that in the PL you cant just run past everyone

Im sorry to say ppl, but let this season goo...... honestly....

no use of taking tension when you know they themselves dont give a rats ass about whats going outside their little world, yes im talking from the board to the tea lady.

this is not going to change, im waiting for the youth players to come up, not this.

I havent even bothered to take tension cause i know what is eventually gonna happen.

VanPersecutor wrote:Also, Gervinho MUST be told to alter his style of play. From what I've seen, he'd rather run straight at 3 defenders while doing 10 stepovers and giving 15 touches than pass to an unmarked teammate in a goal-scoring position.

I was actually pretty happy when Arshavin came on for him. He didn't touch the ball much, but he understands when to dribble, when to pass, and when to shoot.