Arsenal 1 - 0 Tottenham Hotspur: Defending as a team

This was the first North London derby in a while where more attention was given to what the clubs had done off the pitch than what they were doing on it. The pre-match build-up was dominated by talk of Spurs' £100mil spending and Arsenal's lack of spending (so far), with hardly a mention of how the teams were performing on the field this season; how Spurs, with their new players, weren't the most cohesive side yet and how Arsenal, with the same squad as last season, would be the same as usual.

Ultimately, I feel that was the difference between the two sides. Arsenal played like a team that was gelled and settled, while Spurs played like a side with several new players. There was a reason why Spurs hadn't scored from open play yet this season. For all their possession today, they didn't create a single clear cut opportunity all game. Comparatively, Arsenal defended for most of the game yet, on the counter, created three or four opportunities that might have been goals had the final pass been better or had Lloris not been so good coming off his line.

It's remarkable how Arsenal has changed as a side in the last six months. A team that used to be gung-ho going forward and always press for more goals is now a team that is happy to sit back, defend and hold onto to whatever lead they have at the time. In the second half, we were like the away side, with 10 men behind the ball and countering when the opportunity arose. It's something that we're doing increasingly well. The team has good shape and the players have a great collective attitude towards defending. No one embodied that more today than Olivier Giroud. The amount of work he put in today was phenomenal.

It wasn't all perfect. Gibbs had a very tough time against Townsend and showed him inside too many times when he should have been showing down the outside. Some of passing was very sloppy, also. A better side on the day might have capitalised on these sorts of errors.

Also, while I love watching us defend like that, we do need to start controlling games more as well as be more ruthless when we do go forward. Our counter attacking is good, but I think we can become quite formidable if we became even better at it.

Overall, as a big a win as this for us, there's not a lot that can be read into it. We may mock Spurs' spending now, but they will improve as the season goes in and will be up there competing with us. We know we have a good team and should be up there as well, but we do still need new players.

Roll on deadline day. I've a feeling it's going to be absolutely mental.

Huge win, well played Arsenal. We should have scored more goals. We still need help, please Wenger buy some players.

has spurs scored from open play yet?

Giroud is now on three goals in three league games :')

lol tottenahm forum has crashed

some angry yids

Spurs can sign whoever they'd like to; North London is still red.

Raptorgunner wrote:Huge win, well played Arsenal. We should have scored more goals. We still need help, please Wenger buy some players.

This.

Credit to Lloris though he robbed us on some of those opportunities. Shame for Dembele too, that looked nasty

Spurs no goals from open play .

lloris was amazing, such a good gk

http://tf-chalkboards.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/images/0qzNy.png

BEAST

last 15 mins was so tense
almost felt like we are a man down lol

should have been much more efficient on the break
Arsenal of good old days would have put the game in to bed with half and hour to spare

some errors and giving away possession cheaply contrary to how well we did in previous match
but Intensity was higher here

Nonetheless Great win
NorthLondonIsRed

Hugeeee win, everyone played great today, especially defensively.

A couple signings for more depth and we should be good for the year.

Spoiler:

bring on them excuses spuds

Great performance from the lads. Good team defending and showed great character. A couple of decent signings and we will stay in UCL and maybe even get a cup for ourselves.

lenear1030 wrote:

Raptorgunner wrote:Huge win, well played Arsenal. We should have scored more goals. We still need help, please Wenger buy some players.

This.

Credit to Lloris though he robbed us on some of those opportunities. Shame for Dembele too, that looked nasty

I think you mean Capoue

I'm feeling wonderful

REWB wrote:lloris was amazing, such a good gk

Brilliant GK, world class. You can see, he's not only a good shot stopper but also good off the line, and his kicking is decent aswell.

Anyway enough praise for Spurs' players

Our boys were really good, defending or attacking. We had more chances and defended really well.

1-0 win, clean sheet, many chances to score... I can't ask for more in a big match.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll be as successful

I wrote up some thoughts in the opening post.

One thing I've not seen mentioned yet is Szczesny's save in the second half. I thought it was one of the key moments of the game as deflections like that can easily wrong foot the keeper.

I thought Gibbs struggled with Townsend in the first half, but he improved in the second when he got a bit more help from the midfield. Shows that he does still have things to work on a defender.

Top performance from Giroud. Think he's going to have a great season.

My take on the game..

Without the ball

It was clear in the early minutes that both sides had differing strategies without the ball. The most defining tactical feature was arsenal’s refusal to press. This was super-frustrating and was directly responsible for Tottenham’s dominance in the early 25 minutes. They were given time on the ball to pick out passes, especially long-field diagonals to the wingers Chadli and Townsend. Jenkinson simply didn’t know where the former was early on while the latter was the biggest threat as he troubled Gibbs throughout the first half. It was simple – he will receive the ball on the right flank and then cut inside and shoot; this happened 3 times, forcing Szczesny into two good saves. Having said that, it meant that arsenal defended as a unit and frustrated spurs in the final third.

Villas-Boas is an advocate of pressing and using a highline and they were determined to stop arsenal building from the back easily. Their 4-3-3 meant that Paulinho and Dembele moved high up to track arsenal’s double pivot – Wilshere and Ramsey – which meant Capoue was often left on his own in front of the back four. This was brave and it seemed to cause arsenal problems early on but it was more of arsenal’s fault rather than Spurs’s brilliance.

Giroud and Walcott offer arsenal variety

Arsenal’s two main strengths upfront were Giroud and Walcott. The former constantly won headers against both Vertonghen and Dawson and his physical presence was simply too much for them to deal wth. He stayed high to pin them back and then at other times he dropped off a bit to receive possession – it was a fantastic all-round display. Meanwhile, Walcott was a threat running in-behind. Danny Rose is still not very experienced and his questionable positioning allowed Walcott in-behind him to cross for Giroud to score. To be fair, left-backs have been troubled by Walcott’s runs since pre-season – only Antonio Luna did a good job against him. He returned back to his habit of last season – moving into striking positions from the flank. Perhaps, it was because he sensed fresh meat as Spurs were using a highline. He ran in-behind Rose again but Lloris came out to sweep well, denying him what will have been an almost certain goal.

This is a good reason why Lloris is picked ahead of Friedel. He is able to sweep up if the highline is breached and he did so again in the 2nd half to deny Walcott. Friedel belongs to the old-school generation of American keepers who prefer staying on their line more and one feels that if he had played, Walcott could have scored.

Spurs 4-4-2

Nothing changed in the 2nd half as both sides continued to play the same way. That was until Defoe came on to make spurs 4-4-2 – I was genuinely concerned, he is good in running in-behind and spurs have caused arsenal problems when using 4-4-2 in the past. Defoe dropped back to midfield when they didn’t have the ball to ensure arsenal didn’t outnumber them in midfield too much.

Giroud’s goal showed why many managers prefer using a double pivot in front of the defence rather than a single holder. With Dembele and Paulinho generally high up against Wilshere and Ramsey, Capoue was – on paper – alone against Rosicky in front of Spurs defence. For the goal, Rosicky moved to the right flank and Capoue didn’t want to follow him there or else he’d get dragged out of position, which will then leave a huge space in front of the defence. So, Rosicky picked up the ball in space on the right, sent a through ball for Walcott and Giroud scored. Now, if Capoue had a partner in front of the defence, he would have felt safe to follow Rosicky, confident that his partner will cover the other space.

Conclusion

Winning 1-0 means Wenger can justify his stand-off game because it worked, although it caused arsenal some problems, particularly before they scored. After the goal, there was slightly more tempo but the general stand-off continued. A week is a lot in football – after losing on the opening day, arsenal are now 2 points ahead of Man utd, ahead of Spurs and suddenly the feel-good factor is back. A week really is a lot in this sport, isn’t it?

Will come back later to check Jay’s excellent analysis…

you guys need to go to planet spurs

they think they were better side..

wow.. that was a typical North London Derby..
we showed good fighting spirit and great defending to win all the 3 points.. and with Manure losing their match, i cant remember such a happy day in the near past..
was surprised to see Wenger starting Jenko ahead of Sagna.. was he not fully fit or was it just a rest ? and Wilshere-Ramsey double pivot as expected.. the gameplan was clear.. Spuds were trying to copy Villa and hit us hard in the midfield.. they were partially successful in doing it.. we couldnt find a tempo to dominate and play our game.. but we made the better chances while breaking through.. if should have been atleast 3 goals if it was not for Lloris.. i am worried that he is such an asset and will win many points for Spuds single handedly.. we defended well to keep the lead.. and some very good saves and catches from Sczeny..
Back 4 were very solid.. Townsend was threat, but Gibbs managed him well later by staying back and defending.. most of the attacks were through the right wing.. Jenko defended well and got fowards with some decent play.. Metskr and Koscielny were excellent.. lost count of the times when Soldado got Bossed..
initial midfield didnt look good.. Wilsheres defensive awareness was once again concern, or was he not fully fit.. hope it is not serious.. Ramsey looked good whenever he got the ball, and may be that confidence is showing when he had a few attempts from outside the box.. Rosicky was full of energy and pressed hard well.. Flamini played decent.. Cazorla almost scored twice from the free kicks.. and he did well despite the intense physical pressure from Spuds.. i felt that we too were not keen to play our passing game.. knowing AVBs high line, we were playing long passes and through balls trying to unleash Giroud and Walcott..
Walcott was always a threat and sad that he was denied a couple of times by some very good saves.. Giroud.. the MOM for me.. brilliant finish for the goal.. held the ball very well.. passing was accurate and even won the ball with good defensive work and workrate..
overall it was a very good team performance.. but we couldnt dominate or play our natural game.. we played mostly in the counterattack mode.. and it is hard to analyse and underestimate Spuds from this match.. the team they are trying to build is scaring me.. pace and power.. they have amazing depth.. Defoe, Lamela, Eriksen, Lennon, etc all didnt start.. and our bench.. the attacking options left are Sanogo, Gnabry, Zelalem.. 4 games gone.. and Arteta, Podolski, Ox missing.. surely needs some signings..
Sczeny - 7
Gibbs - 7
Jenko - 6.5
Metskr -7
Kos -7.5
Ramsey-6
Cazorla - 7
Wilshere - 6
Flamini - 6
Rosicky - 6.5
Walcot - 7
Giroud - 7.5
Monreal - 6

Some of my thoughts:

Positive:

- Defend as a team, focus til the end.

- Giroud and his consistent goal scoring form, I really like his link up touch and he worked really hard today as well, 1st line of defense.

- Our front three compose some very good counter attacking moves, and shown how deadly they can be if opponent pushing high.

- Midfield played very compact, left very little space. I like what I saw from Flamini, like he never left; Ramsey continued to impress but today couple of decision making could be better.

- No nonsene defense, Jenk & Gibbs did get exposed couple of times by their wingers but good performance overall. Also I never seen anyone got gangbanged so hard like Soldano, dude literally crying at the end.

- Chesny played very focus today, he was in control against some long shots which was his main weakness.

Negative

- Jack injury

- We still need to get 1 more goal up from all those chances to seal the game, Lloris was amazing though

- Our fullbacks need to defend better. Reason why we didn't get punished mostly because for some reason Spurs using wrong footed wingers. I didn't watch their 1st games but their crosses were so awkward and weak, their most dangerous play from the wing were mostly cut in ( maybe Bale effect)

All in all, very encouraging performance and I hope we will continue this form will all those new signings next week  

Flamini back and lucky the ref didn't send him off. Brings lots of tenacity but that tackle was a rash moment.

Ramey was MOTM, I mean yeah he makes a few blunders on the ball but wow, he made tottenhams "big strong" midfielders look like little mice today  

first 40 minutes I had particular attention on how ramsey and wilshere work together, for the third start in a row it was fine, wilsheres definitely worked on his defensive positioning and is regaining that sharpness on the ball. I said before the season started they have a lot potential as a double pivot and each game since villa has made me more sure. Im glad jacks not injured, that would have been very unfortunate timing.

Good performance defensively bar a couple of disasterous clearences (I look at you giroud) that nearly added to our "individual error" goal tally, and a bad start by gibbs and jenkinson, but they got better as the game went on.

I am more impressed by giroud this season, not his goals, but his hold up play has actually improved. I still think he is a bit meh though, and we need someone at least to provide him competition (sanogo is clearly miles from being ready atm). If Giroud gets an injury forget false 9, we will be playing the invisible 9

3 points against the arrogant spuds, NOW SIGN SOME PLAYERS!!!!!!!!