How was the North London Derby for you?
If you’re reading this, the chances are it was a pretty good one and, two days after one of the more comfortable derbies in recent times, you’d like a little more derby day content. Well then, my good people, please step this way.
I was out at a gig on Saturday night, if you’re interested, it was Baxter Dury, at Hammersmith Apollo – I’m old, it will always be the Hammersmith Apollo to me – and he was as excellent as his recent Schadenfreude single suggested he might be. The reason I mention this is not, “oh look at me, having a brilliant weekend”, it is merely to say that when I met the brothers Craddock – James & Marc and their uncle Tony in the Pocket just off Upper St and they asked how I was, I was tired. Like really, really tired.
Consequently, then, too tired to feel too nervous. More than that, though, I think Spurs are crap – legitimately, a terrible football team. And, yeah, I know the derby can be a great leveller but the truth of that is it hasn’t often been a great leveller at either the Emirates, or Highbury before that. Spurs have won one league game in N5 since 1993. This is no more a rivalry than Serena Williams incredibly one sided battles with Maria Sharapova once were. In fact, you could argue that Arsenal have got a bloody cheek demanding Cat A prices to watch a decidedly Cat C team turn up and try to compete with us.
Anyway, that would have been a lot to get into one response as to how I was feeling, so I didn’t say any of that. We had a quick beer, a Detroit Pizza and then off to the Lamb for a couple of liveners.
Tommy Gun by the Clash popped up on the stereo and I said nothing bad could happen on a day when you get to hear the Clash – perhaps I was more nervous than I realised.
James and I parted ways with Marc outside the stadium and headed in for another quick beer. And then made our way down to our Clock End seats. The atmosphere in the stadium felt… pregnant. It kind of reminded me a little of the vibe before the PSG semi final in April, except less emotional and more expectant. The sky behind the Emirates had turned a deep, twilight blue and the ground seemed to be crackling with anticipation. The giant tifo unfurled in front of the North Bank saw heroes of North London Derbies past rising from the ground up into the sky as if it was Arsenal’s own instantly generated Mount Rushmore.
It did not remind me of the tifo before the PSG semi final, truly a stunning piece of artwork.
We should have known what was coming really.
With Ebere Eze’ first involvement in the game, he scooped a pass over the Spurs defence and found Declan Rice, whose volley was beaten away by Vicario, rebounding narrowly past the post off a defender.
Spurs, having avoided going a goal down early did… nothing. From the opening minutes, they borrowed from Manchester City’s recent Emirates playbook – forgetting that, of course Man City were 1-0 up when they resorted to taking half an hour over goal kick, or defensive free kicks being smashed long up the pitch.
It’s funny, when the goals came, they came in such a rush that I can’t ever really remember feeling worried about how the game was going, but I guess 10 minutes before half time, it’s possible that I was. Anyway, Merino’s ball over the top found a very cute out to in run from Trossard which gave him the time to swivel and fire a shot into the corner, via a very helpful deflection from Micky Van Ven.
As everyone exploded in the Clock End around me, James was grabbing me going “Is he offside? Is he offside?” He was not offside and I managed to get a very out of focus shot of Trossard’s famous celebration.
Minutes later, with the first strains of “Tottenham get battered everywhere they go” ringing around the stadium, absolute delirium engulfed us all when Declan Rice ripped a pass into Ebere Eze on the edge of the box, evading two challenges the England man fired past Vicario, leaving the Spurs keeper desperately claiming an offside.
I presume the judgement made was that the Arsenal players offside had no bearing on the keeper’s failed attempt to save the shot. Biased, obviously, but I think it would have been incredibly harsh to rule that goal out.
One thing, watching the goals back afterwards, whilst the TV coverage obviously captures the noise of the goal celebrations really well – what it often doesn’t do is capture quite how berzerk everyone in the stadium was going. I don’t know how many strangers I hugged, or high fived, the Irish guy to my right grabbed me, shouting “I told ya we’d be alright!” as if I’d ever even asked him for reassurance. As we’ve already covered, I didn’t really need it.
Half time, 2-0 up – we have, of course been here before, losing 3-2 from the same position in 2009. But any thoughts of that particular show were immediately dispelled on the resumption of the second half.
The Spurs players were out early. Our lads made them wait and then made them pay.
Timber, coming in from the right, found Eze on the edge of the box who let the ball bobble between both feet, before passing into the far corner, off his left foot no less, as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Next to me, James just turned to me with his arms outstretched. I felt a bit sorry for all the people who missed that one, Arsenal are making a bit of a habit of scoring early in the second half. I’m not sure the beer is really that worth it.
Just as James was telling me how much he loved Martin Zubimendi, the former Real Sociedad man took a bit too long on the ball, had his pocket picked and Richarlison found an incredible lob to beat David Raya. It’s funny to have watched that goal back and hear how much the Spurs fans greeted it as they would any goal they knew was purely consolatory. I mean, Richarlison must have known, he didn’t take his shirt off, or cry, or anything like that. It did give us all a vaguely nervous 10 minutes, but ultimately, just made the joy of Eberechi Eze’s hat trick goal all the sweeter.
Coming down the left, Trossard played the ball across to Eze, he took a touch to set the shot – in the process sending Destiny Udogie sliding into another postcode before, again, finding the corner. A hat trick? On your North London derby debut?
Here was a player who had achieved legendary status before even kicking a ball for us, just by turning down Spurs to sign for us and here he was again, going what I would call, with a nod to Frank Skinner, “a stage further than that”.
Utter bedlam.
Vicario later saved another goalbound effort from Eze. I think that was probably a good thing, I don’t know how it would get better than scoring 4 v Spurs on your NLD debut. To be honest, I don’t know how it’s going to get better than this. In his derby day heroics, Eze has done something only two other Arsenal players have done in the 140-year history of the football club. I was one year old when Alan Sunderland got his hat trick in a 5-0 win in 1978.
And when you think he managed all this without Phil Foden putting everything on a plate for him? It’s mind boggling, really.