On Friday afternoon, following a pair of Premier League away performances probably best described as sub optimal and an increasingly noisy build up to a huge North London Derby, Mikel Arteta laid it out for his players.
“Do you want to be part of the noise? Or not? If not, go and do something else, be part of a different club.”
I think part of the reason I have so much time for the manager is that when he speaks, he very often says exactly what I have been thinking myself. Don’t back away from me now, everybody, stay with me…
And ever since the gutting conclusion to the Wolves game on Wednesday night, Thierry Henry’s quote, “If the badge on your chest is too heavy, then leave” had been rattling around in my head and I was starting to wonder whether the cannon was, in fact, too heavy for some of our players.
So I was heartened to hear Mikel come out with a line like that. We have come too far this season to turn back now.
In some ways, you could say a Sunday afternoon in N17 was exactly what the team needed. A game where the wider context of the Premier League title race could, and had to be, forgotten. All that mattered here was getting three points, if it happened via Gabriel’s arse in the last minute, then fine, but get the points, and if a performance came with it all the better.
I think it’s fair to say we got both.
Mikel leaned into the narrative vibes around this game, with Ebere Eze restored to the starting line up along with Leo Trossard, Saka returning to his right wing berth, and Martinelli and Madueke returning to their rightful places on the bench. By the time Saka drove into the Spurs penalty area and cut the ball back for Eze to flick the ball up and volley it home, it’s no exaggeration to say we could have been 3-0 up.
Gyokeres had started in bullish mood and, having cut in from the left had speared a shot wide in a real “did you see that?” moment. He’d also teed up Saliba from a corner, who headed just wide of the goal and had his own goalbound header blocked on the line. Trossard had a long ranger cleared off the line after a Vicario brain fade and had also smashed a ball back towards Finsbury Park with his left foot, when he might have been better taking it on his right. We were smothering them.
And all this in the face of one of the more aggravating delays of the season when comms between the referee, Peter Bankes, and one of his lovely assistants broke down about 5 minutes into the game and delayed everything for an eternity. Best league in the world though, amirite?
None of this mattered though because we were 1-0 up now and, as Declan Rice rightly gathered everyone around, demanding focus and concentration, nothing could go wrong now – right?
Oh, Declan.
What was he thinking as he tried to swivel his way out of our penalty area just 20 seconds after the restart? Answers on a postcard to Cannon Towers please. Randall Kolo Muani picked his pocket and, with Spurs first touch in the penalty area, scored his first goal for Tottenham.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bit fed up of this. We had the Edozi kid in midweek scoring on his professional debut, the United worldies a few weeks back – as my Nan used to say, a joke’s a joke but enough’s enough now, come on. It was all starting to feel a bit… last season.
For balance, I will also say that having watched the match highlights on Match of the Day since writing the above, I found myself more able to laugh about this – we gave Spurs hope they didn’t really deserve and then snatched it away as if, like Keyser Soze, it never really existed.
Anyway, chances came and went for Saka and Trossard and we found ourselves 1-1 at half time.
Annoyed as I was by the equaliser, I had been bullish before the game, pointing out on Bluesky that we were having an existential crisis from the top of the Premier League. We’re not there by accident. You think we’ve got it bad? Imagine being a Tottenham fan at the moment.
Nothing I’d seen in the first half had changed my mind we would win this game and, probably, reasonably comfortably. Especially if the touches in the opposition box followed the same pattern as in the first half, 24 for us and 1 to Spurs if you were wondering.
Ludicrously, the second half resumption was delayed by yet another issue with the officials communications. Whereas the first half one had interfered with our lightning start, though, full credit to Rice and the lads because this time, they came out swinging. Two minutes in, Jurrien Timber fired a ball into Viktor Gyokeres from the right back position. The Swede, freed by the movement of Eze away from the ball and in a moment surely destined for the pre match video at the Emirates, took a touch on the edge of the box before swivelling and ripping the ball into the corner of the net.
Ian Wright once told me in an interview for this very website, dear David Rocastle had said to him the night he signed for Arsenal, “if you score against them (Spurs), you are in for life!” Wrighty came to know more than most about that and so we now welcome big Vik to the club.
I’m going to be very honest about Gabriel buying a foul off Kolo Muani for Spurs disallowed equaliser.
I think we were incredibly lucky there and I don’t quite understand why Gabriel insists on doing it, especially as he’s never really got away with it till now. You can say that Kolo Muani shouldn’t have put 2 hands on his back and maybe you’re right, but I don’t think that contact is enough, or should be enough, for Gabriel to go down like that. Maybe it’s a risk worth taking if you know you’re not getting to the ball anyway, but I think I’d be really unhappy if we had a goal ruled out in those circumstances.
Anyway, thank you Peter Bankes.
The third goal came what seemed like moments later. Eze combining with Gyokeres in a lovely bit of quick football to put Saka away down the right. Saka was tackled as he was about to shoot, but the ball broke our way for what felt like the first time this year and Eze passed it into an unguarded net, before celebrating Booker T styleee. Two North London derbies, five goals. It’s not been an easy season for the South Londoner, but he will remember these games forever.
Compare his joy with the face of Xavi Simons who, understandably, really does look like he’d rather be anywhere other than Tottenham right now. It really did all work out, eh?
There was a brief period of OLEing that followed a period of possession Arsenal had as the game wound towards its end. I didn’t love that. Of all the many games I’ve been to over the last 35 years, one of those I will always remember is the NLD in 2008, when we were 4-2 up in injury time and still somehow DIDN’T WIN. So I will never feel entirely comfortable in this fixture unless there is a margin of three.
And a measure of how precarious football, especially this fixture, can be by nature came around the 82nd minute, when David Raya, much more like his usual self than the panic-ridden keeper we saw at Wolves, was beaten by a Richarlison backheel which was deflected through his legs. Somehow he managed to react, turning and stretching out to claw the ball off his line, Cristhian Mosquera (on as sub for a seemingly exhausted Jurrien Timber) completing the clearance.
Thankfully, with the stadium emptying at rates which would make Haringey Fire Brigade hearts sing, a three goal margin is exactly what we got. Some good football from the team that is apparently incapable of it (or so I have read) and Odegaard, on as sub for Eze, played in Gyokeres on the left side of the box. Mikel Arteta knew what was about to come, I have to tell you dear reader, so did I. I watched arms aloft as the Swede stormed into the box before curling the ball high into the corner of the net to cap his own brilliant performance.
Game, set and match.
Two North London Derbies this season, 8 goals scored and yet another win at the Toilet Bowl stadium secured. That is what it’s called, right?
One of the really weird things out of the two games this season is that all 8 goals have been scored without the direct involvement of our freshly signed up number 7. I don’t mention this in any way to denigrate the contribution of Bukayo Saka, from where I’m sitting he absolutely should have had an assist for the first Eze goal, was an absolute menace throughout Sunday’s game and could very easily have had himself a hat trick.
I see it more as a positive that we now have players who can contribute just as much to the team as a player who has had too much on his shoulders for too long. Is it a coincidence that with Ebere Eze in the team to vibe with and spring him into space, the Ealing man looked much more like his usual self?
Speaking of whom…
In his post-match comments, Mikel talked about Eze and how unhappy he had been (rightly I think) not to have started at Wolves in midweek following a great performance against Wigan last weekend. Eze, the boyhood Arsenal fan, has had a tricky first season here, but on Sunday, he put his hand up and said, never mind the noise, this badge on my chest is absolutely not too heavy and I can win us this Premier League.
If Arteta is right about now understanding how to get the best out of him, then, despite all the noise, we may be in for the best three months of our lives.
Buckle up.