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

[BrainOfLevy]

I think having calmed down from the disappointment of the loss, I can see what Poch is saying when he says details decide games. They clearly wanted to push us back and press us high and wouldn’t have been able to keep that up all game. Just at the point where it looks like we have weathered it for the first half, they get the benefit of a ridiculous decision and then another soon after and it kills us.

On the other hand, you can see Ben Davies’ interview which he basically says we were rubbish, and is no where near as kind as Poch is on the team. So something has gone wrong today. Maybe it is injuries, maybe it was too soon for Kane and Dele. Maybe Dembele wasn’t the one for this. But I think the sad thing was, we allowed ourselves to be bullied by Arsenal. They pressed us aggressively and high, and pretty quickly, we gave up trying to play our game in the face of that pressure. As Neville was saying, we kept trying to float these easy balls forward rather than playing quality drilled balls into feet like we usually do, and I think it was because we were scared. It happened last year at Emirates Marketing Project as well. Maybe a formation change would help but I bet Poch was thinking about his favourite word - brave - and wanted our players to show it. We just weren’t today. We matched them in formation but didn’t match them for bravery. Maybe injuries made it difficult. Maybe the small decisions unjustly altered the flow of the game. But I think Arsenal earned it because they bullied us into submission and our players didn’t believe in themselves sufficiently to play their game in response.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I think having calmed down from the disappointment of the loss, I can see what Poch is saying when he says details decide games. They clearly wanted to push us back and press us high and wouldn’t have been able to keep that up all game. Just at the point where it looks like we have weathered it for the first half, they get the benefit of a ridiculous decision and then another soon after and it kills us.

On the other hand, you can see Ben Davies’ interview which he basically says we were rubbish, and is no where near as kind as Poch is on the team. So something has gone wrong today. Maybe it is injuries, maybe it was too soon for Kane and Dele. Maybe Dembele wasn’t the one for this. But I think the sad thing was, we allowed ourselves to be bullied by Arsenal. They pressed us aggressively and high, and pretty quickly, we gave up trying to play our game in the face of that pressure. As Neville was saying, we kept trying to float these easy balls forward rather than playing quality drilled balls into feet like we usually do, and I think it was because we were scared. It happened last year at Emirates Marketing Project as well. Maybe a formation change would help but I bet Poch was thinking about his favourite word - brave - and wanted our players to show it. We just weren’t today. We matched them in formation but didn’t match them for bravery. Maybe injuries made it difficult. Maybe the small decisions unjustly altered the flow of the game. But I think Arsenal earned it because they bullied us into submission and our players didn’t believe in themselves sufficiently to play their game in response.

All very fair and pertinent comments

You have to earn the right to play in this league and today we didn’t win the battles

 

[DTA]

The way i see it is this:

Congratulations to arsenal for taking the effeminates NLD trophy I suppose it replaces their 4th place trophy now days.

West ham raise their game when they play us as well. Nothing more.

 

[90291Spur]

The way i see it is this:

Congratulations to arsenal for taking the effeminates NLD trophy I suppose it replaces their 4th place trophy now days.

West ham raise their game when they play us as well. Nothing more.

Orrible Goons coming out of the woodwork today with their Gloaty Gooner sentiments. What absolute tossers the lot of them are. Classless, guileless, tactless and clueless. One of them tried the ‘Always in our shadow’ line and did not like it when I informed him of his ignorance of the definition of the word ‘always’. I’d rather eat stale rancid vomit than associate with them.

 

[Aldo]

At least Dean didn't string us along with promises that he'd sign a new contract before fudging off to Woolwich.

 

[glasgowspur]

Small margins, the breaks that we got against Madrid and Liverpool man u and arsenal got against us.
It was even and could have went either way up until the 2nd goal.
Everything they tried came off today, good luck keeping that going.

Two things are becoming more obvious as time goes on, we struggle after a break and the refs are getting worse every year.

 

[DTA]

Orrible Goons coming out of the woodwork today with their Gloaty Gooner sentiments. What absolute tossers the lot of them are. Classless, guileless, tactless and clueless. One of them tried the ‘Always in our shadow’ line and did not like it when I informed him of his ignorance of the definition of the word ‘always’. I’d rather eat stale rancid vomit than associate with them.

I have found that the above shuts them up pretty well. Feel free to use it

 

[Aldo]

Orrible Goons coming out of the woodwork today with their Gloaty Gooner sentiments. What absolute tossers the lot of them are. Classless, guileless, tactless and clueless. One of them tried the ‘Always in our shadow’ line and did not like it when I informed him of his ignorance of the definition of the word ‘always’. I’d rather eat stale rancid vomit than associate with them.

I'm delighted that they are happy to be level on points with Burnley.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Small margins, the breaks that we got against Madrid and Liverpool man u and arsenal got against us.
It was even and could have went either way up until the 2nd goal.
Everything they tried came off today, good luck keeping that going.

Two things are becoming more obvious as time goes on, we struggle after a break and the refs are getting worse every year.

What breaks do you mean?
Did the ref give us things in those games?
I know that Trippier was offside wasn’t vs Madrid at home but Llorente should have had a clear penalty at their ground

 

[glasgowspur]

What breaks do you mean?
Did the ref give us things in those games?
I know that Trippier was offside wasn’t vs Madrid at home but Llorente should have had a clear penalty at their ground

Not the refs decisions, the breaks of the ball in the middle of the park. Lose balls breaking to them from tackles, 50/50s etc.
Everything ran for them today, it was their day, they played ok, but luck was definitely on their side.

 

[Kandi1977]

I really don't get the "excuse" that we only lost because Arsenal and West Ham "upped" their game vs us. Then why the fudge don't we do it then? Giving 100% is the fudging least I expect!

 

[90291Spur]

I really don't get the "excuse" that we only lost because Arsenal and West Ham "upped" their game vs us. Then why the fudge don't we do it then? Giving 400% is the fudging least I expect!

We have had problems this season against teams lower than us in the league, and today was no exception. Plus we struggle against teams from South London (palace and today, for example).

 

[DTA]

I really don't get the "excuse" that we only lost because Arsenal and West Ham "upped" their game vs us. Then why the fudge don't we do it then? Giving 400% is the fudging least I expect!

Because our biggest game of the season so far was against Madrid... and theirs was against us.

I know you are disappointed dude. We all are but fudge it... It's one game, and it means more to them than us... we have bigger fish to fry.

 

[90291Spur]

I have found that the above shuts them up pretty well. Feel free to use it

I’ve found that nothing shuts them up. Most of them, the ‘Gooners’, are incapable of listening to reason. One year recently (when Emirates Marketing Project won it) my idiot kid brother boasted that they had beentop of the league longer than anyone else. They are an inbreed u to themselves and I wouldn’t tinkle on them if they were on fire.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Because our biggest game of the season so far was against Madrid... and theirs was against us.

I know you are disappointed dude. We all are but fudge it... It's one game, and it means more to them than us... we have bigger fish to fry.

Just a request, mate - please don't use this sort of logic. I'm still in a black mood, but I've only just calmed down... and I'd like to keep it that way.

You can come up with much better, much more pertinent reasons for them being sh*ts. I believe you can.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Also, I was thinking about the parallels to the 10-11 season - the last time we looked deadly in the Champions League. That season, we floundered domestically while excelling in Europe, and it was pretty clear then that the players were far more enthused about performing on the biggest stage when compared to doing the bread-and-butter stuff in domestic competitions. I think Dan Louw (the Spurs fan who made the excellent 'Away Days' videos on Youtube) put it best in his video on our victory against Milan at the San Siro - he remarked that it was utterly incredible that we'd beaten one of the best sides in Europe on their own patch, and that it was all the more funny because we'd probably lose to Blackpool the following weekend.

And then we *did* lose to Blackpool that weekend.

Does anyone think that the same sort of phenomenon might be affecting our players this time around? I.e, that we're entranced by the glamour and prestige of the CL nights and thus look a different side there when compared to in the PL? Open question - haven't made my mind up by any means.

 

[Spurs7891]

Disappointing performance and result but not really surprised ! We are totally different team when we play away to top 6 teams, especially with Alderweireld out injured. Thought we will do just enough to get a draw but instead we were so poor that we were very fortunate not to get humiliated by 4 or 5 goals ! This was a North London derby against Arsenal but for some reason we didn't turn up at all.

All our key players were poor in this match. We needed Kane to inspire us as he had scored 6 goals against Arsenal before this. Instead, Kane was very poor and didn't look like scoring. We only seem to play well when Kane plays well but he was very poor in this match. In fact, Kane has been poor since coming back from injury. Maybe he is still not fully fit. After brilliant hattrick for Denmark, thought Eriksen will be on fire in this match. Instead, he was never in this match, apart from a shot that hit the post. Similiarly, Alli was ineffective for us. Son wasted another one-on-one chance after coming on in the second half. Llorente set up that chance for Son but didn't have any other impact other than that. Despite this, thought Pochettino was wrong to take off Kane and Alli as they are our main goal scorers.

We lost this match in midfield as they outplayed us. Dembele and Sissoko were unable to control the midfield. We badly missed the workrate and tenacity of Wanyama and Lamela. Sissoko was probably our best player and that only reflects how poorly the others played. Sissoko worked hard and went on a few dribbling runs but his finishing was again poor. Dembele had a poor match and Winks who replaced him didn't do any better either.

We were let down by our defence in this match. Our defending were poor for both the goals. We badly missed the composure of Alderweireld. Sanchez had a good match but still made a few crucial errors. He gave away the the needless freekick from which they scored their first goal and should have tackled the cross from which they scored their second goal. Dier should have cleared the header for the first goal as well. I think Alderweireld would have stopped both the goals.

After being unbeaten against Arsenal in our last 6 matches under Pochettino, it is really disappointing to lose like this. Our lack of squad depth means we are getting very predictable and teams find it easy to stop us. We also badly need to improve our away record against the top 6 teams as we have only won 1 match against them in the last 3 years. Let's hope we will improve greatly once Wanyama and Lamela returns from injury.

 

[markysimmo]

With how good we are I just don't get why we show such little belief in ourselves whenever we go away to a top side, it's ridiculous really

 

[Glenda's Legs]

Does anyone think that the same sort of phenomenon might be affecting our players this time around? I.e, that we're entranced by the glamour and prestige of the CL nights and thus look a different side there when compared to in the PL? Open question - haven't made my mind up by any means.

I don't, not at all.
Yesterday, for whatever reasons, was not good, we lacked focus, But that hasn't been the case in our PL campaign in general.

 

[AjaxDeSuperYids]

Although injuries forced Poch's hand we can't be playing with one orthodox deep lying central midfielder in such a game. Having first dembele and then winks in there on their own left us exposed and our options limited during the midfield battle. What should have been our base and springboard for attacks was non existent with just one man in there.

Mike Dean needs to be seriously looked at now and either demoted or thrown out by the leader of the referees. Mistakes happen of course and in the heat of the moment, with a second to make decisions people make mistakes. It's why I don't blame the linesman for missing the two offside goals as there was little in it and therefore hard to see - for those ones we need VAR asap. It's totally ridiculous that with a quick look at the replay both their goals should have been ruled out yet in 2017 there allowed to stand. It's embarrassing to the game. I also don't blame dean for missing the penalty on Kane. There wasn't a lot in it and could have gone either way, although Ian Wright conceded it was ultimately the wrong decision from dean as it was a penalty.

But dean needs to now be looked at and action taken accordingly as although you can forgive decisions open to interpretation, you cannot forgive that twice now his strange mind has seen things that quite clearly and simply did not happen. First against Swansea Aurier should have a stonewall penalty, yet dean inexplicably invents a handball against Aurier which prevents the penalty from being given. And today the imperious and motm imo Davinson Sanchez, is frankly disgustingly penalised for a brilliant piece of defending by deans breathtaking invention in his presumably rapidly deteriorating mind, that Davinson Sanchez was pulling that midget clams shirt.

How is this guy coming up with these two decisions based both times on things that simply clearly did not occur?

He genuinely needs to be looked at and action taken accordingly by those in charge.

As for the Anal and south London's finest - enjoy this cheating win and know that 2/3 of your frontline are fudging off on free transfers to the mancs in little over six months, know that your an illegal brick franchise club from woolwich and know that we will utterly batter you at Wembley.