Arsenal 2 Tottenham 3:THIS PREMIER League season is taking its toll of managers already. It is not so much the results as the sense of helplessness that does the damage. Arsenal, a couple of points from the top of the table, appear well-placed despite witnessing a 2-0 lead over Tottenham Hotspur at half-time turn into a defeat.
Arsene Wenger was in a clueless condition afterwards. “It is very difficult to explain even when you’ve been in the job as long as I have,” he confessed.
His opposite number, Harry Redknapp, saw Tottenham’s first away win at Arsenal in 17 years and his assumption is that all the major clubs are fallible. For him the sport is undergoing a climate change. “I think Tottenham have got a championship in them in the next few years,” he said. “Why shouldn’t they?”
Naturally the manager also wants further signings soon that would help him “tweak” the team and sustain the advance that has already led them to the Champions League.
The immediate challenge is to get players to set aside their deference and Redknapp was irate at the interval on Saturday. “I got the hump with Gareth Bale,” he explained.
“The right-back Sagna made a diabolical tackle on him and then Gareth went for a header and bumped Sagna and walked over and shook hands with him. I said, ‘What are we?’ We’re not the nice guys. Let’s go out there and compete with them in the second half.”
That approach should stimulate interest. This is not a regular Premier League season. It is eight years since a side lost three games at home and won the title. Wenger’s team pulled off that feat but Arsenal presently stand third despite being beaten on that number of occasions already at the Emirates.
The initial mastery against Tottenham was illusory. Wenger could grumble about the after-effects of the midweek international programme when, to take one example, Andrey Arshavin had been through the full 90 minutes of Russia’s defeat at home by Belgium in a friendly played in Voronezh. Arsenal should still have had the know-how to conserve energy and cherish the 2-0 lead.
Wenger instead saw a familiar failing. “Many times we have come out and dropped the urgency a little bit when we are ahead,” he said.
Arsenal might well have assumed then that Tottenham were harmless. Goals had come readily. A through-pass from Cesc Fabregas made Heurelho Gomes hesitate and Nasri beat him to the ball before squeezing in the opener after nine minutes. Marouane Chamakh then got ahead of Younes Kaboul in the 28th minute to fire in a second from Arshavin’s delivery.
The visitors’ powers of recovery were deepened by Redknapp’s reshaping of the side. Jermain Defoe came on to stretch the Arsenal back four and, with Aaron Lennon removed, Rafael van der Vaart relocated to the right of midfield after finding himself isolated when serving as a support striker to Roman Pavlyuchenko. The plan was bold and so was its execution.
Even so Wenger’s side ought not to have been caught on the break as they were in the 50th minute when Van der Vaart took a head flick from Defoe and sent Bale through to score.
After 66 minutes Fabregas, standing inside his own area, threw up an arm to protect himself as Van der Vaart cracked a free-kick and so handled the ball. The Dutchman converted the penalty to Fabianski’s right.
Arsenal should still have regained the lead but Laurent Koscielny miscued a header. He was unreliable, too, in defence and it was odd that Wenger had not retained Johan Djourou despite Koscielny’s availability.
Tottenham’s winner came in the 86th minute as Kaboul headed in a Van der Vaart set piece. Wenger had an almost old-fashioned tone to his vexation. “We were not there,” he said. “When there’s four minutes to go you make sure you win the headers.”
There would have been particular glee for one member of the Tottenham side. William Gallas became estranged from Arsenal and left the club as a free agent in the summer. In a match of five goals no defender was in total command but the Frenchman, whom Redknapp had made captain for the day, made several excellent challenges.
His temperament, too, was cool and it did not disturb Gallas that Samir Nasri, with whom he had fallen out at Arsenal, declined to shake hands before kick-off.
Guardian Service
