FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM – In the modern Premier League era, the north London derby has tended to favour the home side. In the most recent of years, that sentiment has flipped against the lilywhite half of town.
Arsenal have now won three straight games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, one more victory than Spurs have claimed at their Emirates Stadium home, despite giving their rivals a 13-year head start.
Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the Gunners is almost certainly going to prove pivotal one way or the other in Ange Postecoglou’s tenure as head coach. Once more, the stats were kind to Tottenham, who had 64% possession, more shots, more shots on target, and a better expected-goals total.
Yet it didn’t feel like they would’ve been deserved winners of this derby, even deserved point-takers had they conjured an equaliser from somewhere.
Build-up to the weekend centred around Arsenal’s scarce midfield options in the absence of Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard. Tottenham’s midfield trio walked all over Jorginho and Thomas Partey, but that mattered little in the grand scheme of the game.
Many of the hosts’ chances were half rather than full. That may be due to the imperious defensive juggernaut which Arsenal are nowadays, but that doesn’t explain their struggles to carve open Newcastle United and Leicester City already this season, or any of the 19 teams who did so last year.
The attacking blueprint is fine but deeply faulted. For Ange Postecoglou and Tottenham’s ambitions, that might not be enough to succeed. And the bigger problem is going the other way.
Spurs are easy to play against. You might not be able to get the ball off them for lengthy stretches and you might not even play well, but they will afford you space in transition, space on free kicks, space on corners. There’s always a set play to be won and a lapse in concentration to pounce upon. This time around, it was the space on the corner, however marginal that was.
What’s happening to Tottenham isn’t an accident, more the fault of ill-advised planning. Postecoglou bemoans that his side’s biggest problems is their lack of clinical finishing, but that power isn’t going to come back on again like turning on a tap – the goals won’t flow because the chances aren’t clear.
One of the biggest compliments you can pay to Mikel Arteta is that he has redefined who Arsenal are, as they too were of that ilk once upon a time. Now you’d be hard-pushed to find a more streetwise outfit.
Postecoglou has succeeded all over the world, but now under the Premier League spotlight his flaws are beginning to stand out.
Tottenham’s record in big games and derbies – zero wins against Arsenal, Chelsea and West Ham United – is becoming as predictable as their favourite play to run. Where Spurs will play a disguised reverse pass between the lines to the winger for a cutback cross at the near post, they will not take three points when the stakes are high.
Postecoglou is firm in his belief that if his men work hard enough, they will overcome this tricky period and turn into the team he is dreaming of. It’s just nowhere near as clear a guarantee that’ll happen as he seems to think.
