Saturday 17 November 2012

Arsenal showed they are still the kings of North London

In my opinion, Arsenal are still the top dogs in North London. I've just witnessed Harry Redknapp say Tottenham are better than Arsenal and will finish above us this season, and it's a bit of an odd time to come out with that statement. Not only have Arsenal just thrashed Tottenham 5-2 (again) but Tottenham have lost 3 games in a row in the Premier League now.


I know Tottenham had 10 men for the majority of the game, but Arsenal had already built up a head of steam for a few minutes before the sending off and, as the commentators and Wenger said, it's not necessarily easier playing against 10 men, especially when you're chasing the game. Tottenham became more defensive then, plus it's their own fault they got sent down to 10 men, it was their carelessness and wrecklessness that gave them the 1 man disadvantage. Arsenal didn't show such immaturity.

We absolutely pulvarised them going forward, Cazorla, Walcott and Giroud in particular were all outstanding. Cazorla majestic, Walcott fantastic and Giroud a real outlet and thorn in the side of their defenders, he's in really good form and is starting to look the real deal. I don't want to get carried away, but he's good a very good left foot, his finishing's getting better, he's great in the air, has decent skill and links up play well. He's settling in, scoring a few and getting better game by game. Plus, another crucial thing with him is that, even from when he first started playing for us, he always gets chances. Like Jelavic at Everton, he always gets himself into good positions and is always in and around showing his qualities of anticipation and movement. It's when your strikers aren't even getting any chances by getting in the right positions when you should be truly worried.

But I just don't see how anyone can say Tottenham are better than us. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we're brilliant or title contenders, I just think we're better than Tottenham. As are Everton in my opinion. What do Tottenham have that we don't? Better players? No. A better squad? No. A better manager? No. More consistency? No. More experience of top four battles? No.

It's great to see that we're still the better side in North London, today was always going to be a big test of that, and we passed it with flying colours. There's not much that beats beating your nearest and most hated rivals, especially when you conk them like we did today and last February. I can't get my head around it being 5-2 AGAIN, who would have seen that coming? It's a bit like Liverpool v Newcastle in the mid- nineties. Lightning striking twice.

So let's all revel in the joy and excitement and enjoy the win, the terrific, convincing win and enjoy the week ahead with in in our minds, as well as the bragging right for at least the next 3 or 4 months.

TTFN.

(Image source: Daily Mirror: http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1441274.ece/ALTERNATES/s338b/CS32017695Arsenals+Per+Mert.jpg)