Behind Enemy Lines

Article by Michael Halepas

On Saturday evening I had the pleasure of going to the Emirates to watch our FA Cup clash with the Gooners.

The journey to the stadium wasn't too bad although I got the distinct feeling that there might not be too many other ‘Yiddos’ in my carriage. The topics of conversation wouldn’t have been my first choice for a tube journey either but at least now I know how many goals Thierry Henry scored in his time at Arsenal.

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All I could think about on the way to the game was how backwards Spurs have gone as a team. On the first day of the current league campaign not many would've forecast Levy’s and AVB's collective train wreck through the Autumn and into the Winter. Thankfully, the new managerial/coaching appointment has achieved a decent points haul in his first 4 games in charge of a senior first team.

With the spotlight on the FA Cup this weekend, the focus was on The North London derby. Without question a match you want to end up on the winning side of, though certain Derby Day performances in recent memory don't do much to inspire confidence.

Adebayor, the pariah, was once a man few Spurs fans wanted to see in a Lilywhite shirt again after his last run out at the Emirates. Under AVB he would never have started this game let alone have expected to find himself on the substitutes bench. Under Sherwood he is the great hope upon whom we rely to make the difference. That is a painful admission to make.

Emmanuel would not feel a stranger to making the difference for Spurs in this fixture but on Saturday evening we could only hope that Arsenal might be on the wrong end of one of his maverick decisions. His rhetoric constantly has the same rhyme – that he has been nothing but a consummate professional, unfairly treated for no good reason. Of the 60,000+ people inside the Emirates that evening, none owed Spurs fans more than Adebayor. Emmanuel is a grown man so there could be no permissible excuses in North London should he choose to make any reckless decisions. Arsenal are top of the league after all, and they wouldn't need a helping hand from Ade to win this game.

At Wood Green Underground Station we came across a more familiar and warming noise – the sound of Spurs fans! For the first time that day it dawned on me - this is a massive match! I was lucky enough to have a ticket to this epic match up. History tells us that all form goes out of the window when these sides meet. Clean sheets are rarely kept and chances are a plenty. Oh, how I wanted my team to win this evening. 

Disembarking at Arsenal Underground Station I made my way with the masses to the stadium. I was left in little doubt as to whose territory this was by the crowds that greeted people at the station exit.

Once inside the stadium and at my seat I took in what the stadium had to offer. The seats are more comfortable than our own and space isn’t the premium it is at WHL. The WHL screens are better placed and more visible than the ones at the Emirates. The atmosphere had the buzz you’d associate with a 60,000 seater but not the electricity I’m used to at the compact WHL.

When the action started on the pitch I found it tricky not jumping up off my seat every time Spurs attacked. I might not have mentioned that I wasn’t sitting in the Spurs section of the stadium. Luckily for me however, my team didn’t do too much to risk me giving myself away!

By the end of the match I could only think how rubbish we had been. When Walcott was stretchered off I was making a trip to the gents so I missed the coin throwing and only realised we were playing against 10 men when there were 5 minutes remaining.

Arsenal had the better chances and were looking to penetrate whenever they broke into our final third. Unfortunately, we were doing the opposite every time we were up the other end. I saw it with my own eyes. I got the feeling at times during that first half that Spurs needed a kick up the backside to spark some kind of urgency and they got what they had asked for. That goal wouldn’t have been so detrimental had the second not come with such ease.

I don’t get to many Spurs games anymore but find that when I do get the chance to watch a match live you get a far better impression of a game than only seeing what the camera lets you. When I found out the starting XIs I was more worried than others seemed to be with confirmation that Theo Walcott would be leading the attack. I’ve been around long enough to know that Dawson v Walcott = bad times.

During the first half especially, I did think there were lots of times when we could’ve done with an extra man in the middle of the pitch to help with numbers. Dembele and Bentaleb both clocked up the miles but were chasing the ball with little success. That kind of treatment makes players tire and fatigue leads to mistakes. Respect to both those guys for doing their best.

At one point even the odious Jack Wiltshire reared his head with his little man syndrome leading to a coming together with Dembele off the ball. I suspect he might not fancy his chances if there wasn't a referee about.

Sherwood liked the chances of outsmarting Arsene at the Emirates despite his well-oiled Arsenal team purring. Tim was naive at the very least. If you want to play Arsenal at the Emirates with two strikers, that’s fine. If you do choose to go down that route then they both need to be firing. No team can go to the Emirates carrying passengers. Footballers may not be the sharpest tools but this much is obvious enough. Sadly for Spurs we were second best and were beaten by an Arsenal side that didn’t need to move into fifth gear at any stage.

Bringing on the BFG for the second half did much to stultify any Adebayor aerial threat and Chadli was anonymous when he came on to the field. Kyle Walker works hard and Loris saved us from a thrashing. Eriksen is a technically talented, smart, patient footballer but he is not a winger. ‘No. 10’ or ‘AM’ is where his future lies at the club.

I thought Bentaleb looked strong and composed. He didn’t panic in a pressure situation and worked hard to do what containing he could when outnumbered by Arsenal midfielders. The same can't be said for Danny Rose, who did in the 62nd minute the one thing people were screaming at their TV sets for him not to do! Cracking under pressure, making foolish decisions are all too prevalent in his repertoire. In his defence, he is young and not the most experienced first-teamer. Then again, neither is Bentaleb. Rose needs to work hard to improve his mental side of the game.

All in all an uninspiring performance by a lacklustre Spurs but still good to catch up with old friends over a game of football. The other positive for me is that no league points were riding on the game. The most negative feature of the night was the slightly drunken, Anti-semitic chants on the way home but I’ve heard worse and there weren’t too many people around at that point.

Next up for Spurs are a truly rubbish team that we should be able to take 3 points from. Sadly, even winning at Palace doesn’t guarantee a top four finish which we will struggle to claim as our own this season.

COYS!

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