But, looking back, it was one of my favourite games at
Highbury, I think I paid a fiver to get in and the thing I remember most, as
opposed to the goals, is the way the entire Arsenal team defended as if their
lives depended on it. I think we might have started with three centre backs
that day, the Spurs team of the late 80’s was very strong, and the tackles that
went in (from both teams) were crunching, but I don’t remember a rash of yellow
cards. It was a real blood and thunder north London derby; all of our squad
that day were born in England, half of them in London.
How things change, it’s the north London derby on Saturday
but I’m still really looking forward to it. I’m sure I’ll get pre-match nerves
and will be on the edge of my seat come 12.45am and I have a renewed feeling
that we can beat Spurs, as the current side is starting to demonstrate similar qualities
to the teams of the Graham era.
This feeling is down to an absolute confidence that the
manager and team will have prepared comprehensively before the game, leaving
nothing to chance, knowing that, as far as their support is concerned, this is one
of the biggest games of the year, the one we can’t lose. I would also be
totally confident that the players would put everything on the line during the
game and leave nothing in the changing room.
If we scroll on two years from that bleak, brilliant
afternoon in 1989 to 1991, Arsenal won the title again, having only lost one
game all season, away to Chelsea. Unbeaten at home that season, the club was
also docked two points for an unholy scrap at Old Trafford (we won 1-0, Limpar
United were only docked the single point by the way…) and let in only 18 league
goals all season, a record which will surely never be equalled. That is an
Arsenal team to be truly proud of.
Move into the Wenger era and of course we went one better by
going unbeaten all season in 2003 – 2004. Perhaps the seeds of this achievement
were sown early on in Mr Wenger’s reign, when a clutch of senior players (known
as the best back four ever to play in English football) asked for a team
meeting to put across their case that they were receiving insufficient cover
from the midfield. Afterwards, the shape of the team changed slightly, Vieira
would now cover when Petit went forward and vice versa and the wide players
would tuck in when we didn’t have the ball, it worked, we won the double the season
of the meeting, Tony Adams administering the coup de grace in the final league match
against Everton, volleying in after a lovely through ball from Steve Bould.
Those were the days eh? One difference between those league
winning teams from 1989, 1991, 1998 and 2004, they could really defend, they
had players who knew what to do, where to be on the pitch, which positions to
adopt depending on the attacks being mounted by the opposition. Sadly, for a long time Arsenal's reputation as soft in the middle and unable to defend leads was merited. The balance in many of the teams was wrong, Hebert Chapman said that "you can attack for too long" and that was right for Arsenal, we lost stupidly and far too often.
Ask yourselves this – what is the most frustrating score line
you can remember? I’ll give you two that spring to mind (probably in
anticipation of this weekend’s fixture) from recent(ish) north London derbies:
2004-2005 Spurs
4 Arsenal
5
2008-2009 Arsenal
4 Spurs 4
Admittedly we won the first match, but the “Invincibles”
leaking four goals against an average Spurs side? The portents for the next seven
years were already there, championship winning sides rarely let in four goals.
In the second game we capitulated, Spurs flooded through the acres of space
left by the midfield as our defenders looked around baffled to see who was
marking who as we threw away a two goal lead.
So what’s changed? How come I’m not wringing my hands because
not even a four goal lead is sufficient to secure victory (Newcastle away anyone)?
We’ve discovered how to defend again, Koscielny and
Mertesacker can be as good as any centre half partnership in the country, imagine
anyone being able to write that about Arsenal a year or so ago. We defend as a
unit, Steve Bould really has had a positive impact and we've brought on a defensive
midfielder, alright we got him for free, or a Eurostar ticket, but young Francis Coquelin has been very good.
So I feel quite positive about Saturday’s match, the
Spuds and Harry Kane in particular will be dangerous, but I expect our back
line to cope. The big decision for the manager will be to drop Ozil and to bring back Sanchez, we'll need Giroud's strength to hold up the ball and I'd play Cazorla behind, with Sanchez and Walcott wide, with Coquelin and Ramsey holding. Perhaps Chambers might be more suited to this game than Bellerin.
Spuds 1 Arsenal 2
By Ian ByrneSpuds 1 Arsenal 2
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