Arsenal fell behind in the North London derby this evening, but goals from Gabriel (it’s his despite going down as an OG) and Leandro Trossard were enough to take all three points in a must-win game.
It wasn’t pretty, it was tense, but in the end the only thing that matters is that we won and that Sp*rs and their fans are miserable.
Here’s how the players rated this evening.
Read the Arsenal 2-1 Sp*rs match report and see the goal here
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11 out 10 for Big Gabi
New contract please! He is the fucking man!
2 rolls royce defenders we have who compliment each other so much and love the shirt💪 this is a catylist and we will be champions come may…in micky we trust
1000000/10 Trossard sending Porro to the shadow realm
Time stamp 22.32 Pedro Porro just turned
If ever there was a time to cup your ears to the fans… That goal, after That Cruyff… fair play Leo. I wasn’t familiar with your game.
No – his best moment was his celebration in front of their fans. Pure shithousery
Porro knew he had to pretend to be injured, i’d have done the same 😭😂
I think he was actually injured. that’s what made the turn so nasty….
*obviously don’t condone laughing at the injury of other human beings – even if it is as funny as that was*
If he was injured he would be subbed. As soon as he went off the field he was itching to get back on the pitch
getting spun like that had to have hurt a little bit.
It hurt his ego, but he pretended it was his leg
He wasn’t injured, he was humiliated. Just before Trossard did that he gave a little wink to the Spurs fans after winning a throw on
And why did the ref stop the game for a non-head injury? Would he have done that for us? Nein.
Twisted his blood.
MLS!!! Aiiii caramba!!!
Love MLS. What a player.
A league of his own.
Monstrous game from Gabriel, Skelly-ton also superb. Unnecessarily scary game due to our profligacy up top! But fuck it, and fuck the ball-balancing cocks. LIR!
Mr Lewis Skelly set the tone for the whole game ! Wow what a gem !
With Tuchel in the crowd, and LB a problem for England. Mr Skelly, should be getting the call sooner than expected
6 months ago England looked screwed at left back – now in MLS (and Lewis Hall from Newcastle) we look like we’re covered for the next decade
Not just yet, please. We don’t need some central European winger spiking our Great Leftback Hope.
FUCK OFF YOU SPURRRRRS HAHAHA
Mikel owns that team
10/10 – Trossard skinning Porro so hard that he went down injured and the game had to be stopped. Sent him to Mars.
Myles ahead of where he should be at this stage of his career. Total baller. Bravo.
Well done boys, let’s build on this!
MLS is absolutely superb. Such a mature player – can see Calafiori struggling to get his place back.
I’d rather start one of the youth boys than Sterling – there’s genuinely no way it could be worse (from a first team perspective – I appreciate chucking a young player in prematurely might not be the best thing for their development). Play just stops whenever he gets the ball. Not trying to dig him out, it isn’t like we were scoring a hatful when he wasn’t starting, but we may as well be playing with 10 men.
I think there’s a 5-2-3 formation in us where u play MLS and Cala
Coman or Sane on the right will help this team no end . Kaiser is still fine as a 9 but with Gabi out for ages we need two forwards
Has Sane still got pace?
He destroyed us last year in champs league , think Benji Blanco would prefer him with us than against.
Wonder if Ferran Torres would fancy gametime, Cunha be too expensive and not really what we need . Just need a Davor Suker and Jose Reyes Type signing s
He tries to be direct, lively. I feel he has the potential to offer something – but isn’t really. Passed it? Lack of confidence? Lack of playing time? I don’t know. I’d love it for him to show us some really nice stuff.
Don’t worry. As soon as Nwaneri has recovered, Stirling will be back warming the bench again.
I think they both can play on the same team. Calafiori is a centre-back officially and MLS is a midfielder. I can see variations in the future where they both play and perhaps neither of them at left back. The midfield for MLS might be something to come later on, but seeing him play he’s not another Maitland-Niles.
Sterling wasn’t terrible but he is really playing with the handbrake on. Is it confidence or fitness or ageing or something else? Arteta needs to demand more aggression and positivity and forward passing from Sterling, as at the moment he’s really slowing us down too much.
He’s not playing with the handbrake on, he’s blown the head gasket.
Just so pleased with the win today. It was a bit nerve wracking but we did enough to get it over the line. COYG!!
NORTH LONDON IS RED AND MYLES LEWIS SKELLY IS GOING TO HAVE IT TURNED INTO A PAIR OF SLIPPERS
MLS wow! I said on another thread recently that he could be what we are looking at long term for left 8. I just saw the inter wire with Declan Rice, who said MLS can play 6 or 8 as well as what he is being asked to do at 18.. Seriously special player on our hands there. Rio Ferdinand made comments after the rice interview that rice offers too much to just be a 6 – he would be too restricted there – and I am inclined to agree – rice is box to box. The future of our… Read more »
Yes rice offers to much for a 6 but still lack some vision for a perfect 8 he is still under development and the workrate is great
I remember watching rice start out for West Ham as a centre back. He adapted and moved to 6. I think he is now adapting to become as forward thinking as he is defensive thinking – and that is quite a big mindset to overcome – as his entire career has been geared towards protecting the defence, and now he has to let go of that instinct at times to progress the attack and produce goal threat
Rio Ferdinand talking out his arse again. Rice is the best #6 in the country. Play him there and get a creative left 8 ffs. Then we can really get the left side moving again.
I think rice has a lot more to his game than being a 6. What holds him back from being that dream 8 is most likely psychological – he is wedded to what he knows which is the defensive side – we haven’t seen his full potential in the attacking sense yet – I think with zubizemndi (I’ll work on the spelling once it’s confirmed) I think we could see a change in Declan’s mindset about trusting what’s behind him more
I just love Myles – MOTM today. He is gem in the making, ascension of that magnitude is quite unexpected, learning anticipation and tackling from William and being monster and bullying Sp*rs for fun from Gabriel.
Oh and Richarlison is tw*t.
Louis Skelly is too skilly.
Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis Skelly, Rice and Odegaard. All exceptional tonight!
There are some really good players in there. Should have killed the game in the first 30 minutes. Nerve racking end to the game. MLS is just sensational. Rice was monstruous. Big Gabby is such a warrior. Saliba such a rock. Timber so solid. And the list goes on.
Clearly missing creativity, as Blogs and Gunnerblog have mentioned many times on the Arsecast Extra. Let’s hope Arteta fixes this quickly.
MLS gives me that Ashley Cole vibe (hopefully not the greedy turncoat vibe) that wow factor that he can make the position his own in front of seasoned internationals. We need more going forward, good to see KT come on, should keep him over ziny IMHO.
Yes! Can he be the first academy LB of such calibre as Cole or am I missing someone?
I certainly hope he won’t leave and break my heart like Cole did when I was just a kid.
How are we going to miss Partey next year….
Couple of passengers in our side tonight- partey could have been down to fatigue, but sterling? Cmon guy, you have to at least try to run. We’d be better off giving one of the academy kids a debut up top if they’re going to at least give a fuck.
I think Sterling does give a fuck (might be wrong but he doesn’t seem to be doing a Wilian) but he’s clearly very short of confidence and pace.
Yeah, the crowd was on him in the second half. He was fairly tidy on the ball but no more than that. A winger is supposed to create something. We need him for now, but he’s mostly just giving Martinelli a rest. Heck, Tierney or Zinchenko would be as good at right winger now. They’d at least get some shots off coming inside. Sad.
I am sure we would all like to congratulate Dominic Solanke for scoring his first goal in a north London derby!!!!
ARSENAL ARSENAL ARSENAL
Big Gabi was immense today from start to finish. Loved seeing him ‘coach’ MLS at times. And MLS looks so assured on the ball. Love how he zipped passes into Trossard a few times. It helped set a tempo which had been lacking in recent games.
That one handed catch of a cross near the end from Raya alone should get him an 8
That was sooo good. It seems that a spurs player would have had a free nick, hadn’t Raya done so.
Good shout. I loved that moment too. David Raya, he’s got freakishly huge hands hasn’t he.
I like how Saliba has started to move the ball up the field, more. Gaining confidence in his ability to do that.
He always had that in his locker, but I think MA has learned that one of our two CBs needs to be more progressive when going in transition
Saliba looks quite ungainly on the ball but he delivers time and time again. What a pair of CBs we have.
Love your bonus ratings blogs. Richardson, hahahaha 😂😂😂😂😂😂
It was nice to see an Arsenal forward get the ball, drive into the box and fire a shot on goal. Seems like an eternity since that last happened.
There isn’t a better centre back in the league than Gabriel right now, and what MLS is doing at his age is outrageous. But will give a shout out to Rice, who was a machine today and brings so much drive and protection in transition. Havertz was still lacking conviction for me but he worked really hard and his movement was sharper than recently. As for Sterling, unfortunately tonight showed exactly why he hasn’t been getting the minutes we would have expected at the beginning of the season. The game was a lot tighter than it needed to be, forward… Read more »
10/10 for tottenh*m being $&@!%#
And just like that… I start believing again. why am I so easy?
:DDD
Sterling is done guys! Almost every time he got the ball he stopped and gave all the time to the spuds to organise their defence. I wouldn’t like to see him on the pitch for us again. We played with 10 men while he was on the pitch. He tried to cross once or twice and he failed.
Raheem did ok. First NLD and only playing because Saka and Ethan are out. didn’t do anything stupid. Nothing heroic either, but key players carried out their creative responsibility well today and Raheem could just keep it tidy. I think this contribution will help him feel a bit more settled for the next game.
Running should be a non-negotiable
He’s feeling way too settled IMO. I agree that he was tidy, but he made it way too easy for Spuds. Their left back was faster than him and had him in his pocket, so Sterling needed to pass quicker and make runs to clear space. We’re going to need him to share the minutes, even if he doesn’t score, but on this team he should be scoring.
I still a little bit shocked that VAR didn’t give Trossard a red card for breaking Porro’s ankles
☝🏼 That comment is gold.
🤣😂🤣
🏆
North London Derby double over spurs is delicious. A triple (Carabao Cup final) would be orgasmic. A man can dream… Team looked so tired in the last 20 minutes. Schedule and injuries are taking their toll. Glad the boss is properly taking about reinforcements in the transfer market.
I scored very liniently. Derby victory first and foremost. Also, the main issue with the team is sheer exhaustion. Between injuries, illness, suspensions (whether deserved or not), some aging players, a busy schedule, overtime, and a still somewhat thin squad, the players are tired. Still, they rallied, they played hard, they created a boatload of chances, and I think the lack of goals is down to fatigue as much as anything else. Love this team!
If Calafiori comes regains fitness I wouldn’t begrudge him coming back into the line up but not at MLS’ expense. He’s earned his spot. Rather, I would like to see MLS given a chance at 6 or 8. Many have said Martenelli needs a left footer to open up that side of the pitch, (suspect logic given Saka doesn’t need a right footer to open up his side), so MLS could do that. Merino hadn’t exactly nailed down the position, although I do think he was brought in as rotation for Rice rather than to start. If we’re not considering… Read more »
White/Timber are both right footed and help open things up for Saka.
Mls for the man of the match for me unbelievable development and calm if he keeps this up he will be unplayable
I think we can stop buying left backs now 🤩🤩🤩
Ödegård look better tonight but really need a goal to get his spark so important I think and when he does the team will click into gear
Richarlison is like the guy from The Hockey Song but shitter.
I think all this talk about sterling is a bit harsh, he’s literally fed off scraps all season in terms of game time. I thought he was actually growing into the game and would’ve got better as the game went on but was subbed off on the hour mark. For me Martinelli was no better he got into better positions but his decision making in dangerous positions is becoming very concerning for me this season, he’s always keeping his head down in crucial moments and doesn’t have the awareness required to be part of the forward line for a club… Read more »
Have to give Raya a bit more. That was a vital save on Kulushevski, and how about that one handed catch on a cross late in the match.
Grateful we have David Raya too. One of the best keepers in the league for sure.
We have got to sign an attacking player that can play wing when needed as well as striker before the window closes even if on loan as there is no way we are going to win anything with Sterling starting or being our first attacker off of the bench.
Raya Samba Skills – try him at number nine?
Love the bonus…what a typical spurs useless knobhead