Do Arsenal fans actually want Spurs to go down? Victory would be ‘hollow’ | OneFootball

Laughing at Spurs is one thing, but would Arsenal fans want to lose the derby? Surely there would be no real joy there.

Now watch Man Utd tonight and mail us at theeditor@football365.com

Do Arsenal fans actually want Spurs to go down?

I’m actually starting to worry about Spurs.

Seeing your local rivals go down is supposed to make fans happy, but from what I’ve seen with other clubs, it often leaves fans feeling hollow.

The Brum derby hasn’t taken place in years – while the Tyne and Wear derby has only just been restored.

The North London derby is one of only two local derbies that have taken place in every Premier League season.

You can keep Chelsea, West Ham, United and Liverpool – the most enjoyable game of our season, and the first fixture I will always look for, is Spurs.

But for the first time, perhaps ever, I’m worried the North London Derby won’t actually take place next season.

Am I on my own here or do other fans feel the same way? Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Springtime for Spurs?

Yes I know Godwin’s law, but really, are the Lewis’ trying to pull a The Producers on us?

“I’m sick of it, bloody players, bloody fans, bloody grass, bloody warehouse full of Brennan Johnson shirts.

Everyone, always moaning “oooh, we’re a bit five-nil down” this, “oh no , we’re a bit 10 fit players” that!

So what if…and I’m going to need you to open your mind real wide on this one…what if we just assemble the biggest motley bunch of misfits, no marks, and callow youths who can’t string two passes together that the World has ever seen. And then knack them?

Not only will our fan base just give up, BUT we’ll get relegated and then we can fulfil the dream and concert over the pitch. Install a rocket launch pad/concert arena. We can make ‘the team’, or what’s left of the, play on Hackney Marshes — whilst we earn a billion quid a week for firing Chappell Roan into space!

And if you don’t like it, walk! Go on walk! I’ve got people queuing up to work in this Bureau de Change!!!”

Must be the only explanation… Dom, Florence

Mikel Arteta and Arsenal owe you nothing

I know it’s rage bait but I can’t help but rise to Johnny Nic’s assertion that, win or lose, it’s time for Arteta to go because people are sick of him. I want to make this perfectly clear, unless you’re a Kroenke then your opinions on Mikel Arteta are utterly and completely irrelevant.

Everyone seems to have their knickers in a twist about how Arsenal, a team they don’t support, aren’t doing it for them. Arsenal will be the worst champions ever, they’re too boring to deserve to win, they’ve no world class forwards. We even have to read how Arsenal aren’t going to win the league because Martin Keown’s opinions are bringing them down. And yet there they are, top of the league and still in all competitions as if your opinions don’t matter. Because they don’t. Your opinions only serve your own ego despite the fact that they’ve been given to you by Sky pundits desperate for relevance..

I mean, you’re all so focused on Arsenal that you’ve missed what should be important to YOU, what you should be spending your limited time on Earth on. If Arsenal are so bad, if Arteta is so annoying and useless, why isn’t your team beating them?

Arsenal owe all of you nothing. Arteta owes all of you nothing. SC, Belfast

In defence of the Angel Gabriel

In defence of Gabriel, who has taken a bit of a kicking this morning in the mailbox. Yes, he was theatrical in his reaction. That doesn’t change the fact that he was pushed and therefore it was a foul.

In fact, it reminded me of Joelinton’s foul on Gabriel when Newcastle beat us. He’s probably learned the only way to get a foul noticed is to embellish a little. Ronson, AFC

…I’m not sure why there’s a debate over this. If you jump for a header and put 2 hands into your opponent’s back, it’s a push in the back and a free kick.

That’s not really a controversial statement.

But the whole thing did remind me of an incident that occurred back in ’23 against Newcastle.

Joellinton scored a winner, from a header with 2 hands on Gabriel’s back,

It was a push, the foul wasn’t given, the goal stood.

So now, if he get’s a push in the back, he’s making sure the ref knows about it – and it paid off yesterday.

He’s learned and adapted to his environment and now we’e faced with the prospect of a theme park full of out of control Gabriel’s falling over every time someone pushes them in the back.

Dark arts indeed. Doug, AFC, Belfast

…All you precious pearl clutchers need to get over yourselves and stop acting like you’re own players dont attempt the same sh*t every game themselves.

Besides, if Sp*rs wanted a goal they shouldn’t have pushed with two hands in the back in the first place. You lot only start watching football yesterday or something? Matt (light the fire) Wright, Gunner in Aus

It’s all just so very Arsenal

I fired off an angry email yesterday during the NLD, not long after Spurs’ second had been ruled out and Arsenal had scored their third.

I was angry at a disgraceful, abhorrent decision to rule out Spurs’ equaliser. Even as a neutral, I’m still annoyed at it. Nobody in football wants that minimal level of contact to be the barometer, and it’s at odds with all the pushing and pulling defenders do when defending corners or attacking set pieces – Arsenal worse than most in these scenarios. Spurs were awful yesterday but had that goal stood as it should have, there’s a chance that Arsenal lose their heads and the match ends differently, with huge ramifications either end of the table. I was glad Given called the decision out on MOTD with receipts from goals that have stood despite much stronger contact.

However, despite my continued annoyance with the shitness of officials, Gabriel’s actions in that moment speak volumes to this team and the mentality Arteta has instilled.

You have a squad of very good players. Some, such as Gabriel are potentially great. But the coaching is coaching to cheat, dive, foul, win set pieces. Their game hinges on it so much that if a decision goes against them late in the game heads are lost (see Wolves). A potentially great defender’s first instinct when defending a cross is no longer to win the ball; it’s to dive. You wouldn’t get that from any of the great, title-winning centre backs of the Premier League; can you imagine Terry, Vidic, Ferdinand, Kompany, Van Dijk doing that? Their instinct was to battle, but the fight has been drilled out of the Arsenal squad.

It’s why I still see them finishing second, and it’s holding players like Gabriel back from reaching their true potential, which is a shame. But that’s Arteta-ball for you. Seamus

Liverpool bad…but not THAT bad

I wrote in after Liverpool lost to Utd a few months back expressing annoyance at how Liverpool are judged differently than other teams. The prognosis after that match was Utd had a well deserved victory, which simply wasn’t the case as Liverpool missed about 4 sitters and were the better team. But, crucially, they weren’t enough the better side and this now means they deserve to lose apparently. I guess it’s expected considering all they’ve won, but I think that should only allow for so much nonsense.

Now, the Forest game yesterday clearly wasn’t like the Utd game. Liverpool were very poor. But this was mainly due to losing the battle, quite fantastically, in midfield. They were dominated and Slot has to take some blame with Szobo never to be played at RB again. Putting him there means you’ve lost your best midfielder and your RB. Just leave it with a RB loss.

Anyway – they were dominated and it made Forest look the far superior team as they could, you know, string 4 passes together for most of the match. Szobo coming in to midfield did make a difference as Pool were better after the break for a while. But here’s the point I’m trying to make – Pool’s defense were not dominated. They were excellent. Forest had 1 clear cut chance in the 3rd minute and that was it for the match. Couple of decent moments but nothing that threatened the goal.

Pool on the other hand for all their awful midfield and non-existent wide players and utterly useless forward had brilliant chances with Jones, Ekitike and then the goal with Macca. So that’s 3 clear cut chances for them and 1 for Forest, which matches what the stats on Sky Sports give. Pool in the end had 1.76 Xg to Forest’s 1.23 and also edged them on possession. Oh yeah, 4 shots on target to Forest’s 2.

So in summary Pool led on possession, big chances created, shots on target and finally actual goals scored. But we’re all calling it a robbery. And the reason is because of what we expect Pool to produce, rather than properly assessing the game as though they were 2 equally matched sides. If the performances were reversed in it was Pool losing 1 nil at Anfield we would not be sat here saying Forest robbed them, of that I am 100% certain. Patricio Del Toro