I'm guessing I can't blame the lasagne?

Right. Okay. How should I start this? Oh yeah, with a joke. That always works.

Spurs need to use an A-Z next time, because they quite clearly failed to turn up at the Emirates today.

<- insert tumbleweed here ->

I'm not going to hang onto such excuses about Poll fucking up twice, for both penalties, because lets face it - even if you take away the two dubious spot-kicks, Arsenal still deserved a 3-0 win. They had a stupendous amount of possession and always looked likely to score going forward.

Quite how the Spurs lot struggled to bring any pride/desire/urgency/courage to the game is beyond me. Sure, play well and lose - and you can still take something away with you. All I took away was the bitter taste of a luke-warm pint that cost me £3.20.

I mean, ffs, its a fundamental necessity of most games - but especially North London Derby's - to turn up and match the nemesis on every level. Arsenal turned up. We didn't. And the game was lost in the opening 20 minutes or so when they won every ball and were around 1000% more sharper and faster than any of our players.

We were stuck on pause, while Arsenal were in fast-forward. It was VHS v Betamax.






We looked over-whelmed, and before you think I'm about to pull down the shorts of Arsenal and pucker my lips - I don't think they were particularly out of this world. They simply wanted it more. They wanted to win. And moving all the bias in the world to one side, I have not a single excuse/reason to throw back at any of my gooner mates.

Sure, the atmosphere in their new home wasn't exactly electrifying, but neither was the away support. I did manage to spot 5 Cypriot flags in the crowd which was a little game I played pre-kick off. Tbh, the stadium is quite majestic. Very impressive and definitely the way forward with regards to what stadia should look like......if you want some room for the co-operate mob and the gloryhunters (ooh...cheap shot). But I actually miss Highbury. That place was unique, even if was full of 'them lot'. A proper old-skool ground. But remaining attached to the past is probably what stops most from moving forward.

There were pockets of 'noise' from about three areas in the crowd, but for a NLD, it wasn't that great. Though the blame is firmly on the Spurs players for not making it a contest. And historically (what with living in a Library for many years) the Emirates was never going to be a cauldron of hate. More of a bowl of distaste.

Do I really have to go back to the match? I guess I should.

Well, from what I could see from my impossible to rip out and destroy seat we were pish. Apart from maybe Robbie Keane who run around a lot and looked like he wanted to play football - but even he had lapses of giving the ball away. The rest were pants. Lennon looked like the boy he is. Not sure what the little skip and shrug was all about when he lost the ball (which he did on a number of occasions).

Lennon! You're meant to actually try and win it back mate. You know.....the ball! Utterly over-whelmed. Maybe the pretty stadium was too much of a distraction.





You know what, there's not much point really in going into some detailed analytical breakdown rant of player and tactics and what went wrong. No point. But I can manage some bullets:

• Jol got his selection wrong
• The players should be ashamed of themselves
• Arsenal deserve credit for their commitment
• Poll made up for his 'mare' at WHL against Chelsea (sorry, another cheap shot)
• We got what we deserved. Fuck all.
• MIA: An away goal scored from open play
  

A bit of a waste of an afternoon really. Not that much more to add. Anyone who was there or watched it will agree, that even though Poll got it wrong twice, Spurs were never at the races. Not for a second. I'm sure Spurs fans reading this are probably waiting for me to say at least one thing to make them smile.

Well, I could, for arguments sake, laugh out loud at the way Arsenal fall over (like today when a certain someone rolled around got up and then fell down and rolled around again) or play the percentage game with 'tricking' the ref to hand out pens. Or I could laugh at the way the Arsenal fans are happy to accept this as part of their teams makeup. But everyone knows this already and thats why Arsenal are wankers (3rd cheap shot.....just let me have it please).

But this doesn't change a thing. Its not relevant and it doesn't matter. Teams at the top (even though they are hardly the same team of 2/3 years ago) have that certain element of being c*nts - and yes - c*nts win things. Look at United and Chelsea. But the whole 'do anything to win' argument is one for another day. We just haven't mastered the art of buying the referee.


All that matters is:

• We haven't scored away from home in the league, from open play
• Its December 2nd, and we haven't picked up 3 points away from home (I'm sure thats obvious from the first point)
• We need a new fullback and centreback (fullback, because apart from Chimbonda, the rest are utter gush - even though Chimbo had a mare today - and a centreback cause lord help us if we lost King or Dawson to injury)
• For a North London Derby, this was a non-contest - and thus a waste of the 80 quid I paid (best not tell the girlfriend she cant have that Gucci Pink perfume for Xmas now...)
  

Can't even laugh at Liverpool and their away record, as they've managed to net 4 goals before half-time at Wigan.

So. Might as well wrap this one up. We've had better days. I'll leave it at that.




~Spooky