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OPPONENTS Arsenal 
                           
COMPETITION Premier League 
DATE Saturday 10th February 2018
VENUE Wembley
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PREVIEW No preview produced.
 
PREDICTION Tottenham Hotspur    1        Arsenal    1
 
LAST SEASON'S MEETING For a look back at the corresponding match report from last season, click here.
RESULTS HISTORY Click here for results, match reports and facts on meetings with Arsenal
 
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR TEAM NEWS :
Spurs have a full squad to choose from with no injury problems.
 
ARSENAL TEAM NEWS :
.
COVERAGE :

TV
BT Sport - (live coverage)
Sky Sports 1 -  Game of the Day -  Saturday 20.00
Match of the Day  (BBC 1) - Saturday 22.30 (highlights)   [repeated at 07:35 Sunday]  Also available online.
Goals on Saturday (Sky Sports 1) - Sunday 10.30 (repeated at 21.00)
Match of the Day 2  (BBC 1) - Sunday 22.30 (highlights)  Also available online.

For coverage in all parts of the world, check here and here.

Radio :  
BBC LONDON 94.9FM (London area only), Digital Radio (London area only) &  Sky Channel 0152  (live coverage)
Commentary may be found on
>   BBC Radio Five Live (live coverage)  606/939 MW
TalkSport (DAB or 2nd89 MW)
Absolute Radio  (1215 AM/MW)

If available on BBC radio, it can supposedly be heard in these countries on these stations ...
Australia (Melbourne)
SEN  -  116 AM  Live Transmissions: TWI, Saturday. 12.45 & 15.00 matches
Australia (Sydney) 
Radio 2  -  1611AM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 12.45 Match
Singapore
Media Corp Radio  -  93.8 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
South Africa 
SABC (Radio 2000)  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
Uganda  Radio 1 (English) 90.0 FM, Radio 2 (Lugandan) 87.9 FM  Live Transmission: TWI, Saturday, 15.00 Match
North America (USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean) 
Sirius Satellite Radio  Live transmission: Saturday - 12.45, 15.00 (TWI) & 17.15 (BBC) Saturday - 14.00 & 16.05 (BBC) Mon, Tue, Wed - Various times (BBC)

Internet :
The THFC Official website   Live webcast  - subscribers only
BBC London -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01tdhcm  Live commentaries listed down the page.
TalkSport (DAB or 2nd89 MW)

 
Ar
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tottenham Hotspur  1 (0)                                                                       
Premier League
Saturday 10th February 2018
Wembley
Arsenal  0 (0)

Kick off 12:30
 
 
Goal-scorers  
Kane  48m 47s None
 
Cards  
    
Lamela (foul on Wilshere)  80 
Dier (dissent)  90+6

    

    
Mustafi (foul on Vertonghen)  74
 

    
 

 
 
Crowd :   83,222 Weather :  Chilly, light rain
Referee :  Anthony Taylor (West Yorkshire) Assistant Referees :  Mr. G. Beswick; Mr. A. Nunn
Fourth Official :  Neil Swarbrick  
Arsenal kicked off and played towards the West Stand end in the first half.
Game time : -  90 + 7 minutes.
 
 
 
Tottenham Hotspur : kit Arsenal : kit
  1  Hugo LLORIS  (c)

  2  Kieran TRIPPIER
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN
  6  Davinson SANCHEZ
33  Ben DAVIES

15  Eric DIER     
19  Mousa DEMBELE 

  7  Heung-Min SON  (11  Erik LAMELA  70     )
20  DELE Alli  (12  Victor WANYAMA  85)
23
 
Christian ERIKSEN

10  Harry KANE 

Unused subs: 
13  Michel VORM

  3  Danny ROSE
24  Serge AURIER
27
  Lucas MOURA
1
7  Moussa SISSOKO

  33  Petr CECH

24  Hector BELLERIN
 
6  Laurent KOSCIELNY  (c)
20  Shkrodan MUSTAFI     
18  Nacho MONREAL

10  Jack WILSHERE
34  Mohamed ELNENY (17  Alex IWOBI  65)
29  Granit XHAKA  (23  Danny WELBECK  86)

11  Mezut OZIL
  7  Henrik MKHITARYAN  (  9  Alexandre LACAZETTE  65)

14  Pierre-Emerick AUBAMEYANG

Unused subs: 
13  David OSPINA
31  Sead KOLASINAC
30  Ashley MAITLAND-NILES
21  Calum CHAMBERS
 

 
Manager :  Mauricio Pochettino Manager :  Arsene Wenger
Sponsor :   AIA Shirt sponsor :  Fly Emirates
Kit Supplier :  Nike Kit Supplier :   Puma
Match report

ROOM 101

Twenty four years on from 1984, Arsenal suffered their worst nightmare, as Kane had lots of room to score goal number 101 to consign the Gooners to another defeat, as they appeared to not have much Arsene Wenger could not resort to his Doublethink and had to concede that Tottenham's goal was a fair one and there was little he could complain about in our performance, unlike that of his own team.  As they went through the motions in the match, initially trying to stop Tottenham playing and then not sure how they were set up in the second half, but Tottenham took fullwise advantage to ensure that any comments that Wenger put out through the propaganda machine in Hate Week were not malreported.

With Alexis Sanchez now an unperson at Arsenal, their new names of Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang were pushed forward as the changing forces behind the new era, but both players had fullywiseungood games, failing to provide much threat to the Spurs defence and the likes of Ozil, Wilshere, Elneny and Xhaka were as anonymous as the Proles from 1984.  The way The Physical Jerks tried to bully the Tottenham players left them with little joy, like the bleak vision of Eurasia in Orwell's novel.

While Arsenal set up with a mass of red shirts in the centre of the pitch to squeeze the life out of the game, Tottenham were dominating possession and territorial advantage, although a couple of good positions on the Arsenal left were wasted by Mkhitaryan with mis-kicked or over-hit crosses.  Mustafi almost added to the collection of own goals by our opponents, when Dele's ball in to Kane was intercepted by  a stretching Mustafi and Cech had to dive right to push the ball wide.  Much of Arsenal's attacking was brought to a halt by the referee's whistle, as their forwards persistently moved into offside positions before the ball was played.  Wilshere had a good chance, but completely missed his kick in the box, while Spurs didn't have too many chances in the first half.  Sonny drove a low weak shot at goal and Cech dived to his right to get behind it to make sure, while Kane probably had the best one, with a free header after he drifted off the back of Koscielny to head Eriksen's cross over the bar, as he couldn't quite get over it. 

Tottenham were finding space in wide positions and Eriksen got on the end of a cross by Trippier, but his glancing header looped up for Cech to take relatively easily, while Dembele had a shot lashed across goal in the 30th minute after ca corner dropped to him, but Dier couldn't quite turn it in.  The most dangerous Arsenal got in the first half was a header across the box that hit Sanchez and forced Lloris to fall on it and a shot from Bellerin on the edge of the box that kept on rising into the crowd behind the goal. 

When the game restarted, it was Tottenham who started dismantling the barricades that Arsenal had set up and Davies had already had one cross headed away before he put over a perfect ball for Kane to rise so high above Koscielny Wenger thought he must have climbed on his back, but his header was planted in the place where the Arsenal keeper had just come from, leaving him flat-footed and unable to do much as the ball nestle din the bottom corner of the net.  The cross made the goal, but Kane's execution was similar to that one at the Lane in 2015.  It got the stadium going and the home crowd (part of a PL record attendance) really got behind the side. 

Within three minutes, it should have been two with Dier's precise ball slung in from the right and Kane getting on to it with a glancing header, which he uncharacteristically put wide of the far post.  Kane tested the keeper with a fierce volley from Trippier's cross (after he had nut-megged Wilshere) and anywhere other than straight at the goalkeeper would have resulted in a goal.  When Heung min Son was fouled on the edge of the box, it looked too close for Christian Eriksen to get the ball up and down, but he managed to arrow a shot just under the bar, where the keeper reached up to paw the ball over the bar with a very good stop.  A couple of times, Spurs were denied by desperate lunges form Arsenal defenders to prevent through balls setting a white shirt free, but when Lamela nudged a pass forward for Dele, he had to get a shot away quick as Cech came out to meet him on the edge of the area.  As on Wednesday, he was off target, with a prod to the keeper's left that went past the post and wide.  He almost had more luck a moment later when Cech tried to be too clever playing the ball out to Mustafi and Dele intercepted inside the six yard box, but he was wide of the goal on the left and couldn't really direct it on goal.

Mustafi finally got booked after going through the back of a couple of Spurs players early on, but his vicious late slide into Vertonghen brought him a yellow card, while play went on and Lamela won a corner with a low toe-poke that Cech blocked at his near post.  The keeper did even better in beating out a powerful volley by Kieran Trippier on the right, when he met Eriksen's cross with full force.  Again the ball was straight at the keeper and he got lucky when the ball dropped for a defender to hack away in the six yard box.  Again, it was a well made chance that was hit a bit too well.

Fat Wilshere could not contain himself at the final whistle and like Winston Smith, he burst into the Two Minutes Hate, but managed to condense it into a few seconds, as he reacted to Erik Lamela telling him exactly what he thought of him.  And that probably echoed most fans feelings about the short midfielder, who had simulated an elbow to the head to try and get Kane sent off and generally showed exactly why he shouldn't be representing England.  Weak and a liability on the ball,  his performances against the clubs in the rarefied atmosphere of the Europa League are not ones that reach the level required for a full international.  The fracas was soon snubbed out by the other players after a few pushes and shoves, with the referee ignorant of what was happening.

This was another impressive display by Spurs, following the win over United and the point at Anfield.  Dominating the game, the only thing missing was the goal return to show how one way the game was.  Wilshere had Arsenal's only shot on target and that came in the 68th minute.  Hugo dealt with it well, with a well-timed dive to palm away the curling effort from outside the box.  Wilsher is a minor character in "1984", as Wilshere was in this match.  Mousa Dembele had him firmly in his pocket the whole game.  When the Arsenal man looked to move forward, Dembele was there to snuff him out, when Mousa had the ball, Wilshere didn't have the pace or strength to get it off him.

Arsenal's hopes were Vaporized like those who committed Thoughtcrimes.  Too often, they laid themselves open to Tottenham's speedwise attacks, with only a couple of openings at the end of the game to threaten the Spurs goal.  Bellerin's cross was volleyed high over the bar by substitute Lacazette and then a straight ball down the right hand side of the box gave the Frenchman another opportunity, when Sanchez let the ball run beyond him and as Lloris came out, Lacazette slid it under him, but put the effort a yard wide of the keeper's other post.    Other than that Arsenal failed to force Hugo into anything other than a couple of forays outside his box to clear the danger.

Even though Arsenal pushed for a goal in the last ten minutes, Spurs still had chances, with a Dier header from a corner looping wide and Davies playing Lamela in down the left and he took a shot across goal with his left foot from a very tight angle that went wide of the far post, although Eriksen was coming into the middle if Erik had seen him.  The last word was left to Mezut Ozil, who, in the 95th minute had a free kick outside the box when Bellerin went down softly under challenge by Wanyama.  It also gave Ozil an opportunity to remind us he was still playing.  As he stepped up to take it, the numpty behind me was convinced it was going in, but like most of his comments, it proved to be unfounded in reality and the ball bounced off the wall and the ref blew for time. 

If it had gone in, most Arsenal fans wouldn't have seen it, as they had left long before, fed up with the shocking approach Wenger had taken and the insipid performance of their players.  The Goons' fans were sending their players to Miniluv with their damning comments, but the oldthinker in charge also got his share of vitriol.  They are being given a diet of prolefeed, but despite the big money signings, who made little impact on the game, they still cannot seem to remember that they lost to Swansea two weeks ago and have wiped it from their history.  It is what they call 'rectifying' in "1984".

There was a word in 1984" for it in Newspeak.  'Ownlife' it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity.  It was something the visiting side lacked and along with their grey attitude, there will no Revolution at Highbury.  Wenger is Big Brother and will remain in power, while the ones he rules over gradually slip into mediocrity with the Party Slogans of "The best team didn't win", "I didn't see it" and "We must fight on" ringing in their ears.  For Spurs fans this is not one which will disappear down the Memory Hole.

As Harry Kane said last week, scoring goals against Arsenal for Tottenham was all he used to dream about, but "now, my motivation is a bit different".  And so it is for Spurs.  Arsenal used to have the whip hand over us, but now there is a new order.  And the dayorder (order of the day) was doubleplusgood for Spurs and the Woolwich Wanderers had to upsub (submit to a higher authority), such is the change in the hierarchy between the two clubs now.

Seven points is quite a gap between us and them and we have to work hard in the remaining eleven matches to ensure it stays that way (at the very least).

Comrade Ogilvy

 

The crowd of 83,222 was a new record for a Premier League game.

It was also a record for a meeting of the two sides.
 

 
 

 

PUB FACT*

Arsenal are great innovators and introduced into football the offside trap, the centre-half and whingeing after they didn't get the result they wanted.
 

 

 
Match sponsors -
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What you thought
East Stan I usually have an aversion to going on Gooner websites, but I thought I would tap into this Arsenal FanTV thing to see what they were saying about the game and to be honest, it was hilarious.  Apart from some Goon calling the interviewer "blud" every other word, he was ranting on about Spurs being a two bob club who will never be bigger than Arsenal.  In more or less the same breath, he was then asking for his season ticket money back because what he was watching was "B******s".

One of them had their main gripe as Iwobi going to their end and signalling to someone in the crowd (probably a family member of friend) to ring him with the internationally recognised little finger and thumb to the ear sign.  For this he wanted him out of the club quicker than any one of his team-mates had run all game. 

Another lambasted Wenger for bringing on Iwobi for Mkhitaryan, saying he hadn't been that bad.  The interviewer said that the Armenian had been pretty anonymous and the Goon said Oh yeah, he was !!

I am thinking of nominating it for a BAFTA for "Best Comedy" ... or "Best Tragedy".

Oh, man.  Gooners - The Gift That Never Stops Giving.
 

- -.

 

 
Other scores during this week :
Everton 3 Crystal Palace 1 Saturday
Manchester City 5 Leicester City 1 Saturday
Stoke City 1 Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Saturday
Swansea City 1 Burnley 0 Saturday
West Ham United London 2 Watford 0 Saturday
Huddersfield Town 4 Bournemouth 1 Sunday
Newcastle United 1 Manchester United 0 Sunday
Southampton 0 Liverpool 2 Sunday
Chelsea 3 West Bromwich Albion 0 Monday

 

League Table  2017-18
  P W D L F A Pts GD
1 Manchester City 27 23 3 1 79 20 72 +59
2 Manchester United 27 17 5 5 51 19 56 +32
3 Liverpool 27 14 9 3 61 31 54 +30
4 Chelsea 27 16 5 6 49 23 53 +26
5 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 27 15 7 5 52 24 52 +28
6 Arsenal 27 13 6 8 51 36 45 +15
7 Burnley 27 9 9 9 21 24 36 -3
8 Leicester City 27 9 8 10 39 40 35 -1
9 Everton 27 9 7 11 32 46 34 -14
10 AFC Bournemouth 27 8 7 12 31 41 31 -10
11 Watford 27 8 6 13 37 47 30 -10
12 West Ham United London 27 7 9 11 34 46 30 -12
13 Newcastle United 27 7 7 13 25 36 28 -11
14 Brighton & Hove Albion 27 6 10 11 22 36 28 -14
15 Swansea City 27 7 6 14 20 37 27 -17
16 Huddersfield Town 27 7 6 14 23 47 27 -24
17 Southampton 27 5 11 11 28 40 26 -12
18 Crystal Palace 27 6 9 12 25 42 26 -17
19 Stoke City 27 6 7 14 27 53 25 -26
20 West Bromwich Albion 27 3 11 13 21 40 20 -19


Position before match :  5th
Position after match :  3rd
Position after the weekend :  5th

 

* Pub facts may not actually be true, but after a few pints everyone might think so.

 

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