There is never a good time to lose a derby in north London, but for both Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou, a defeat on Wednesday would only further inflame the fanbases, whose murmurs of discontent have become more audible.
Arteta tries to rally the fans
Remarkably, the Arsenal manager, who will host his Tottenham counterpart, called for “the best atmosphere we have ever played in”. [in] in the Emirates.” He is rarely one to downplay the importance of his home stadium, after two home defeats that saw at least some of the faithful make a hasty retreat. Arteta knows there is work to be done to win over a grumbling crowd He doesn’t have to tell you what happened when first Arsène Wenger and then Unai Emery lost the audience.
Where does that grumbling come from? Not least the standards Arteta set for Arsenal. After two seasons in which this team became a serious contender, he would have been the first to say that silverware was needed to support the project. It looks like that won’t come from the domestic cups as last week saw their FA Cup elimination and a first-leg defeat to Newcastle in the EFL Cup, which is likely to be final. Glory is also unlikely to come in the Premier League, where Liverpool are six points clear with a game in hand. Unless a first Champions League title is achieved, the trophy drought will extend into the sixth year.
It’s easy to see why supporters of England’s third most successful club in terms of domestic competitions would expect more. However, it only takes a cursory knowledge of how Arsenal’s season has gone to understand why the trophies may have slipped away. First to the ephemera. There have been three red cards – two correct but rarely given – at odd moments that cost points in the opening weeks of the season.
Then the big deal, a series of injuries that are not nearly as impactful as those that have knocked Liverpool and Manchester City off course in recent weeks. Martin Odegaard has played more than 3,000 Premier League minutes in each of the last two seasons. A long-term ankle injury and subsequent bouts of illness mean he has just passed the 1,000 mark. Bukayo Saka may not be back until March. Ben White has played just nine games. Last season there were few, if any, attacking groups as devastating as Arsenal’s right flank. That triumvirate has shared the field once since the beginning of August.
The problems don’t stop there. Mikel Merino broke his shoulder during his first training session after joining from Real Sociedad. Declan Rice has played less than 80 percent of Premier League minutes. Areas of meaningful depth, particularly at fullback, have been repeatedly hammered. To add insult to injury, just as Gabriel Jesus was in his best form since the right knee injury he suffered in the 2022 World Cup, the cruciate ligament in the other knee tore.
“This is a more challenging period that we have had,” said Arteta, “especially because we have lost very important players at crucial moments, but I don’t know, things happen for a reason in this life. We have to adapt and With everything that’s happened, look at how the team is performing.
“Okay, we didn’t win the other day, but if you have to leave a match, let’s go like this if you’ve been infinitely better than the opponent, and we have another one on Wednesday. It’s probably the best.” time to play, because we know what that game means to all of us. So let’s face it, the circumstances are where they are, let’s embrace them and let’s make the most of them because despite all that, look what the team is like. plays.”
He has a point. All those circumstances are what they are. Arsenal do not have a best striker, a key striker and have a large number of players who appear to be exhausted. Yet they are putting in what most players at the club would have seen as an adequate, if not excellent, season, and are overwhelmingly well positioned to qualify for next year’s Champions League. They are capable of making a deep run this year if fitness is on their side. It might even be better. They haven’t been played off the park by Newcastle and Manchester United. If anything the opposite. The problem with Arsenal’s season isn’t that they can’t yet provide their fanbase with the endorphin rush of a new signing. They’re just playing a low-scoring sport and the ball hasn’t gone into the net yet.
Postecoglou fights injuries and bad luck
Postecoglou could feel the same grievances. What was remarkable about Wednesday’s EFL Cup semi-final win over Liverpool wasn’t Tottenham’s performance, as excellent as it was. It was Spurs emerging victorious from a close game. This team has played eight matches this season in which the expected goal difference was between 0 and -0.6. Matches in which they were almost equal in terms of shot quality, at most slightly outplayed by their opponents. Their record from a week ago was one draw and six defeats.
The defeat to Newcastle last week epitomized their season. Spurs started brightly and even in reduced form their attack sparked. However, there was nothing that could be done to alleviate the fact that only one of their regular back five was in the team. There may be questions about Postecoglou’s system. Does such a high line put too much strain on the hamstrings of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero? Even if that’s true, there’s still a lot of bad luck in those two: Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie, and Guglielmo Vicario all suffering serious injuries at the same time.
Once those players return – and Postecoglou said on Tuesday he hopes for “some light at the end of the tunnel” – Tottenham will at least be better off if the head coach trusts two 18-year-olds to step up. Archie Gray was a revelation as a central defender, Lucas Bergvall a dynamo in midfield. Would the match against Liverpool have gone in a different direction without them? “In two or three years I pray to God that I am the beneficiary of their talent,” their manager said of the teenagers after that match. “If someone else gets it, I won’t be happy.”
Tottenham haven’t quite managed to reach their baseline like Arsenal, but their injury crisis has created two potential cornerstones of the team for years to come. Champions League qualification may be beyond the Premier League’s second highest scorers, but a domestic final is within reach. That’s nothing to smell. It’s certainly worth noting if anyone in the Premier League looks down and down for the team in 11th place.
“I always put context around the way you analyze and criticize performance, others choose not to and rely purely on the results,” Postecoglou said on Tuesday. “If you look at a team and they are losing and not scoring goals, then it’s bad play, bad players, bad coaching or whatever. I think if you have injuries and disruptions, in the context of cohesion and fluidity, yes is the case.” influence what you do.
“We’ve obviously been hit very hard, but for most clubs they’re starting to pile up. I’ll be very surprised if any club gets through unscathed the way the season has been going so far. You know, Bournemouth have had a few.” Now, Brighton, there’s a few clubs that are starting to collect a few now, a few of those. Obviously we have probably been hit harder than most with our schedule, but I would be surprised if any club came through this season unscathed.”
Certainly neither of these two. Yet both should actually be seen as having their reputations buoyed by their injury crises. Postecoglou has done what he has done so often during his season and a half in charge of Tottenham: he made decisions in the best interests of the club’s long term. Few of his predecessors did that. Arteta has Arsenal second in the Premier League, third in the Champions League. When was that no longer good enough?
At least one of these managers will be dealt a blow on Thursday morning. Questions will arise about the lack of a top striker in the red half of north London and/or further debate about the philosophical intransigence of the white team. Too little of it, one fears, will actually address the conditions inflicted on these teams in this most trying of seasons.