Following both North London sides 1-0 victories in Europe this season, CollinsBeans writers’ debate which of the two look better placed to make the challenge for Champions League qualification this year
After defeating them 2-1, Tottenham will finish higher than Arsenal this year
Agree – James Platt
I’ll start this by declaring that I am not in the business of cheap Arsenal bashing here. Everyone’s had their fun with that, and this is not a platform for laughing at the ineptitude of Per Mertesacker (although we’ll come back to him later).
I’ve got no doubt Arsenal will have a decent season. Wenger is too good a manager, and the team has too much quality for them to finish mid-table. However, I think competing in several competitions could be Arsenal’s downfall, particularly when it comes to the league. While the first team still looks strong, the squad is undeniably weak and Wenger must surely be focussed on trying to win a trophy. The Premier League is a non-starter, so he will naturally have to concentrate on the cups. All those Champions League and FA Cup games are going to add up, and when it comes to February and March, I can see Arsenal prioritising those fixtures ahead of the league.
Tottenham, on the other hand, have shown a distinct lack of interest in the Europa League and I believe Harry Redknapp will see this campaign as an excellent opportunity to gain Champions League qualification again. I don’t particularly rate the current Tottenham squad, although keeping hold of Luka Modric was important and I’m sure Emmanuel Adebayor will continue to score goals (until he inevitably starts sulking). At this early stage, I actually predict Liverpool will finish above both of them though and secure that money spinning Champions League spot.
The situation with Arsenal is a strange one – I don’t really understand it. It seems to me that the pressure of not winning silverware has slowly built up and up, and has now reached a crescendo. For years the excuse given was that the team was young, still learning and eventually they would come good and dominate English football. It’s as if Wenger has finally realised that dream is over and in panic has brought in fairly average players in their late 20s. After all those years advocating the benefits of young talent, Wenger’s been forced into rebuilding his squad with Mikel Arteta and Yossi Benayoun. Both are solid players, but you see what I’m getting at.
Also some of the transfer activity just doesn’t make sense. Wenger was clearly interested in Bolton’s Gary Cahill, a very good prospect with Premier League experience, but he seemed reluctant to pay a fair price. I know transfer fees are a bit ridiculous these days, but surely Cahill is worth a bit more than £6 million? Also, for all the moaning about the Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri situations, it was clear from about four years ago that Arsenal needed a decent, commanding centre back. Yet Wenger waited all summer to put in a joke offer for Cahill, and then seemingly panicked and steamed in for Mertesacker at the last minute. He may go on to prove me wrong, but from what I’ve currently seen Mertesacker is a poor signing. Everyone knew he was slow, but he’s also not very good in the air, doesn’t have great positioning and the less said about his distribution the better. I can’t see him being a success in the Premier League.
Another point is that in the years gone by the line was always that Arsenal played great football. This was undoubtedly true. Sometimes watching Arsenal really was a special experience – their passing and movement was magnificent and they genuinely did entertain. This season however, I’m not convinced how good the football really is. Clearly they haven’t resorted to Sam Allardyce tactics, but without those top players the ball isn’t moved about as quickly and the sublime movement isn’t quite there.
I respect Wenger’s philosophy and his ability to nurture young players into star performers, but I do fear for him and Arsenal at the moment. As I said, I still believe they’ll have a decent campaign, but they seem so far away from title winners. Which means it’s hard to argue against the theory that they’ve slowly been going backwards for the last six years. Yes, the balance sheet looks good but in the short-term, short memory, money obsessed, success demanding world of modern football, some healthy financial reporting is not really enough.
Disagree – Matt Snelling
Going into the international break, Tottenham had just defeated their North London rivals and heaped yet more pain and suffering on to their beleaguered manager and fans. Following on from what might be termed (and this would be being ultra generous) an ’inauspicious’ start to the season, Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal was largely hailed in the media as the death knell for any designs that the men from the Emirates (not Man City that is) had on the Champions League for next season. Well unless they win it this year...
And while the defeat was yet another blow to Arsenal’s hopes of a successful season, this one result should not be taken as red that Tottenham will be finishing above their neighbours. Spurs have recovered from a shaky start to climb up the table and on paper their squad is seen in many quarters as being better than Arsenal’s, however, that’s very much ‘on paper’. Tottenham’s squad is filled with big names and vaunted reputations but not half as much end product. On paper, the CV’s and money paid for some of their players puts them way above some of the young players in Arsenal’s squad but the evidence is that their final output is not significantly higher.
Tottenham’s major issue is that aside from Scott Parker and Brad Friedel, the team is barely different from last year and while deadwood like Robbie Keane and Jermaine Jenas were cleared out ion deadline day, it wasn’t done soon enough for quality replacements to be brought in. They are also still badly lacking up front. Last season their lack of any sort of consistent goal scoring from their big reputation forward line arguably cost them a place in the top four, and aside from the arrival of Emmanuel Adebayor there has been little to address this issue. Adebayor has started brightly, but then that’s sort of his thing. It is only a matter of time before the sulks come in and he’s been long thought of as something of a rabbit killer; someone who mows down the cannon fodder while never turning up against the big boys.
Last season the talk was of Tottenham’s bench being particularly deep but really, when you scratch beneath the surface then it’s not as strong as would appear. Arsene Wenger’s bizarre last day trolley dash may not have made much sense when you look at the players he signed but it did beef up the squad. Tottenham’s other key trouble is working out their ideal system. Rafael Van Der Vaart is a very talented footballer, but really needs a side to be built around him. Playing just off the front man (and there are signs that this will be Adebayor) suits him but then where does that leave Jermain Defoe? Similarly playing in a 4-4-2, doesn’t get the best out of the Dutchman whilst necessitating dropping one of the wingers.
Arsenal by contrast at least has their system, even if it is seen by many as being floored. Wenger ‘s almost obstinate stance of not bringing in a commanding centre back or spending money to strengthen key areas of the team, has clearly come back to hurt them time after time, and yet perhaps there is method in Wenger’s madness. After all, for the past three or four years, ‘experts’ have been calling for Wenger to buy a goalkeeper whereas the manager has been happy with his lot. Now he has a young goalkeeper, who is the undisputed the No. 1 and his growing in stature every day. Perhaps all along Wenger knew he had Wojciech Szczesny up his sleeve and didn’t need a knee jerk addition of someone like Mark Schwarzer who just plainly isn’t as good.
The ‘in Arsene’ we trust mantra that Arsenal and their fans have lived by the past few years seems to hold less and less water and it is clear that at the heart of the team their lies deep psychological flaws. They are a team who when the going gets tough, often run away, scared of taking responsibility and scared of failure. The scars from the catastrophic way in which they lost the Carling Cup final to Birmingham last season, the most visible sign of deep weaknesses within the squad’s mental psyches. It is hard to deny that Arsenal is not a brittle side, albeit a still vastly talented one.
As I’ve mentioned with Tottenham, football is not played on paper however (and here’s a big one) when fit, Arsenal possess a better first team that Tottenham. It’s a bold statement I know and obviously did not bear out in the game at White Hart Lane, but a core of Szczesny, Vermalen, Wilshire and Van Persie is a more than enough to fire them to 4th place. Arsenal have their issues, of that there is no denying. That is why they will not win the title, nor the Champions League. However the squad, system and despite all his short sighted critics, manager they have will see them retain their place in the top four. Well, for one more season at least.
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