Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Arsenal v Tottenham - Carling Cup

Arsene Wenger made a mistake yesterday, by not starting Adebayor, Fabregas or Eduardo. These three players came off the bench and, while Eduardo and Fabregas were kept quiet, Adebayor scored within five minutes of his advent, crushing a shot from outside the box. I honestly don't think Bendtner and Walcott can be a good partnership in attack, as was shown by their inability to control balls played forward and their lack of chemistry was apparent throughout the first half. All in all, though, Tottenham just outplayed Arsenal, as the Gunners looked like the team of last year, ineffective in attack, fragile in defense and without control in midfield. Jenas opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, followed by a Bendtner own goal in the 27th minute. I believe Fabregas came in soon thereafter, but to no avail. The Gunners relied on long balls forward but Bendtner and Walcott were unable to settle on the ball or link up with each other or Hleb. The Arsenal attack was anemic, until the introduction of Adebayor and Eduardo in the 65th minute. But by that time, Tottenham had already added another two goals, from Robbie keane in the 48th minute and Aaron Lennon in the 60th. Adebayor's goal was a beauty but the 5-1 aggregate deficit was too much and Tottenham scored another insurance goal in the 90th minute, as Stead Malbranque scored. Arsenal's strength lies in their central midfield and the starting absence of Fabregas and Flamini left a vacuum which the Spurs took immediate advantage of, playign great counterattacking football and feeding their strikers with good passes. This is how Tottenham should always play, with their level of talent, on a day when Berbatov didn't score but they came away with 5 goals against a weak Arsenal squad. Perhaps Wenger really doesn't care about the Carling Cup, that would be reasonable, but the alleged headbutt of Adebayor to Bendtner should be a cause for concern, as well as the severe dressing-down the Gunners received yesterday at the hands of their cross-town rivals.  Arsenal will face Newcastle United at home in their next two matches.

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