Arsenal’s thumping of Spurs was down to a fantastic team performance characterised by team spirit, work ethos and amazing accuracy in front of goal.
Two aspects stuck out with me most.
The first has to do with the tactics that Harry adopted. He chose to play with two front men in Saha and Adebayor.
This meant that the midfield was manned by Modric who was more attack minded and Parker who was the defensive minded player. The result was that Spurs were outnumbered in this crucial area of the pitch as Arsenal played their normal 4 3 3 with Benayoun, Rosicky and Song the three midfield players.
Spurs would have been OK if their two wide men, Kranjkar and Bale tacked in to give a helping hand in midfield.
But this was where Spurs and Harry failed. For, on the occasions where their wide men failed to tack in, they were outplayed in midfield.
And when they did tack in they left acres of space on the flanks. Bale in particular was more exposed as when he vacated his line on the flank it was Walcott who benefited. And we all saw what he did to Spurs!
And Arsenal’s trio in the middle were brilliant. They chased and tackled all over the pitch especially in the opponents defensive line thus forcing their defenders into mistakes. When they won the ball they passed it to the forward players with precision.
A special mention has to go to Rosicky. He reminded us all of his best performances, now two years ago! What a player he was on Saturday. He did everything. He tackled, passed, hurried, and tackled again. He run and run and run. And he scored too!
The perfect performance.
