Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal – (14/04/10) – (Premier League) 15 April, 2010

Well it had to happen at some point, Spurs have finally beaten us in the league for the first time since 1999 and I’m sure they will take much joy in effectively ending our title hopes. However they can put us back in it if they play like that against Chelsea this weekend but lets not think about that for the moment!At the end of the day the losses of Vermaelen, Song, Fabregas, van Persie and Arshavin finally took it’s toll and we were beaten. I don’t want to make excuses about having players out because Spurs did too but if we’d had at least some of those players back I’m sure it would’ve been a different story. We didn’t though and on the night the XI they selected beat the XI we selected.

Denilson and Vermaelen were both taken off injured last night, the Brazilian is a doubt for the weekend but Tommy V will miss the rest of the season. It’s another massive blow for our season, a season that will forever be remembered for the crazy amount of injuries suffered. A shame too that Vermaelen’s amazing debut season is over but he’s been brilliant and is certainly a contender for my End of Season Awards.

I have to say I was quite confident going into the game yesterday. I thought the 120 minutes played just a few days before would be too much for Spurs but they were really up for it last night and they weren’t going to let a little thing like fatigue effect them.

Obviously they were fucking over the moon with the win and the DVD ‘An Unforgettable Night’ is already out! I know there will be some of the enemy reading this and I suggest you buy up in bulk now and make the most of it guys. I turned over right after the whistle, I couldn’t be arsed to see that parade of monkeys round the pitch, the 10-year-old confetti that has finally seen the light of day and the trophy presentation. I guess you can let them enjoy it while it lasts. I never give out that much grief when we beat them to be honest but the amount of stuff I’ve been sent today and last night I think that might be changing. Next season I’ll remind them just who we are, that’s if I’ve got enough time aside from thinking about the title race (that means the football teams that challenge to come first in the league, you get a trophy for that by the way). Anyway, see you lot in the Champions League then. Or not…

On to the game and we started quite brightly actually. We had loads of the ball and looked dangerous but only a Sol Campbell header in the opening minutes produced a shot on goal. They went 1-0 up after 10 minutes with a wonder goal from Danny Rose; I’m not saying it was fluke but he’d struggle to pull that one off again! Almunia, 1. never really should’ve punched it out, 2. shouldn’t have fallen over in the process, and 3. maybe should’ve got something on the shot. You can’t blame him too much though; it was a hell of a strike.

The goal was against the run of play but it dented our confidence and raised theirs. For the rest of the match they closed down every ball and allowed us no space to work with. We couldn’t find an equalizer in the first half but I wasn’t too worried, they always score first and we had a whole half to even go on and win this game.

We got off the worst possible start though, Sagna was way out of line with the other defenders and Silvestre had no clue as to what was going on behind him and some chimp-looking fella made it 2-0. It was a gutting goal to concede just from how sloppy it was but also it meant we really needed three now to stay level with the title race. I was a bit worried we’d be caught on the break and it’d get embarrassing but Sol Campbell was fucking magnificent. There was mass booing and jeering with his every touch but you would’ve though he was having a kickabout in the park how cool and collected he was. He wasn’t letting a thing past him and showed no evidence of that poor fitness that seemed to be such a worry about him. On last night alone I think he earned himself another year at Arsenal. Sol you’re an Arsenal legend mate and we know you’re a Gooner.

I was screaming for van Persie to come on in the second half, we had nothing to lose – if he picked up a niggle it was worth the gamble because if we couldn’t score at least two goals our season was all but over anyway. His impact was incredible and he showed us just how much we’ve missed him. Arsene said before the game he looks like he’s never been out and he wasn’t wrong there. Check out this highlights package of his cameo, maybe just mute it or something though the soundtrack is a bit shite.

What a star. Imagine if we’d had him fit this season it would’ve been a totally different story. Last night he came on with the intention of winning the game on his own just as Fabregas did against Villa a few months ago. He nearly did and if it wasn’t for Gomes’ ‘crazy’ saves we might’ve been talking about a different result here today. He helped us get one goal and was denied two almost certain looking goals. It’s great to have Robin back, just a shame we haven’t got much to fight for anymore.

So yeah we lost and you can look at individual performances and say they weren’t good enough but I think the main problem is we didn’t have our heart in it us much as they did. Campbell was good, Nasri was alright but had nothing to aim for and van Persie was excellent but there we’re too many who frankly don’t understand how important this match is to us. Maybe that’s part of their immaturity, even cunts like Adebayor and Ashley Cole knew how much this game meant and put every last breath into this game – they might have sunk to equal levels of cuntitude now but they knew what a North London Derby meant anyway.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this so I’ll just wrap it up! We need to get on with things now, we haven’t got many players at all but we’ve got games to play and we need to just do what we can. 2nd could be a more realistic target now and even that would be a good achievement with the season we’ve had, next up is Wigan away and we need to put a strong performance in there. Come on you Gunners, we’re still with you.