There is never a good time to lose a north London derby but for both Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou a defeat on Wednesday would only serve to further rile fanbases whose murmurs of discontent have grown more audible.
Arteta looks to rally the fans
It was notable that the Arsenal manager, who will host his Tottenham counterpart, was calling for “the best atmosphere that we have played [in] at the Emirates.” He is rarely one to downplay the importance of his home stadium after two home defeats that have seen at least some of the faithful beat a hasty retreat, Arteta knows there is work to be done to win over a grumbling audience. He will not need telling what happened when first Arsene Wenger and then Unai Emery lost the crowd.
Where is that grumbling come from? In no small part from the standards Arteta set for Arsenal. After two seasons that established this team as a serious contender, he would have been the first to say that silverware was required to buttress the project. It looks like that won’t be coming from the domestic cups, the last week bringing their elimination from the FA Cup and a first leg defeat to Newcastle in the EFL Cup that is likely terminal. Glory probably won’t come in the Premier League either with Liverpool six points clear with a game in hand. Barring a first Champions League title, the trophy drought will extend into year six.
It is easy to understand why supporters of England’s third most successful club in terms of domestic leagues would expect more. However it requires only a cursory knowledge of how Arsenal’s season has gone to understand why the trophies might have slipped away. First to the ephemera. There have been three red cards — two of them correct but rarely given — at weird moments that cost points in the early weeks of the season.
Then the big stuff, a raft of injuries not far from as impactful as those that knocked Liverpool and Manchester City off course in recent weeks. Martin Odegaard played in excess of 3,000 Premier League minutes in each of the last two seasons. A lengthy ankle injury and subsequent bouts of illness mean he has just cleared the 1,000 mark. Bukayo Saka may not be back until March. Ben White has only played nine games. Last season there were few if any attacking groups as devastating as the Arsenal right flank. That triumvirate have shared the pitch once since the start of August.
The niggles don’t stop there. Mikel Merino broke his shoulder in 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, fullback in particular, have been repeatedly hammered. To add insult to many injuries just as Gabriel Jesus was hitting some of his best form since the right knee injury he suffered at the 2022 World Cup, the ACL in the other knee ruptures.
“This is a more challenging period that we’ve had,” said Arteta, “especially as we’ve lost very important players in crucial moments, but I don’t know, things happen for a reason in this life. We have to adapt, and with everything that has happened, look how the team performs.
“OK, we didn’t win the other day, but if you have to go out of a competition, let’s go out like this when you have been infinitely better than the opposition, and on Wednesday we have another one. It’s probably the best time to play, because we know what that game means for all of us. So, let’s face it, the circumstances are where they are, let’s embrace them and let’s get the best out of that because even with all that, look how the team plays.”
He has a point. All those circumstances are what they are. Arsenal are without their best attacker, a key forward and have a host of players who look to be exhausted. Still, they are hitting what most at the club would have viewed as an adequate, if not outstanding, season and are overwhelmingly well placed to qualify for next year’s Champions League, capable of a deep run in this year’s 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 are yet to offer their fanbase the endorphin rush of a new signing. They just play a low scoring sport and the ball hasn’t gone in the net yet.
Postecoglou fights injuries and bad luck
Postecoglou might feel the same grievances. What was remarkable about Wednesday’s EFL Cup semifinal first leg win over Liverpool was not Tottenham’s performance, outstanding though it was. It was that Spurs emerged victorious from a close game. This team has played eight games this season where the expected goal difference has been between 0 and -0.6, games where they have been broadly even in terms of shot quality, at most somewhat outplayed by their opponents. Their record a week ago read one draw, six defeats.
The defeat to Newcastle last week was an embodiment of their season. Spurs started brightly and even in a diminished form their attack was sparking. There was nothing to be done, however, to mitigate the fact that only one of their regular back five was in the team. There may be questions to ask of Postecoglou’s system. Does such a high line put too great a demand on the hamstrings of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero? Even if that is true, there is still misfortune aplenty in those two, Ben Davies, Destiny Udogie and Guglielmo Vicario all suffering major injuries at the same time.
Once those players return — and Postecoglou did say on Tuesday that he is hopeful of “some light at the end of the tunnel” — Tottenham will at least be better off for their head coach having trusted two 18 year olds to step up. Archie Gray has been a revelation at center back, Lucas Bergvall a dynamo in midfield. Without them, might the Liverpool game have gone another way? “In two or three years’ time, I just pray to God I’m the beneficiary of their talent,” their manager said of the teens after that game. “If someone else is getting it, I won’t be happy.”
Tottenham haven’t quite managed to hit their baseline as Arsenal have, but their injury crisis has established two potential cornerstones of the team over the coming years. Champions League qualification might be beyond the Premier League’s second highest scorers, but a domestic final is within reach. That is not to be sniffed at. Certainly it is worth noting when anyone looks down and down in the Premier League table in search of the side in 11th.
“I always put context around how you analyse and critique performances, others choose not to and they purely go on outputs,” said Postecoglou on Tuesday. “If you look at a team and they lose and don’t score goals, it’s poor play or poor players or poor coaching or whatever. I think in the context of cohesion and fluidity, if you’ve got injuries and disruptions, that does affect what you do.
“We’ve obviously been hit really hard, but they’re starting to accumulate for most clubs. I’ll be very surprised if any club goes through unscathed the way the season is going so far. You know, Bournemouth have had a couple now, Brighton, there’s a few clubs who are now starting to rack up a few, a few of those. Obviously us with our fixture schedule, we’ve probably been hit harder than most, but I’d be surprised if any club comes through unscathed this season.”
Certainly neither of these two have. Yet both really ought to be viewed as having buttressed their reputation through their injury crises. Postecoglou has done what he has so often done throughout his season and a half in charge of Tottenham, made decisions for the good 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 did that stop being good enough?
At least one of these managers will be nursing a sharp blow come Thursday morning. There will be questions over the lack of a top, top striker in the red half of north London and/or a further debate over the philosophical intransigence of the team in white. Too little of it, you fear, will really address the circumstances that have been inflicted on these teams in this most trying of seasons.
