Watching the post-match manager press conferences really emphasizes the difference between the two clubs.
I get that they were upset about losing and some contentious decisions not going their way. And Postecoglu has every right to feel frustrated. But the bigger point for me is how eloquent, respectful, and sincere Arteta was.
Class is permanent. And in Arteta we have a classy, intelligent manager. And under his leadership we have a squad who are focused, strong, and willing to learn from their mistakes.
Ange is honest. Arteta is diplomatic (most of the time). I don’t think either manager lacks class, one just wears their heart on their sleeve 100% of the time, for better or worse. I’d honestly be incredibly happy with a manager like Ange, if the football was right.
I should have clarified: I meant more about their club in general. Postecoglu was very reasonable in the post-match presser, and took the defeat as well as can be expected. I respect the man. Hopefully he goes on to bigger and better things than the sad excuse for a club he’s currently stuck at.
But there are so many salty spuds out there right now. Would we be the same in their shoes? Maybe. But while we got a bit lucky with this result, I think we honestly deserved at least a draw from this match. (That probably would have been the fairest result, but hey I’ll take the win!)
Arteta went in with a good strategy. Exploit their left wing; leverage their inability to handle set pieces; sit back and let them press so we could pounce with counter attacks; have Havertz do his usual thing of ghosting in through the middle from midfield when we attack. And it worked. We were clinical. Raya’s brain fart let them back into the game. And Rice’s foul in the area was another individual (but honest) mistake that didn’t help. But I firmly believe that that Tottenham player would have done nothing with that particular chance, so in a way they got lucky with the penalty call (and the previous call before Saka’s goal was not a penalty).
Meanwhile, their players flopped around when a light breeze hit them (as usual), and they focused too much on lifting balls into our area, against a defense that is known for handling arial threats very well. And their starting midfield looked mostly inept (they looked a lot more dangerous when their subs replaced them in the second half). In general, they didn’t really show up. Apart from Romero (who actually played football for once, instead of hacking the shit out of the opposition, and was a real problem for us), I think we had the number on the spuds’ starting eleven.
And their fans? Just as insufferable as usual. Tin pot fans with terrible life judgement abilities who are following a tin pot club.
I feel we definitely let them back into the game and our game management in the final maybe 10/15mins could have been better.
Maybe Arteta looking to make subs disrupts Spurs attacking threat, give the lads some breathing space. You could also argue throwing someone on in such an intense period could have led to more errors as well.
All I’m saying is I have no idea what I’m saying half the time and I’m glad I’m not in Artetas shoes because one, that would be gross, and two, the jobs he is doing cannot be unnderstated and I think he makes it look easier than it is.
Gonan be honest, they probably deserved a win there. They were the better team in the second half, and we were definitely lucky in the first. Mistakes from us yes but we should’ve played better. But it’s an away NLD, anything that isn’t a loss is a good result usually.
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