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MOTD: Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

By on November 8, 2015

Arsene Wenger has a love-hate relationship with time. On one hand, time can cure all, and in a seventeen-year career filled with highs and lows, Wenger knows this well. In a perfect world, with time comes opportunity; yet the inevitable passing of time is also the source of most uncertainties in this world.

In a fascinating interview with French magazine L’Equipe (translation thanks to Arseblog), Wenger explained this relationship. “The only possible moment of happiness is the present. The past gives you regrets. And the future uncertainties,” he said. “Man understood this very fast and created religion. It absolves you of what you’ve done wrong in the past and tells him not to worry about the future, because he’ll go to paradise. It means make the most of the present. Man “self psychoanalyzed” himself very quickly through faith.”

It’s why, when Wenger was a young manager, in a time before his name became synonymous with Arsenal, he used to pray before every match his team played. But at the age of sixty-six, Wenger is now a much more nuanced man. In a managerial position “that is exclusively turned to the future,” he says, (“Towards the next day. I always live in the future. It’s planned,” he added) “my relationship with time is filled with anxiety.”

Recently, time has been outpacing Wenger’s Arsenal team as their injuries compound and their schedule tightens in the holiday season. Now, they welcome a brief pause, in the form of the international break, with arms wide open after a hectic draw with Tottenham Hotspur that left them dizzy, angry, and relieved all at the same time.

Olivier Giroud provided the anger and frustration, having missed multiple golden chances. “Maybe he wanted to score too much,” Wenger mused. Fantastic performances from both goalkeepers also contributed to keeping the scoreline low.

Santi Cazorla was the dizzy one. “He is not sick, he was just dizzy and could not move, you could see that on the pitch. I did not really know what he had, so at half-time I took him off,” Wenger explained. Perhaps it’s the result of playing his third game a week. For now, Cazorla joins a growing list of Arsenal’s sidelined players that includes Hector Bellerin, Aaron Ramsey, Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere, Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott, Mathieu Debuchy and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Yet Arsenal managed to bear through the fatigue and come back from behind to scrape out a 1-1 draw. “When you are 1-0 down it is a mixture of relief and regret. I think if we were really clinical we would have won it in the last 15 minutes. But if I tried to be fair, I must say that the point is a fair result,” Wenger summarized.

Mauricio Pochettino might beg to differ. His Tottenham side played with the vibrancy of a young, effervescent team and Dele Alli, Mousa Dembele, Christian Eriksen and Eric Dier set the pace of the game with a flowing midfield performance. Early on, Dier angled a far-post header just wide from Eriksen’s deep free-kick and Harry Kane bagged the opener on thirty-two minutes. Danny Rose clipped a long ball over the top for Kane, who found space in between Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny to turn his body and coolly tuck a low finish into the bottom right corner of the net.

However, the tides turned back in Arsenal’s direction and Joel Campbell forced Hugo Lloris into a fantastic save at full-stretch to beat away a curling far-post effort from the right. Although Eriksen came close with a deflected effort, Mesut Ozil found Giroud down at the other end in the fifty-fourth minute with a deep free-kick, which the Frenchman could only direct as low as the crossbar. Soon after, Giroud glanced another header inches wide of the post from a brilliant position six yards out from goal.

Yet Spurs wrestled their way back into the match and Toby Alderweireld saw a headed effort from point-blank range crucially parried by Cech. “If you go 2-0 down its bye-bye,” said Wenger.

In a desperate attempt to push forward Wenger brought on Kieran Gibbs, perhaps Arsenal’s most attacking-minded man on the bench, for Campbell. On playing further forward, Gibbs explained that it was “because in the last few games we have not had midfielders. It has been difficult for the boss with options so in the last few games I have been coming on and I knew, looking across the bench that, probably, even though I’m a defender I’m one of the more offensive players on the bench.”

It was Gibbs, just seven minutes after coming on, who pulled Arsenal level on seventy-seven minutes, connecting on Ozil’s deep cross at the far post. The Englishman’s volleyed effort squirmed past Lloris at the near post. The French goalkeeper made a smart reaction save to deny Giroud late on, but Tottenham held onto a point that brings them back into the top five and takes Arsenal level on points with Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table.

Man of the Match: Mousa Dembele

Homepage photo credit: Ronnie Macdonald, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.