Source: Daily_Mail
Arsenal 2 Tottenham 3: Shaky Gunners are stunned as Van der Vaart inspires fightback
As the Tottenham players wound up their training on Friday lunchtime, Harry Redknapp confronted them with a few pointed questions. 'Why can't you win the championship? Who said you can't, eh? Somebody's gonna win it, why not you lot?'[LNB]At the close of a quite astonishing match at the Emirates, with the Spurs players punching the air and their fans dancing their delighted disbelief, the manager's questions had acquired a startling relevance.[LNB] Delight: Samir Nasri celebrates after scoring Arsenal's opening goal[LNB]To win from two goals down requirescharacter and belief. But to win after being casually outplayed andembarrassingly outclassed demands qualities which Tottenham may nothave known they possessed.[LNB]For 45 minutes, Arsenal had playedlike the team they have always threatened to become. Cesc Fabregas wasassembling one of those inch-perfect, jaw-dropping displays which liftshim high above the Premier League herd. Pulling all the strings andstroking all the damaging passes, he was ablaze with inspiration,seemingly incapable of error. And all around him, his lieutenantsplayed their parts with thrilling verve and chilling precision.[LNB]When Arsenal are in this mood,nothing in England comes remotely close to them. Certainly Spurs wereincapable of offering them a tackle, much less a spirited argument.[LNB]They took the lead in nine minutes,when Samir Nasri chased a Fabregas chip and Heurelho Gomes made anervous advance at the ball. The attacker persevered, the keeper losttrack and Nasri squeezed the chance through one of those angles whichan ordinary player might consider impossible.[LNB] Dutch of class: Rafael van der Vaart celebrates after scoring from the penalty spot[LNB]In 27 minutes, they gave us awonderful goal, full of bright running and perceptive passing, withAndrey Arshavin speeding urgently down the left before playing one ofthose low and lethal crosses which simply demand to be converted.Marouane Chamakh obliged emphatically. This was the best of a very goodside.[LNB]The half ended with somethingremarkable. Fabregas caressed a 15-yard pass with the outside of hisfoot into space which nobody else knew existed. It was so fine, sosubtle that poor Chamakh did not see it until it was upon him. Itsymbolised the quality of Arsenal's football, and it was also the lasttime they had reason to feel good about themselves.[LNB]Redknapp worked on his forces at theinterval. Later, he was commendably frank: 'People will say I'm cleverfor changing things. But if I was that clever, I'd have started likethat.' Boldness was his only He removed Aaron Lennon and installedJermain Defoe to play at the front with Roman Pavlyuchenko.[LNB]He restricted the productivity of Fabregas and he coaxed his team to fiercer effort. And the wonders unfolded.[LNB][LNB]Leaving his mark: Younes Kaboul escapes the attentions of five defeanders to head past goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski[LNB]The vital early goal came withinfive minutes, with a long ball from HEROESdefence touched on by Rafaelvan der Vaart to Gareth Bale. Frustrated for 45 minutes, Bale retainedsufficient composure to strike a careful finish inside the far postwith the outside of his left boot.[LNB]Twenty minutes later, a Van derVaart free-kick was knocked aside by the raised arm of Fabregas. It wasthe clearest penalty you ever did see and Tottenham were level as Vander Vaart sent Lukasz Fabianski the wrong way.[LNB]Still Arsenal should have retrievedthe game, but as Arsene Wenger later conceded: 'When we have todeliver, we can't.' Laurent Koscielny missed a mundane header from afew yards, then Theo Walcott came on, missed a decent chance, and wasnever seen again. And amid all this chaos, Spurs won it.[LNB] Done arm: Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas gives way a penalty to block Rafael van der Vaart's free kick[LNB]Koscielny lunged at Bale and fromVan der Vaart's free-kick, Younes Kaboul procured the deftest oftouches to send the ball bobbing into the corner of the net. A team whohad not taken the points at Arsenal since 1993 had emerged clutchingall three. In the space of 45 minutes, form had flown out of the windowand the shape of the championship had been critically reformed.[LNB]Wenger was a dignified loser. 'Ifyou look at the stats, it's a mystery how we lost the game,' he said.Then he realised how hollow that sounded, since football is about farmore than the simplicities of statistics.[LNB] Can't look: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger[LNB]'We put ourselves in the rightposition, and we failed,' he said. 'That is something which isdifficult to swallow, but we have to accept it'.[LNB]Redknapp started to revive thespeech he made to his players on Friday. How Chelsea and ManchesterUnited are not quite the sides they once were. How Manchester City are'OK, but not what we expected them to be'. And how Spurs are gettingcloser and closer to teams they once feared.[LNB]He insisted that he meant everyword. 'I wouldn't be saying this if I had a bad group of players,' hesaid. 'I'm not silly.' Silly, he isn't. Yesterday in north London, heand his team made a powerful case. Somebody's going to win it. Why notSpurs?[LNB] French feud continues as Arsenal star Nasri carries out threat to snub GallasTottenham still in race for Premier League title, says Harry Redknapp [LNB] [LNB]
