The North London Question
"Lads, it's Tottenham."
Although this phrase is famous for being spoken by Sir Alex Ferguson to his Manchester United team, it's nowadays more likely to be heard by an Arsenal fan, shrugging off the possibility that Spurs will finish ahead of them in the league for the first time in 20 years or so.
But when Erik Lamela smashed in a third goal in six minutes, Manchester United learned a very painful lesson. That Spurs have evolved. They are a significantly better team than they have been for a long time and anyone denying it is looking increasingly silly. This was a Spurs team who ruthlessly and painfully exploited a mediocre Manchester United side's weaknesses, who found every hole and tore it open, and could easily have put five or six past United, despite only playing well in the final quarter of the game. When they turned it on, they were irresistible. Spurs have now lost just one of their last ten games, a run that includes Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and West Ham, 5 of the top 8 (top 7 if you factor in Liverpool's games in hand but that's neither here nor there right now).
Arsenal on the other hand, were being Arsenal. Whilst Spurs were evolving, Arsenal were dropping points at West Ham, a very tough place to go, but a game that could easily have been lost by the Gunners, albeit with some, shall we say interesting decisions on both sides. Since they got themselves back into the title race, Arsenal have dropped ten points, whilst Leicester have dropped two. Now make no mistake, Leicester have had an easier run in up until now, and they've navigated it extraordinarily well, but Arsenal should have picked up more points against a weakened United, as Spurs did yesterday, and against Swansea especially.
Now I'm not saying Arsenal have gone backwards. They haven't. They've got the same excuses and problems as they have every year and the opposition in the league has been much tougher all around, everyone is dropping points. But unless they pull off a remarkable finish to their season, Arsenal aren't going to match last season's points tally of 75. Spurs have already passed their previous tally of 64.
My point is this. Last season Arsenal finished a whopping 11 points above Spurs. This season, they'll be lucky to finish above them at all. At this stage, I personally think that Spurs will hold them off, I'm looking at Spurs' fixture list and the ease with which they dismantled United in this second half and can see them dropping two more points at most, at Stamford Bridge against a poor Chelsea side. West Brom, Southampton and Newcastle shouldn't pose much threat and Stoke were abject yesterday, so even at the Britannia, (where Stoke have only beaten Newcastle, Norwich and Aston Villa in 2016) I can't see Spurs dropping points. That said, I'll have to be right because Arsenal's run in is even easier, with only Manchester City posing a real threat to Arsenal's chances of picking up 18 points from their last six games.
But for me at least, that's almost irrelevant at this stage. Because either way, whether they finish ahead of them or not, Arsenal cannot dismiss Spurs anymore. They cannot shrug their shoulders and say: it's Spurs. Because as Spurs showed against Man United, and in truth, have showed all season, they're not just Spurs anymore. They've evolved. And Arsenal? I'm not sure that they've developed one iota in the last twelve months.
Progress under Klopp
As Divock Origi hammered in Liverpool's fourth goal against Stoke, there was a palatable sense of progress. Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp have finally started to get where they want to be.
More than almost any other side in the Premier League this season, this has been a year of transition. Brendan Rodgers spent a lot of money in the summer, had one or two high profile flops, got sacked and with Klopp coming in, all eyes were on him. Big defeats against Newcastle and Watford just increased the feeling that Klopp had a real job on his hands, and there were more abject defeats to come, at the hands of West Ham and Leicester. For me, the turning point, one of the lowest points in our season, was a pathetic 2-2 draw against Sunderland on the 6th of February. Then, next time out, we played Aston Villa, who of course were absolutely abysmal and we beat them 6-0. Now I maintain that this is a very good result. Yes it's only Villa but who else has beaten Villa 6-0 this season? Nobody. Regardless, I put it down to it being just Villa, as you would. And then a funny thing happened. We kept playing well. We beat City 3-0, we tore United apart, we were terrific in the final half an hour against Palace and then we were exceptional against both Spurs and Dortmund, securing two excellent draws (both of which could easily have been wins) in a week against teams we'd have been favourites to lose against. Then yesterday, we put Stoke to the sword with a second string.
Of course there have been missteps along the way. Palace we were poor for much of the match before turning in a stellar half hour, Southampton felt like a huge loss but only because we played so damn well for 45 minutes, and obviously losing the cup final to City on pens was a body blow. But in truth, we've not turned in a shocking, abject performance like we did so many times under Rodgers since Leicester beat us in early February. Not since that Sunderland game have I been fuming with the side. Southampton was unacceptable yes, but there were hugely positive signs in that game. Palace we stepped up incredibly. Coutinho and Firmino have been excellent since the turn of the year and they're not the only ones.
It's been over two months since there's been nothing positive to say about an LFC game, something that in 2015 happened all the time. The only time I went two months without being completely and utterly done with a Liverpool performance in 2015 was when we weren't playing over the summer.
And against Stoke, we showed that we do have some genuine strength in depth. Both Origi and Sturridge were sensational, Joe Allen put in yet another good performance, Milner was terrific, young Stewart was arguably man of the match and Skrtel...okay well Skrtel only made one error that led to a goal so that's progress for him right?
I jest, but what 2016 has done so far is two-fold. It has really allowed the players in our squad who were signed under Rodgers but never able to quite find their form to really shine under Klopp. Milner, Clyne, Origi and Firmino, all summer signings written off within two months because funnily enough the team didn't gel immediately by October, for a multitude of reasons, not to mention injuries, fitness levels and cohesion, but all of whom have come good under Klopp. Rodgers' business in the summer, I maintain was a success. Milner has seven goals and ten assists this season, not bad for a free signing and certainly good enough to earn an England call up as far as I'm concerned, Clyne has been consistently good and just last week he kept Marco fucking Reus in his back pocket...twice. Origi is only just 20 years old but he's an intelligent and hard working young forward who now has as many goals this season as Daniel Sturridge and could very easily break into double digits and Firmino has been a bit of a revelation since Christmas, and when he also makes ten goals for the season (and maybe ten assists too), it will be richly deserved. Of course Ings and Gomez were both desperately unlucky with injuries, but they'll both add something to our squad when they return. And the likes of the much maligned Lovren, Lallana and Sakho are all starting to really find their feet under Klopp and have put in some formidable performances.
The other thing 2016 has allowed us to do is pick out the weaknesses in our squad. The obvious weaknesses. Benteke? Definitely a problem and definitely needs to go in the summer. Mignolet? Too error prone, he has to go too. Skrtel? Almost single-handedly cost us the Southampton game, has to be binned. Replace these three players with genuine quality, and we'll have a squad with a lot of potential on our hands.
Of course, this season has been disappointing. 2015 was highly disappointing. But considering the results and performances we've turned in in 2016, seeing us become the highest scorers in the league this calendar year, outplay some of the best clubs in the country, and make some real progress in the Europa League, I see no reason that we can't finish 5th, secure Champions League football through the Europa League and make a good fist of next season.
Or, you know...crash and burn. That's also an option.
Hard And Fast Section
- Leicester City. Wow. Seven points clear again.
- Newcastle are so relegated it hurts.
- LVG: tactical genius
- Please, please, please let United get docked points.
- And Danny Willett. Wow. Story of 2016 so far.
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