Can Spurs finally win the big one?

The last few years for Tottenham have had its fair share of watershed moments, Spurs have not only broken into the Champions League places but they've also managed some consistency with successive appearances in Europe's elite football competition. More importantly they've also managed to break the hold that the league's bigger sides once held over them in recent seasons. Spurs finally ended their winless runs against Arsenal, Manchester United (even winning at Old Trafford) and finally winning matches against their biggest rivals Chelsea going as far as demolishing the would be champions 5-3 at White Hart Lane just last season. All this goes a long way to tell how drastically things have changed in England's footballing circles.

However, one thing that hasn't changed is Chelsea's stellar record against Spurs at Stamford Bridge. The Blues haven't lost a league match at the Bridge to Spurs in almost 30 years.. Not to mention how wins for Mauricio Pochettino's men have been hard to come by against Chelsea  overall as Spurs have only won 7 of their last 64 matches against this weekend's opponents.

And if Spurs need any more incentive to finally snap their winless run at Chelsea they only need to look back on the last few seasons as Chelsea have so often spoiled the party for Spurs. Chelsea became the first team  to beat Spurs at their temporary home of Wembley this season. Last season they beat Spurs to the league title, denied them a place in the FA Cup final, and most memorably the season before ended Spurs' league chase coming back from two goals down to draw the match handing Leicester City the league title in the process.

There's also the small issue of a Spurs win moving them even closer to a European spot and in the process claiming the crown as the out right kings of London which means they finally step out of the shadow that both Arsenal and Chelsea have cast over them for so long.

While finishing in a Champion's League spot may not be a trophy as most critics will readily argue, in the long the long run its a good start when taking into consideration of how Man City have managed to raise the bar, the emergence of a red hot Liverpool and that consistent Champions League along with the redevelopment of White Hart Lane would be key for Spurs to emulate the exploits of their city rivals.

Why this is the worst Arsenal team

Someone clearly has a lot on his mind

Arsene Wenger’s name will forever be synonymous with Arsenal for the innovation and the transformation he bought to the club. The Frenchman transformed Arsenal not only into a recognized club, but also a global brand. This happened when Wenger took the Gunners into the 21^st century as he masterminded the move to the higher capacity Emirates Stadium. The move, however, placed financial constraints on Arsenal which meant that Wenger had to resort to potential talents and bargain buys to keep them competitive. While in the short Arsenal did keep within touching distance with Chelsea and Manchester United, but the drawbacks of using young and experience soon told. Arsenal would always fall apart at important points of the season. So with long term in mind in mind Arsenal acquired the services of Petr Cech, Mesut Ozil, Santi Carzola, Shkodran Mustafi, Olivier Giroud, Per Mertesacker and Alexis Sanchez.

The above mentioned players standout from their recent recruits as they fulfilled the criteria which Gunners required to make them winners again firstly because they were experienced internationals. Moreover, they had had varying degrees of success winning silverware either at international or club level. So it comes as a concern to see them perform even worse than when they had fresh faced teens and twenty-year-olds in their team.

Even the players who remained from Wenger’s rebuild have not lived up to the billing they once showed in their youth. The names of Jack Wilshire and Theo Walcott standout as examples as their careers have stalled in recent times.

Recent additions over the past few seasons in the Arsenal set-up in the forms of Alex Iwobi, Hector Bellerin, Granit Xhaka and Sead Kolisinac are also following suit. These four were seen as players with great potential yet somehow they look nothing like the players they promised to be before arriving that the Emirates. Kolisinac’s case is the most notable as before he left Hoffenheim he was rated highly in the Bundesliga.

Essentially, all this comes down to the current environment at Arsenal where complacency and a loser mentality are prevalent where the bare minimum seems to be enough for the players, but unfortunately in the Premier League time doesn’t stand still and Arsenal’s current predicament has been a long time coming. and provides the lesson if stay in the same place for too long you run the risk of getting run over.

arsenal have officially reached a new low

Arsenal’s season reached a new low as the Gunners were easily swept aside in yet another 3-0 defeat to Manchester City. While thrashings at the hands of their rivals has become pretty much part and parcel to the later Wenger years Thursday night’s defeat may just earn itself its own notoriety as the day Arsenal suffered their worst ever defeat and as the day that Arsene Wenger’s career at Arsenal finally ended. On the surface, the 3-0 score line is not as bad when compared to their other humiliating defeats Arsenal have suffered at the hands of their rivals, however there is great distinction between those losses and the way they lost to City. Most, if not all, of those defeats occurred away from home where a combination of error, tactical naivety and feebleness in matches which matter led to Wenger and his men slinking off the field with their tails between their legs.

In Thursday’s defeat it was visibly clear that Arsenal had come out to play as they did on occasion trouble the City goal, but it soon became clear that even their best paled in comparison to City’s ordinary as the visitors were effortless in dispatching a so-called rival in a routine performance you’d usually see when the log leaders play a midtable or lower side. All in all, the loss to City highlighted the growing gulf in class not just between City and Arsenal, but the rest of the sides above them.

The Gunners in the games in the league against the top five have only won one out of a possible nine games, collecting only 5 points out of a possible 27 which effectively means that Arsenal you can’t count Arsenal amongst the league’s best, but you could rather say they are the best of the rest. Arsenal have also been in what can be described as relegation form with 6 defeats in 13 matches in all competitions and even worse still their league form their league form has been horrendous.

Away from home the Gunners have only managed to win only three games away from home which is shocking considering that it’s well into the second half of the season. Looking to the weeks ahead it’s difficult to see Arsenal returning to anything near what they used and their life line in the form of the Europa League looks a step too far for them.