Arsene Wenger: Fifty Defining Fixtures by Yousif Layth

Author:Yousif, Layth [Yousif, Layth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2014-09-07T23:00:00+00:00

26

Tottenham Hotpsur (A)

13 November 2004

This North London derby took place only two League games after their tempestuous 2-0 loss at Old Trafford, which halted the Gunners’ forty-nine-match unbeaten run. The team had drawn both a 2-2 deadlock at Highbury against Southampton and a dire 1-1 stalemate at Selhurst Park. Rather like erratic behaviour following the onset of delayed shock, this game saw an outburst of goals that no one saw coming – certainly not with the contest only registering a single goal up to the 44th minute.

Not that any Arsenal fan was complaining. After all, a win at White Hart Lane is not something be scoffed at. However, the aggregate of goals that came in this game will ensure it goes down in history as one of the most entertaining derbies in the long sequence of the fixture. It was a game that took place only seven months short months after Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles took the title on the home of their bitter rivals.

That Wenger’s 2004/05 vintage edged this nine-goal thriller was far more to do with their attacking flair than their customary defensive nous, which went missing for this early kick-off on a crisp autumnal day in N17.

The victory sent them top, albeit on a short-lived basis. There was even a modicum of relief their Old Trafford loss hadn’t cost them any apparent offensive fluidity.

Wenger recalled his familiar line-up, despite his youngsters winning the 3-1 Carling Cup over Everton only four days previously. Robert Pires started the North London derby on the bench, with his place on the left side of midfield taken by Jose Antonio Reyes, with Dennis Bergkamp partnering Henry up front.

Tottenham Hotspur: Robinson, Pamarot, Naybet, King, Edman, Pedro Mendes, Brown, Carrick, Ziegler, Keane, Defoe. Substitutes: Davies for Pedro Mendes, Kanoute for Brown, Gardner for Keane. Not used: Redknapp, Fulop.

Arsenal: Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Cygan, Cole, Ljungberg, Vieira, Fabregas, Reyes, Bergkamp, Henry. Substitutes: Pires for Reyes, Van Persie for Bergkamp. Not used: Flamini, Almunia, Hoyte.

Referee: Steve Bennett

Attendance: 36,095

Kevin McCarra had written in his Guardian match report,

It as well that there were enough goals to make Spurs fans woozy. Those people left the ground gratefully unable to focus on the fact that Arsenal had just won there for the first time since May 1999. Since this was a match like hardly any other, it even felt pedantic to count it as a fifth consecutive Premiership defeat. The defenders wallowed in their fallibility and the aberrations were so outlandish that they were virtually a comfort to the new head coach Martin Jol, who could not bring himself to envisage that life will go on like this.

Incredibly, there was no sign of the feast of goals to come in a typically hard-fought but goalless first thirty minutes. Noureddine Naybet then directed a Michael Carrick free-kick past Lehmann 8 minutes before half-time. Cygan nodded over the bar as the interval was approaching and there were seconds left before the interlude when Thierry Henry ran onto Lauren’s intelligent pass, beating his man before calmly firing into the Lilywhites’ net to level the scores.

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