Saturday 7 February 2015 18:52, UK
Tottenham came from behind in the north London derby to beat Arsenal 2-1 in a dramatic game at White Hart Lane. After Mesut Ozil’s early opener, Harry Kane was the hero when he added a late winner to his equaliser to lift Spurs above their rivals.
Adam Bate was there to see it for Sky Sports and picks out four talking points from the match, starting with that man Kane...
King Kane
‘Glory, glory Tottenham Hotspur’ was the song being played upon the final whistle but you’d have been hard pressed to hear it at White Hart Lane on Saturday. It was Harry Kane’s name being roared by the Spurs supporters, drowning out anything else. He’s one of their own, you see, and judging by the way his team-mates ran to him at the final whistle, it’s a feeling shared by the players as well as the fans. Kane was the last to leave the pitch and, typically, still running as he charged down the tunnel. “He doesn’t stop,” said Arsene Wenger afterwards.
It’s been an extraordinary season for the young striker but this game surely represents a new high point. For all the plaudits, talk of his achievements when moving through the ranks and the kind words from those coaches who’d worked with him during his loan moves, Kane’s blossoming needs to be seen to be believed - and even then, some are still struggling.
The Europa League goals, including a hat-trick at home to Greek side Asteras Tripoli, were supposed to be clouding the issue. When Sky Sports published the statistic showing Kane was the first player in England to reach the 20-goal mark, it wasn’t only Arsenal fans rushing to run him down and mock the overreaction to a young home-grown player showing such promise. Such cynicism is being made to look foolish. It’s now seven league goals in 2015 alone and only Lionel Messi can match that tally.
Kane’s confidence is palpable when watching him. There is no hesitancy, only complete conviction in his movement and decision-making. Strong and quick, playing on the last man and pulling wide into space - he’s a player who refuses to be pigeon-holed. The equaliser was the goal of a poacher, ghosting in at the far post, and yet the winner was the sort of towering header you’d expect to be scored by a very different type of striker.
To produce this performance in a game of such importance says plenty and while the media focused on Roy Hodgson’s presence, Kane’s inclusion in the England team is surely inevitable. As Wenger pointed out, “If you don’t put him in there, somebody will give him a passport for another country”. A more pertinent question is whether - at this moment - there is a better player in England right now, regardless of nationality. And amazingly, Mauricio Pochettino thinks there is more to come. “Today he showed he is a great player,” said the Spurs boss. “But my idea is he can still improve. His potential is massive.”
Pochettino’s young guns
The same might be said of this Tottenham team. That Pochettino included Kane, Eric Dier, Danny Rose and Ryan Mason - four uncapped Englishmen - together in the starting line-up for the first time is an indication of his preference for shaping those who are hungry to learn rather than sated veterans, but it also shows he trusts them when it really matters.
There will be moments when this young Spurs side make mistakes, as was the case under difficult circumstances at Sheffield United. Dier and Rose were partially culpable for Mesut Ozil’s opener on Saturday, while Mason mixed some poor passes with moments of quality. But importantly, there is no confusion of ideas and, like at Bramall Lane, they are ploughing on regardless. Indeed, there’s a real clarity of purpose about Pochettino’s Spurs and the belief is growing.
That comes with results like this. They have now won 12 points from goals scored in the final five minutes - twice as many as any other Premier League team - and 22 points from their last nine matches. This is both a reflection of that drive and an encouragement to continue along the same path. Don’t expect the manager to turn to the old heads in a hurry now.
“For me, when you watch the training session, you do not see the names,” said Pochettino when asked about the faith he has placed in Tottenham’s previously unheralded youngsters. “We need to look forward. You have to be brave to give them the possibility to play. You need to take a risk.” That risk has brought its reward.
Were Arsenal too cautious?
Arsenal had the opposite problem. They allowed themselves to be sucked into a negative approach and Wenger was left frustrated. “Were we too focused on defending our goal?” he asked. “We defended well but did we do enough going forward?” The answers were obvious. However, this attitude was surely a product of Arsenal’s recent experience in winning 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium. “In the last few years, we went to Manchester City and wanted to convince everybody that we can go and play our own way,” said Per Mertesacker after that game. “Sometimes we have to do something unexpected.”
The decision to be more circumspect in the biggest games has been welcomed and it seemed set to result in further success when they soaked up the Spurs pressure early on before countering to take the lead. It is an uncharacteristic approach from Arsenal, emphasised by the fact that they had less than 40 per cent of the ball in the first half. What’s more, after 70 minutes, no Arsenal player had completed more passes than Olivier Giroud - an unusual feat for a striker but indicative of how they looked to hit the target man and play out from there.
The presence of the assured Francis Coquelin in midfield certainly makes this cautious way of playing a more viable policy. Again, the young holding player was a vital figure, making nine interceptions and showing positional maturity that belied his years. He was also the only man on the pitch who won possession more times than he lost it. The problem was that there was always a sense that in a derby game with the crowd likely to be factor, any shift in momentum would be difficult to reverse. “We keep making the same mistakes,” said Wenger when bemoaning the “cheap goals”. But it seems Arsenal have actually managed to make a new one.
What next for the north Londoners?
Despite the disappointment for the visitors, this result actually leaves things in the balance between the two great rivals. While Pochettino insists his team will keep up the tempo in their play, with the Europa League campaign resuming this month and the Capital One Cup final on the first day of next month, this is a critical period for his team and it remains to be seen how practical such ambitions will prove to be.
Although Arsenal have cup commitments of their own, Wenger did not look like a man completely shorn of confidence in his team. Interestingly, he preferred to focus on the fact that Spurs have played 13 home games and only 11 away from White Hart Lane, while his own team have eight home fixtures remaining. Clearly, there will be plenty of opportunities remaining for Arsenal to overturn a mere one-point deficit on Spurs. But as Wenger found out on Saturday, denying Harry Kane and co. is much easier said than done.
