Joe Fitzpatrick 
Amid all the arguments about Arsène Wenger's tactical naivety and the never-ending murder-mystery, "whodunnit" Cluedo game we continue to play in order to discover just which combination of people we should be blaming for the lack of quality additions to the Arsenal squad in the last four or five transfer-windows, the small matter of the North London derby on Sunday has almost been forgotten. Almost. Perhaps most Gooners would rather not talk about this coming St. Totteringham's day because the thought of playing Tottenham on our current form fills us all with a deep sense of dread and forces us to face up to the heartbreaking realisation that we are all condemned men. Condemned to the fate of being second-best to our most hated rivals. Condemned to seeing our hated enemy complete a humiliating domestic double over us in the Premier League this season.
For the first time in what seems like an eternity, even the most diehard of us Gooners are not giving the mighty Arsenal a snowball in hell’s chance of beating the Scum in our own back yard on Sunday, and that is a depressing thing to have to admit to. Tottenham are currently ten points ahead of us in the Premier League, and to refuse to concede that they are currently a better football team than us would be burying one’s head in the proverbial sand.
I must admit that I'm not exactly confident of a home-win myself, but I'm clinging to the hope that, because it's a derby, the old form-book could go out of the window and van Persie and Oxlade-Chamberlain will somehow produce the magic to win us the game. Silly I know, but still, I prefer to live in hope. Some fans are incapable of my peculiarly Orwellian kind of doublethink and can't switch off their rational footballing brains once the whistle has blown; for this reason, they can no longer enjoy watching the Arsenal. It has become a chore rather than a pleasure.
I have personally spoken to fellow Gooners in pubs and clubs around London who are so certain that Arsenal are on a hiding to nothing against the Scum on Sunday that they confessed to me that they were considering giving their tickets away or selling them on. I really hope there aren't empty seats for this one, because I feel that the team will really need our support to win our next three games if we are going to shake off Chelsea in the fight for the infamous "Fourth place Trophy".(Lord give me strength!) After the Tottenham game, our next two in the league are against Liverpool at Anfield and the high-flying Newcastle at the Grove.
I hate to admit it, but, all of this makes you wonder if there is any point in fielding our strongest team against A.C. Milan with our current injury crisis. It is my belief that two more long-term injuries to first-team regulars will effectively derail our season and end our chances of qualification for next season’s Champions League and the financial rewards that come with it. Huge investment from Silent Stan in the summer may be too little too late if we as a club no longer possess the draw of Champions League football required to attract top-class European talent and Robin van Persie decides that Arsenal can no longer match his ambitions and joins his old pal Cesc Fabregas at Barcelona. For these reasons, we must concentrate all of our efforts on beating Chelsea, Liverpool and Newcastle to fourth place. Sad I know, but, it's the sensible thing to do.
Tottenham have won three, drawn two and lost one of their last six Premier League games, earning them eleven points. Arsenal, on the other hand, have won two, drawn one and lost three of their last six Premier League games, earning them seven points.
It is very unfortunate for Arsenal that Tottenham are coming to the Grove on the back of a 5-1 mauling of Newcastle (it was their B-team that survived a scare at Stevenage in the F.A. Cup). Meanwhile, Arsenal are returning home having lost 4-0 at A.C. Milan and 2-0 at Sunderland with the strongest squad fit and available to the Manager. This upcoming game against Tottenham could not possibly have come at a worse time for Arsenal.
My advanced reconnaissance team, based in an undisclosed location behind enemy lines, reports that Tottenham fans have being singing that they want the manager to stay in his current job for the remainder of his life. The problem for us Gooners is that it is our manager that they are singing about. "We want you to stay, we want you to staaay! Arsène Wenger, we want you to stay"; that’s what they are singing. How chilling those words sound coming from the bitter old enemy, especially when you consider that Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp are also always full of saccharine praise for the "great work" of Arsène Wenger. After all, they probably want things to continue to go from bad to worse at Arsenal too.
It has been said that Harry Redknapp isn't a great tactical manager, so we are going to see on Sunday if Arsène Wenger can justify his gargantuan salary by out- manoeuvring a so-called "lesser manager". Rafael van der Vaart was quoted by the Sun Newspaper in 2010 as saying "There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid. There is a clipboard in our dressing-room, but Harry doesn't write anything on it" (probably because he never learned to read and write, Rafa).
If that is the case, then we must wonder what it is that allows a man who claims to be incapable of even the most basic written communication to achieve results like the 5-1 against Newcastle and previous victories against us? Van der Vaart sheds some light on the subject by adding "It's not that we do nothing (in training) - but it's close to that".
"For instance, last weekend Gareth Bale scored a header against Blackburn from my corner. But we didn't train one minute on it, it was pure luck. Good kicking, good heading, nothing more. And our win at home over Champions League winners, Inter Milan, was a clear example of playing on intuition. You can't train the goal I scored in that game."
It appears that Redknapp focuses on motivating his players more than sticking to a rigid game-plan and simply allows his players to play to their obvious strengths and in their natural positions. Arsène Wenger prefers to persevere in his vain attempts to force square pegs into round holes, like Djourou at right back, Arshavin as a winger and Fabianski as a goalkeeper.
Redknapp has managed to elevate Tottenham to a superior position in the domestic championship by building a squad based around the old-fashioned idea of competition for places in the starting eleven. Despite having Defoe, Adebayor and van der Vaart at his disposal, Redknapp still opted to bring in Louis Saha in order to maintain the hunger in the squad by actually increasing the competition for places. Arsène Wenger has refused to follow suit, and has ended up retarding the development of some of his young players by guaranteeing them first-team football and sky-high wages regardless of consistent form or consistent fitness. Speaking of fitness, I'm starting to wonder if our horrific injury-record and annual end-of-season collapse is because we overplay our best players and actually over-train our whole squad. I'd love to know what Chamakh’s and Arshavin's training regime is. If I find out, I will let you know.
In the match against Manchester United at the Grove earlier in the season, we were exposed in wide areas because of the Manager’s persistence with a 4-3-3 system that is obsolete without Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri, as it leaves our struggling full-backs too exposed. This will suit Tottenham, because they possess two very obvious threats in Bale and Lennon from the wide areas while their full-backs, Walker and Assou-Ekotto, also like to get forward when they can to provide crosses for Adebayor (if he is fit and available). The sheer physical presence of Adebayor will create serious problems for the far shorter Vermaelen and Koscielny (as demonstrated by Ibrahimovic in Milan) meaning that Arsène must stifle the delivery from wide areas and go with a 4-4-1-1 formation for this game. I feel that a 4-4-1-1 formation would allow greater protection for our struggling full-backs and would not weaken our midfield too much, as the support striker could drop back into midfield when necessary.
If Alex Song plays as part of a midfield two with Arteta, he must make sure that he is the one tracking the runs of van der Vaart (if he is fit), because otherwise the mercurial Dutchman might use his nous to draw either Vermaelen or Koscielny out of position to create space in behind for Modric, Bale, Lennon and Adebayor/Defoe to run into.
If we are to harbour even the slightest hopes of winning this match, Mikel Arteta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain must step up to the plate and win the midfield battle with Modric and Parker. By playing AOC as a support striker to RvP, we can carry a varied attacking threat while maintaining a good shape and possibly a numerical advantage in the centre of midfield, at times.
My team to face Spurs would be 4-4-1-1; Chesney - Coquelin, Verminator, Koscielny, Sagna - Gervinho, Song, Arteta, Walcott - Oxlade-Chamberlain - van Persie. It would be possible in this system for the attackers to switch positions throughout the game to confuse our opponents, as long as the basic shape and system of the support-striker helping out with the midfield work, à la Bergkamp or Rooney, was adhered to.
What do I know? What do any of us know? Just sit down, shut up and renew your overpriced season tickets like good little drones. Do not ask any questions, just close your eyes and have some faith that big brother will fix it all for us soon. Six percent? You're having a laugh.
