I bet you are all still smiling!
I bet you are all still smiling! I thought you might like a few facts and figures following our win at The Emirates on Saturday. For a start it was our very first win there in 7 attempts in all games. Two of these were in Carling Cup semi-final ties.
Spurs came back from two goals behind to win in the Premier League for the first time since at Upton Park in March 2007. This was the famous 4-3 win, when Stalteri scored our last ditch winner!
We have ended that run of 68 away games against the so-called top four without a league win. Our last league win at Arsenal (should I call them Ar23nal?) was in May 1993, when Teddy Sheringham scored one and John Hendry scored two in a 3-1 win. John Hendry only ever made 5 full appearances for Spurs, and finished his career in Scotland.
Arsenal last lost two back to back home league games against Liverpool, then Blackburn in November/December 1997. Incidentally, in what was a pretty disastrous season for us, we drew both league games against the Gooners. The home game on December 28th saw the return of Jurgen Klinsmann to Spurs, and he ultimately would be a hero for the second time by the time we played Wimbledon in May 1998 and won 6-2!
The last time Arsenal were 2-0 up and lost at home was on the opening week-end of the first Premier League season in August 1992. They lost 4-2 to Norwich, and one of the "Canaries"' scorers was a certain Ruel Fox! Former Spurs players Mark Bowen, Ian Culverhouse, John Polston, and Ian Crook all took part in that game. In recent years Mark Bowen has been working as an assistant to Mark Hughes, and he is currently at Fulham with his Welsh mate.
Gareth "He was born to play for Spurs" Bale has already scored three goals away in this year's Premier League, which is one more than he managed in the preceding two season put together.
Bale was one of several stars for Spurs in our win at The Emirates, scoring 8.2 on the exclusive "spursometer". Over 270 readers voted this week, and 4 players scored over 8 out of 10. They were (in ascending order) Rafael van der Vaart, Bale, Kaboul, and your man of the match William Gallas, who scored a whopping 8.7, which is actually one of the highest individual marks awarded to any Spurs player this season. Harry Redknapp's master stroke of appointing Gallas Captain for the day, together with an outstanding defensive performance right from minute one may well have been enough to win the Spurs fans over to appreciating Gallas. Harry may even make him Captain again!
Obviously the win has brought the best out of Spurs fans, and some generous marks for the team and individual performances, but even referee Phil Dowd was awarded 7.7 out of 10, which is a really high mark for a referee. Thanks Phil! Little did I realise, when I first saw you at Tranmere in October 2001 that one day I would be praising you! We've shared the worst of times and the best of times together!
Results 20-22.11.10
Arsenal 2-3 Spurs
B'mingham 1-0 Chelsea
Blackpool 2-1 Wolves
Bolton 5-1 Newcastle
Liverpool 3-0 West Ham
Man Utd 2-0 Wigan
West Brom 0-3 Stoke
Blackburn 2-0 A. Villa
Fulham 1-4 Man City
S'derland 2-2 Everton
Barclays Premier League
Pos Team P W D L F A GD Pts
1 Chelsea 14 9 1 4 28 9 19 28
2 Man Utd 14 7 7 0 28 15 13 28
3 Arsenal 14 8 2 4 28 15 13 26
4 Man City 14 7 4 3 19 11 8 25
5 Bolton 14 5 7 2 26 20 6 22
6 Spurs 14 6 4 4 21 19 2 22
7 S'derland 14 4 8 2 17 15 2 20
8 Stoke 14 6 1 7 18 18 0 19
9 Liverpool 14 5 4 5 16 17 -1 19
10 Newcastle 14 5 3 6 22 21 1 18
11 Blackburn 14 5 3 6 17 18 -1 18
12 Blackpool 14 5 2 6 21 27 -6 18
13 A. Villa 14 4 5 5 15 20 -5 17
14 Everton 14 3 7 4 16 15 1 16
15 B'mingham 14 3 7 4 15 17 -2 16
16 West Brom 14 4 4 6 16 25 -9 16
17 Fulham 14 2 8 4 14 17 -3 14
18 Wigan 14 3 5 6 10 23 -13 14
19 Wolves 14 2 3 9 14 25 -11 9
20 West Ham 14 1 6 7 11 25 -14 9
