Theo magic makes boos turn to coos
BY the end it was all cries of ole and beaming seasonticket holders craning forward to get a snap of the scoreboard on their mobile telephones. Arsene knew once again, there was only one team in London, Tottenham Hotspur were strictly second-rate and second best, and all was right with the world.
Rewind little more than an hour, however, and the Emirates could have been confused with some fresh circle of hell. Vitriol rained down like globules of pure poison, directed at the very men that would soon leave the field as heroes.
Theo Walcott was useless, Arsene Wenger was clueless, Bacary Sagna was a coward and all were invited to depart the premises, either temporarily or permanently, it did not much matter.
Had the locals got their way, three of Arsenal’s four goalscorers would not have even been on the pitch to mount the most surprising comeback of the season.
It certainly came as a shock: to fans, to Tottenham and just about everybody else.
The disgusted look on Harry Redknapp’s face said it all: two goals up after 32 minutes, he probably thought Tottenham had this match under control, too. Maybe his players believed the pre-publicity that painted Tottenham as the new Arsenal, playing the most exhilarating football in the country. This popped that little bubble.
Buoyed by a two-goal advantage, they took Arsenal on at the beautiful game and lost 5-0. Inspired by Tomas Rosicky and, inevitably, Robin van Persie, Arsenal took Tottenham apart for the final hour.
It was one of their finest performances of the season, up there with the undoing of Chelsea, and made all t he sweeter for the embarrassment it heaped on their rivals.
At Mike Dean’s final whistle, the Tottenham end had emptied and Arsenal were passing the ball in imperious fashion as their supporters cooed and crowed. That i s the Arsene knows: the manager is back in favour story of Arsenal’s season, sadly, boom or bust, feast or famine.
One moment they are poised on the cusp of greatness, the next in the depths of despair: 10 of the 11 starting players here also began the game in the San Siro that ended 4-0 to AC Milan.
No wonder following Arsenal elicits extremes of emotion.
Walcott is trapped most perilously in the eye of this storm. With Andrey Arshavin departed he is the focus of so much negativity, it is a wonder he can function at all. If Emmanuel Adebayor’s every touch was met with boos, Walcott’s was greeted with a growl or a groan and all the world appeared to be perched on his shoulders, picking fault.
After Adebayor had scored Tottenham’s second, when the dissent was at its height, Walcott nimbly intercepted a Tottenham pass and sprinted one on one towards goal. His reaction was that of a man who suddenly realised he had made his biggest mistake of the afternoon. The fastest player on the pitch began looking for accomplices to share the blame if it all went wrong, and found one in Van Persie. Squaring inside, he saw his captain gobbled up by a trio of Tottenham defenders, to howls of disappointment. Yet what did the critics expect? It i s those howls that have slowly stripped Walcott of his confidence.
It was noticeable that, once Arsenal were 3-2 up, given two similar scoring opportunities he buried both with a panache instantly familiar to those present in Zagreb the night in 2008 he revealed his potential to be among the best finishers in Europe. They were Walcott’s first home league goals since December 2010.
Redknapp said that even at 2-0 he did not feel confident, yet he must have done at 1-0, when Tottenham were dominating the play and Luka Modric seemed to be operating at a different speed: 45 to Arsenal’s 33 (younger readers, ask your dad).
Just four minutes had gone when a Spurs counter-attack stretched Arsenal’s back l i ne, Adebayor finding Louis Saha in criminally open space, his finish deflecting off Thomas Vermaelen and looping past Wojciech Szczesny.
When the Arsenal goalkeeper was judged to have felled Gareth Bale, and Adebayor converted the penalty after 32 minutes, all seemed lost for the home team.
This was the capital power shift that had long been mooted, and it was met by a bellow of frustration and pain. For a brief spell no Arsenal player could do right. Then Van Persiesie — who else? — hit a post and everything changed. The ball ran out to Kieran Gibbs, who fed Mikel Arteta, his chip finding Sagna — strangely untroubled by Bale — whose header gave Arsenal a lifeline.
Within minutes they were back on dry land. Tottenham dealt poorly with a straightforward lofted pass from Alex Song, the ball dropping to Van Persie, who judged his angle perfectly, curling a shot beyond the reach of Brad Friedel. Level before half-time, Arsenal were rampant in the second half, settling scores with rivals, with critics, even those loyalists previously on the turn.
Five minutes in Rosicky got the goal his endeavour deserved. A midfield ball-carrier of rare artistry, he ran the best part of 30 yards before exchanging passes with Sagna and finishing in a rush at the near post. Narrowly failing to put Walcott in soon after, now Arsenal’s midfield was a mesmerising riot of swift thought and eager invention. Sandro, brought on at half-time to stem Arsenal’s numerical midfield advantage, looked cumbersome, Walcott electric.
When Van Persie broke through after 65 minutes, it was Walcott arriving at his fastest who gave Arsenal a deserved cushion, and Walcott put through by an exquisite pass from Song who gave the scoreline an emphatic sense of humiliation for the visitors.
Redknapp must surely be regretting Fabio Capello’s departure from the England job, for the harsh spotlight it has shone on his club and his personal fortunes.
The draw with Stevenage last week took on new meaning for the presence of Football Association chairman David Bernstein. Now he has suffered a very public undoing at the hands of his great rivals, topped by a sending-off for the man tipped to be his England captain, Scott Parker.
It is Manchester United next. Lose that and, pretty soon, the more fickle followers, plus the undecided, the unconvinced and the professional sceptics, will begin to question his credentials.
It can happen to the best of them: ask Arsene Wenger.
m.samuel@dailymail.co.uk