Going to games is not meant to be like this any more. The Premier League contrives an ordered, stewarded environment where fans watch rather than participate. But this was different. Streets around the ground closed from late afternoon so the carnival could take place. Wending our way through the glorious chaos of crowds and smoke to the turnstiles to the soundtrack of more songs from those already inside the ground.
This game belongs to us. The supporters I mean, our energy the context for everything that took place. This was a celebration of being Spurs. It’s the derby, it’s all about beating them. Nothing else. Win this game because it is them. It’s not about the Champions League. Social media static and Sky hype drowned out by fans being fans. This was the purest expression of being Spurs. All as it should be.
Our rivals took what they believed to be an expedient decision to push for a postponement of the original game. However, their short-termism did not take account of supporter reaction, again typical of Premier League clubs as a whole, but this proved to be a grievous mistake. Conte didn’t need a team talk, and no cheerleaders were required. Marginalise fans at your peril.
This match will be remembered for the emphatic nature of a result born from a level of dominance rare in the NLD, certainly from the Spurs side of things. Those of us who were there, and hopefully those at home too, will vividly remember it for the atmosphere. Levels of noise into the red on the dial and beyond into smoking hot, raw emotion and impassioned support billowing out from the stands to envelope the players and inspire them. Sitting in the east Shelf, at times I couldn’t hear myself think.
It’s also the only game I’ve ever been to where I couldn’t hear the opposition fans. I genuinely mean this as an observation rather than disparagingly. I wouldn’t have been in a joyful mood if my team played as they did, and fair play, I could see the away end bouncing up and down at 3-0, I just couldn’t hear them because they were drowned out.
The ground is great, the noise was incredible. I spent most of the second half watching the fans because it was better than the game. Not my words but those of two AFC fans ruefully discussing the game afterwards and their prospects for the last two matches as they walked behind us through the park near Tottenham Hale.
Derby games are all up and at ‘em frantic, but this is not Conte’s approach at all. On the touchline he’s all about flamboyance whereas to his team he preaches control and order. The early exchanges were cagey therefore, with our opponents keeping it tight, keen to keep their shape and cover Bentancur to block passing routes out from the back, and Spurs resisting the crowd’s urge to go flying in. Then Spurs picked it up again and never let slip our grip on the game. Hojbjerg played a prominent role here. Often maligned, his desire and purpose made him a key influence in this period. With Bentancur marked, he took responsibility to make good use of the relative lack of attention our opponents gave him to drive us on with hard yards and tough tackles. He lifted the whole team.
A push in the box, Harry disdained the organised protests around him to score the penalty. Although he has rehearsed a variety of options, his go-to pen has become low to his left, and he’s used this a bit recently. England teammate Ramsdale knows this, so Harry goes the other way.
And then the noise got to them. Normally Harry is the target, battered calves and ankles evidence of countless what me ref going for the ball ref! fouls. Now Son is the danger, to be dealt with by whatever means necessary. I assume Holding’s series of fouls, including a smart wrestling move, was integral to Arteta’s tactics, so why on earth commit a blatant heavy block on Son so soon after a first yellow? Because the noise got to him. We got in his head. Sonny’s rep and our noise scrambled his brain and changed the course of the game.
We three in block 123 agreed this was the time to ram home our advantage. Harry duly obliged. That never happens. We then agreed on the imperative of not letting them off the hook after half-time. Son duly obliged. That never happens. What looked at first sight to be a straightforward stab at a rebound was in fact a poised, considered placement of the ball to avoid any possible blocking defender.
Then Spurs dominate, controlling the game until the final whistle. That certainly never happens, any danger to our superiority remarkable by its absence. We strolled through to the final whistle, our rivals drained and beaten. Naturally I didn’t relax until the 86th minute.
Conte is getting through with tactics and mindset. The spine of the team is strong. With Dier as the lynchpin (notice near the end, it’s he who Conte shared final instructions with before Rodon came on), the back three works. Davies is adept at covering for others, while credit to Sanchez for a good game. Everyone did well, extra praise for Sess, whose growing confidence is allowing his long-dormant talent to gradually emerge. Maybe this plus the volume of support will convince Conte to stay for a while longer, or more realistically, persuade Levy to give him a budget to work with.
This was my first game since March 2020 because I’ve stayed at home, shielding my immunoknackered wife. So thank you Tottenham Hotspur for honouring my return, decent of you after all these years. I’ve been lost without the game and the fans. Being there has been integral to my life and my identity for over 50 years. This is who I am, who I want to be. By midnight, I was knackered but couldn’t sleep, my mind flooded to overflowing with the game, the scenes, the people. Of being there. Of being truly alive.
TOTTENHAM ON MY MIND 
Thanks Alan as always. Great that you could go to the match and your eloquence all but put me there from this side of the Atlantic. Best wishes, Michael P.S. COYS (and HTL for Monday)!
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Pleased you could catch the atmosphere thousands of miles away!
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Welcome back Alan.
Loved the write up about the amazing game last night.
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Thank you kindly, hope all good with you. I must keep this up!
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Glad to see such joy.
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Great writing, and yeah, the noise! I can’t get to games anymore, but I never heard the Arsenal fans at all! fabulous atmos, great win, now come on Newcastle!
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Fantastic read. Where do I permanently sign up to this blog!
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There’s a sign up click on the right hand side of the page. Thanks very much for singing up, best way to stay in touch with the blog as I don’t sadly have the time to write at a set time every week. All the best, Alan
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Great to have you back. And great to be getting Spurs back.
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Thank you, and ta for being a regular
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Simply Stunning. I’ll admit tha when the news cme throught that Romero would not be playing my nerves settled, because there was no way we could win without Cuti. Slowly but surely the mind delivered by the Buzz on the Park Lane square started to believe once at the top of block 322 the stadium took over. Once thethird goal went in, i knew we couldn’t lose then my long term Spurs reality raised its head to be put down by the crowd as I realised that everyone had controlled those spurs emotions of ‘this never happens’ for us were displaced by the knowledge that we are on the cusp… COYS!! Antonio, Antonio Antonioooo. Thanks As ever Adam.
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Yep, we were cursing when we saw Cuti was out but this game proved we have something going for us now that does not depend unduly on one or two individuals
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Lovely to read. Watched the game with half an eye as at family dinner. So looking forward to watching recording of whole match tonight!
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Wonderful read!!!
The mighty Spurs are playing like a team and not a bunch of individuals.
Under this passionate Manager there is a sense of belief and hopefully two more wins. I have a feeling that the Arse might slip up at Newcastle.
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After the second goal went in I started to think we might make it but then the commentator blew my mind by claiming that the last time Tottenham had won three home league game in a row against Arse was under Bill Nicholson 60 years ago. That burst my bubble for a while until I realised they had nothing to offer and victory was ours. ‘Pretty Boy’ Arteta makes it so easy to dislike Arsenal even more and this (just about) made up for our pitiful showing at their ground – possibly our worst display of the season. Thanks, Alan, for reminding us that there is no substitute for the raw power of supporters roaring their team home. I’m one of those television fans chipping in from the USA and you made me feel I could have been there.
I could almost smell the burgers and onions in the streets leading to the ground.
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The atmosphere was so good, it spread across the Atlantic. Cheers David, it was an incredible night
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What a contrast to the somewhat remote and sterile reports of most mainstream journalists!
Great match report, Alan, giving a fan’s view of the whole matchday experience and sharing the passion for those of us who were not in that record crowd. A match that will live in the memory of those who were.
Your description reminds me of the first ever European Cup match at White Hart Lane, Gornik, the Three Angels, the birth of ‘Spurs Go Marching On’ and an 8-1 victory. Yonks ago but the unique match atmosphere lingers in the memory.
May there be many more match days like these.
Dare, dream, do!
🙃
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Re biased game coverage in the press, try “The i” cheapy. Their reports make fairly satisfactory and unslanted reading. Now for Burnley…!!!
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Wow, you were there?! Indeed a famous night, with stories of how the Gornik keeper had to cover his ears because it was so loud. Glory glory night, one of the first and best
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First rate read.
Thought the atmosphere for Man City was good, almost toxic, but this surpassed that by miles and shows whar we can do to back the team.
There was a carnival feel as you say around the ground beforehand. There was more buzz in the bars than for any previous game.
Inside the music was right to build the crowd up and we then did not disappoint.
We were loud. A constant support and it got to the opposition.
Now we need to do it regularly for we have shown what we are capable of and leave the team on the pitch to do what they need to do to support us.
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Fantastic, Alan. Almost as good as being there. Well… almost!
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Thank you sir, I trust you are keeping well
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Just like the old days, Alan, just like the old days! Minus the dreaded hooliganism in the ground, of course.
Shame it’s still in Arsenal’s hands, however, after they were handed a recent run which included an appallingly out-of-sorts United, Chelsea, and a Europa SF distracted West Ham, just as we finally ‘found our team’ against er them, and Liverpool! So COYS, keep the focus against Burnley, if not the carnival atmosphere, and pray that my old dad’s team, Newcastle, stop the Gunners on Monday.
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Up there with the very best of the old days!
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Great piece Alan👏. Entirely agree that Holding probably under instruction to “rough up” Son. A plan that wonderfully back-fired😁. After the third goal the game was genuinely “easy” – a somewhat disconcerting experience! Whatever happens over the next week I think we can look forward to next season with excitement and optimism #COYS
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Thanks Steve, I’m sure you enjoyed it as much as I did. Writing about our opponents distracted from what I wanted to say but you’re right, the undignified post match complaints from their manager did not sit well with what was clearly a plan to foul and intimidate Son
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