Our global ambassador gives his reaction to Arsenal's 4-1 win over Spurs, what it means for two of their summer signings and how he sees the title race with Manchester City.
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Arsenal bounced back with a 4-1 win over Spurs in what was billed as a tricky game. What did you think of their response to the 2-2 draw with Wolves?
When has it been a tricky game since they moved to the new stadium? People wanted to make it a tricky game, but as far as I’m concerned, Arsenal have often gone there with a point to prove and we’ve won.
I know that being 2-0 up against Wolves and drawing the game 2-2 felt like losing, and we did lose two points. But I’ve always said that the season is very long. I wasn’t super sad after Wolverhampton and I’m not super happy after beating Tottenham.
We needed to win, but when you look at our history recently with Tottenham, we have won our last four games there. I’m more concerned about Chelsea at home, personally.
What I liked against Spurs, and what I haven’t seen for a little while, is that being ahead doesn’t mean you have to sit back and let the opposition have the ball. We stayed high, putting pressure on, and even in the 96th minute Martinelli was chasing to get the ball back. I don’t want to be in front of my box, like against Wolves at 2-0. At 2-1 against Spurs, it felt like the game was over. It felt secure.
Eberechi Eze clearly enjoys playing and scoring against Tottenham. How good was his performance?
They said when he scored it was his first shot on target since his hat-trick against Tottenham. I couldn’t believe that. The story is great, don’t get me wrong, and you should score goals against Tottenham if you want to be a hero for Arsenal. But now we want more of that. We want more of what we saw against Tottenham, all the time.
I just hope that this will be the start of something for him at the club. It’s not easy for guys to switch teams. The hat-trick against Tottenham was outstanding, and I wanted him to stay on and get another one, but what you want is him to carry on doing what we expect him to do at Arsenal.
Viktor Gyokeres linked up well with Eze, scored two goals and seemed to get into his favourite positions in the channels more often. What’s the key to that happening more for him?
Well, it happened to Tottenham a lot more than against anybody else. It does depend who you’re playing against. Tottenham tried to press at the beginning, and that leaves a team open. If you look at a lot of the other teams we play, they often stay back and they wait.
What we want is Gyokeres to put the ball in the back of the net, and he did that. The run of Eze freed him up on the edge of the box to control and bang it, and then for his second goal he was way stronger than the defender and able to shift it onto his right and finish. That’s all we want from him and from Eze, and I think this game was good for both of them.
Those two were the guys who we said, “OK, those two will change Arsenal.” No disrespect to Martin Odegaard, but you were thinking with Eze that he could be the guy to help us win things.
I’m happy for Eze and Gyokeres. The jury was out on them, and will still be out because they’re playing for a big club, and that’s how it is. But consistency is key, and I’m seeing a tiny bit more consistency in Gyokeres’ game in terms of how he moves and the trust his team-mates have in him.
You can’t judge Igor Tudor after one game, but what’s your impression of him as a manager and how big a job is it to keep Spurs in the Premier League?
I played with Igor at Juventus, and I know his style. You’re not going to judge him in the next two or three games, but he doesn’t have a lot of time to put points on the board. That wasn’t the easiest game to start.
It’s going to be a massive job. He’s going to look at who can play, what he likes to do and how he can put his identity and philosophy in. Usually when you want to stay up, home games are your safety net, but they have struggled to win at home for a few years now.
We’ll see what’s going to happen.
Arsenal next face Chelsea, who had another red card against Burnley. How big a problem is their disciplinary record and what can Liam Rosenior do to change it?
We had that issue at one point in my time at Arsenal – we were getting reds and yellows, and people asked Arsene what he was going to do about it. He said, “nothing”. You would maybe rather tell your players to turn it down a bit, but it’s difficult.
What I’m more concerned about from an Arsenal perspective is that Rosenior hasn’t lost a lot of games. In the Carabao Cup game at the Emirates, people questioned how he set up his team, but that wasn’t an easy game for Arsenal. I have been more worried about this next game than Tottenham away, just because of how Chelsea can go quick on the counter and the way they play, and that’s thanks to the manager.
With how the title race stands at the moment, how big a game is the Carabao Cup final?
There are a lot of scenarios that you can talk about. I can say that if Arsenal beat City, we won’t see City in the race any more. Then you can say that if City lose, they will be upset and go on a run.
First and foremost, a trophy is at stake. We all know that we’ve needed one for a very long time. City are not in need of trophies, but we know that they like to eat. When they’re at the table, they want to be served.
So it’s huge. It will have an impact on the title race. When you see the other team celebrating, it’s going to affect you.
If either team wins all their games in the title race, they will win the league, and that’s the race that everyone wanted. Because of that situation, a lot of people are going to watch that final and see if they can spot who is going to collapse.
But that final is not going to be the end of the season. It’s going to be a battle, and it is huge.
Arsenal fans may be worried about Pep Guardiola closing out the season with a trademark run of 10 wins to lift the title. Is this City team capable of pulling off that kind of run?
They are capable. The personnel is not the same, but the manager is the same and with the way they played at the weekend, you can see that they want it. If you drop points, they are going to smell blood.
As long as Arsenal don’t cross the line, people are not going to believe that we can. Unfortunately for us, we were once ahead and we got caught. But now you have the opportunity to change the story of what people think of you.
There was some controversy in the FA Cup game between Aston Villa and Newcastle when there was no VAR. What did you make of those incidents?
What’s difficult is that you have referees and linesmen who used to have their eyes locked on something. Before, when I drove, I would know exactly where I was going. What do you do now? You follow Waze. As soon as your phone is not working, you panic. Do you remember phone numbers? No, because you have help from technology, and it has now gone beyond help.
It’s like the referees. Now suddenly we want them to have the same eyes that they had 10 years ago, before technology. Obviously their eyes are not as sharp any more.
Human mistakes happen, but those guys are now not used to having to act straight away and make a call. When you’re used to having help and suddenly you don’t have it, you look suspicious.
I’m not saying the decisions weren’t comical, because they were, but what was more comical was losing 15 minutes of the game when Arsenal were putting pressure on Tottenham because the referee’s mic didn’t work. That bothered me more.
And now they bring VAR back for the fifth round of the FA Cup. Why? Some teams went out with the wrong decisions, and now the teams who are still in will have VAR. My team and your team didn’t get judged the same way. How is that normal? If they can’t have VAR for every team, then let’s not have VAR.
