The match at the Emirates was all it had been billed as – and more – for Gareth and Tottenham. Victory would bring further justification for the ever-growing belief that he was fast becoming one of the best players on the European stage, and also that the team were well on their way to becoming a regular fixture in the coveted ‘top four’ clubs in England.
That top four had, until the previous season, consisted almost exclusively of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. Now the Mersey giants had fallen by the wayside and Tottenham looked set for a regular battle with moneybags club, Manchester City, for that in-demand fourth spot.
But wasn’t there even a chance that they could make third? Well, that would probably mean dethroning Arsenal…and were better to start than at the Gunners’ own stadium on a cold November afternoon?
As the build-up began, so did the now regular plaudits for Gareth from the opposition. It was as if they wanted to get them in first before he destroyed them, as if to say to their own fans, ‘Well, we told you so…we did warn you, you know.’
In the last league match, it had been Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce who had been all gushing about Baley. Now, Gunners boss Arsène Wenger led the chorus of approval, although it was, perhaps inevitably, in a more backhand manner. The Frenchman agreed that Bale was one of the most exciting new players, but argued that the Welshman’s wonderful pace and control could be contained if the full-back was ‘intelligent enough’. It would be a claim that would rebound back against him after his own right-back Bacary Sagna was destroyed by Gareth in the match itself! Wenger had said: ‘You defend against him with your brain. If somebody has superior legs to you, you have still got resources. The main resource you can have is your brain and your intelligence. That’s what you can do.
‘You have slow defenders who defend very well against quick strikers. It doesn’t take anything away from Gareth Bale who for me is a very promising and already a big player today. But when you give them room it is of course easier for them.’
Wenger added: ‘It will certainly be important to keep Bale quiet. Many people in Europe discovered Bale because of his hat-trick in Milan but the English all saw him finish last season like a cannonball.
‘He was exceptional against us and then against Chelsea in the space of three days. He made the difference in those games. I’m not surprised, he is an exceptional player. Also, he has exceptional physical qualities. You can see how he is able to run back and forth as much as anyone else out there.
‘We watched him at the time he played left-back but we had Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy already so we did not go for him. But Tottenham also have Van der Vaart, Modric, Defoe, Pavlyuchenko. Tottenham have many good players in their team and for us it is important we produce a good team performance and not to focus on one player or single a player out in their team. We should just focus on our performance. If our performance is right, then we have a good chance to win. When you see inside the club everyone is focused on the next game and when the next game is Tottenham, is it a bit special.
‘Tottenham have always had good teams, good players like Anderton and Ginola. It is the first time they have finished in the top four since I was here, so it means their achievement last season was better than before.’
Sagna himself added to the praise – and also pointed out that he and his team-mates would already be geed up for the match without the prospect of simply curtailing Baley. Forgetting the fact that victory would hand their fans gloating rights against their Spurs rivals, it would also put the Gunners on top of the Premier League.
Sagna said: ‘He’s doing very well at the moment but don’t put pressure on him too early. At the moment, he’s one of the most dangerous wingers. But we are all motivated to win. Everyone is ready, everyone is focused. A win would put us top of the league, now we have to do it.’
It had not gone unnoticed at the Emirates, or White Hart Lane for that matter, that Spurs had not beat the Gunners away since May 11, 1993 – when they had triumphed 3-1 – and that it had also been 68 league games since they last won away to one of the aforementioned ‘big four’.
But Spurs legend David Ginola was convinced that the time had now come to put that right. He told Goal.com: ‘I’m very pleased how well Spurs have been doing for the last year but if they want to win the Premier League they have to beat Arsenal away. With players like Van der Vaart, Modric and Bale I don’t see why Tottenham can’t win the league, so let’s wait for the game. They have got the players but are they mentally prepared to face some problems? They have to believe they can win, starting on Saturday. For many years, Spurs have played Arsenal and maybe not had the belief they can win three points but they have the talent now.’
Another former hero at the Lane, Darren Anderton, also believed that Spurs had now come of age as a top team – and he argued that Gareth was also now a much better talent than his former fellow Southampton protégé, Theo Walcott, now a star, of course, with the Gunners.
Anderton, who was part of that legendary team to beat Arsenal in ’93, said: ‘At the moment, I would rather have Bale as a winger ahead of Walcott. But I do think Theo will end up playing down the middle. I think Bale’s delivery is spot on whereas Walcott’s pace is more devastating.
‘I think Arsenal will try and stop Tottenham getting the ball to him. But Arsenal are more of a European-style team who believe they are good enough to beat anyone, so that might give him more space. Bacary Sagna is very quick so that will be a key match up.’
Anderton accepted that there could well be bids for Bale, but said that they would not need to accept them if they could keep the player’s ambitions satisfied…starting with playing every year in the Champions League. ‘They have got to stay in that top four,’ he told the Daily Mirror.
Arsène Wenger also made a point of mentioning that two of the finest talents on display at the Emirates would be from Southampton. Naturally enough, he believed Walcott was just as good as Bale, but he also wanted to give Saints a pat on the back for producing such gifted footballers from their academy. He said: ‘You have to pay tribute to Southampton because they had a good academy and they couldn’t take advantage of it. At the time they were in the FA Youth Cup Final so they couldn’t grow with this team. Unfortunately for them they became big players somewhere else.
‘The fact is that a smaller club can’t keep the good players for long enough to take advantage of it because they had to sell them too early. They had Walcott and Bale and they had some others.’
Walcott was also keen to get involved in the pre-match discussions – and to add his own praise for Gareth’s remarkable rise to prominence. When asked who he though was the most exciting player in England, Walcott told FATV: ‘In the Premier League? Gareth Bale for me. I am actually looking forward to playing against Gareth Bale because me and him grew up together at such a young age at Southampton and we’ve known each other since we were 10 or 11 years old.
‘So it’s going to be another nice little treat for us both.’
The final word, appropriately, before the match went to Gareth himself. He said he was confident Spurs could win, and boost their chances of even more glory that season. Gareth said: ‘It will be a massive test obviously away at Arsenal but we’ll be ready for it. We need to win every game we play at the moment. We’re good enough to beat anybody and we’ve shown that in the past.’
He admitted he was ready for the match – that his confidence was sky high after he grabbed that brace in the destruction of Blackburn. He added: ‘It was important we got that victory before the derby, just to get the winning feeling back after a recent poor run in the league. If we do get the first goal in matches, then we look quite comfortable.
‘It was important to get ourselves kick-started again. The Champions League is coming around next week, so we want to build on that. It has been difficult for me recently when teams have had two players marking me. In a way I’ve got to try to find another way to get past them. I did that against Blackburn and I was delighted.
‘There’s been a lot of stuff said about me – but I try to keep myself away from that.’
Well, Gareth and the boys did translate their confidence on to the pitch at the Emirates – winning in dramatic style. It was becoming a feature of Spurs under Redknapp that they never seemed to take the easy way to glory. Much like Manchester United under Alex Ferguson – remember the Red Devils’ 2-1 injury-time win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final? – Tottenham were becoming winners the hard way.
Like United, that was also down to the way they were set up under the manager. Put simply, Redknapp liked his team to play attractive, entertaining football – like Ferguson, an undue reliance on defence was not his raison d’être – but it came at a price. It meant that you could win but you that you might experience a good few scares on the way as the opposition attacked you. It was great for neutral fans, but nervy for your own supporters.
And the game at the Emirates on Saturday November 20, 2010, was a full-blooded example of that. The Gunners roared into a 2-0 lead but Spurs fought back to win 3-2. Incredible…and totally heart stopping. And to ice the cake for Tottenham fans, their win meant that their bitterest rivals were also denied the opportunity of going to the top of the Premier League table!
Arsenal went in with that two-goal advantage at half-time thanks to Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh. Poor goalkeeping by Heurelho Gomes allowed Nasri in for the first and Chamakh smashed home a cross from Andrey Arshavin to make it 2-0.
To the neutral, it looked all over bar the shouting as the teams emerged for the second half. Surely Arsenal now had too much about them to forfeit a two-goal advantage – especially against their biggest rivals in front of their own passionate fans?
But that was discounting the fighting spirit of the side Redknapp had built – as we said, a team that was now being modelled in the fashion of Manchester United…magnificent attacking football, scary lapses and wonderful comebacks.
And who better to lead the fightback than Gareth Bale?
Yes, as in the San Siro, it would be Gareth who now stepped up to the plate and proved he has got what it takes to inspire a football team to great heights. At the tender age of 21.
Bale finished in style after a counter attack by Van der Vaart just five minutes after the break. He did his little jig of a dance, as per usual, to celebrate the goal, but he had other things on his mind. This was no time for fun; he knew that there was still a mountain to climb if Spurs fans were to avoid being teased by their Arsenal work colleagues on the Monday morning. That goal had made it 2-1 – but what if the Gunners now hit back with a third? It would surely all have been for nothing…
So after his goal he urged his team-mates on – as a team they battled and earned a glittering reward almost 20 minutes later when the ever-improving, ever-influential Van der Vaart grabbed a deserved equaliser. The Dutchman scored from the penalty spot on 67 minutes after Arsenal skipper Cesc Fabregas had foolishly handled his free kick.
A draw looked likely – and many Tottenham fans told me afterwards that they would have gladly settled for a point after being 2-0 down. One lifelong fan Nat McEwan told me: ‘A draw would have been a good result after we had been so sloppy in the first-half. To come back from two goals down to pinch a point at Arsenal was nothing to be scoffed at. It would have kept those buggers from taking the mickey out of us and would have kept us in contention for a Champions League spot, so, yeah, I would certainly have taken it.
‘But to get all three points and earn our first win away to Arsenal in donkeys years was fantastic, unbelievable, one of the greatest results for years! I tell you, we have got the makings of a good team under Redknapp – what with Baley, Van der Vaart, Modric, Lennon and Defoe. But they are all midfielders and forwards…that tells me something…if Harry can sort out the defence we will be a force to be reckoned with. Until he does, we will just be a little below the level of the really top teams like Chelsea and Man United.’
Ironically, it would be a defender who would earn Spurs all three points at the Emirates as Younes Kaboul headed home from another free-kick from Van der Vaart with just five minutes remaining.
As the whistle went for full-time, Gareth and his team-mates hugged each other and then went over to salute their jubilant fans. It was a moment none of them would forget: the moment they finally laid the ghost of not winning at Arsenal and also not being able to beat one of the big four.
Spurs midfielder Jermaine Jenas summed up the relief when he said: ‘I think it was important because every time we went to Manchester United, Liverpool it just kept coming up. It is important we put that to bed now and I think it shows what we are made of – we have shown guts today.
‘Arsenal are still a fantastic team but it was the first time I’ve come to the Emirates thinking we could win. The first-half wasn’t great for us but I still look around and feel we have the players who can do anything. We have the creativity and the goals within us to do it.’
And although fans were critical of the backline, boss Redknapp felt they deserved a pat on the back, particularly William Gallas, who had had to endure a torrent of abuse from the Arsenal fans as he returned to his former club for the first time in the shirt of their most hated rivals. Harry had stirred things up a little more, in that inimitable way of his, by making Gallas skipper for the day. Afterwards, Harry said he was delighted with the man he had signed on a free transfer from the Gunners.
Redknapp said: ‘No one wanted me to sign him – only me and William. I don’t think anybody else really fancied it too much. He’s been there and done it all but I had to fight my corner to get him. I went out on a limb with everybody – the fans, chairman and everybody else.
‘I just thought it was a fantastic free transfer. I don’t think anyone was mad about him coming to Tottenham because of Arsenal. I nearly took Patrick Vieira the year before and I don’t think either of them have committed a crime just because they’ve played for Arsenal.
‘Also, top players upset people – it works for great teams. They sort their problems out in the dressing room. Roy Keane, Steve Bruce, all these players. You talk to Joe Jordan about the Leeds players. Everybody needs that in their dressing room. Tony Adams would have done it at Arsenal, with the back four they had. You need people like that who want to win. They make your job easy. But William is a nice guy. I don’t know him that well, he’s a quiet person, I met him just before I signed him and came away and thought “What a smashing fella”.
‘People told me he is getting older and had a few injury problems and wouldn’t play many games. But he’s the one player who plays every game. I think he will be fine for Wednesday [in the Champions League] against Werder Bremen.’
Not all Spurs fan – by a long distance – shared their manager’s view that Gallas was ‘a smashing fella’. No, even after the win at the Emirates some would never find it within themselves to take him to their hearts. Supporter Nat McEwan added: ‘Well, he’s Arsenal, isn’t he? Whatever he does, he is still one of them – and that doesn’t just disappear overnight. He played for our biggest enemy for years and was their captain – against us and delighted in beating us when he was with them. So we’re hardly gonna welcome him with open arms, are we? Still, he earned a good mark by leading us to victory at Arsenal for the first time in all those years.’
Redknapp added to the euphoria by later claiming that he believed Spurs could now win the league title for the first time since 1961. He said: ‘You’ve got to aim for the top. We’re not writing ourselves off. We can beat anybody and this has put us right back in the race again. It’s wide open. If my players believe in themselves as much as I do, we can achieve anything.’
He also admitted he was delighted with the never-say-die showing – a la Manchester United as we have already mentioned – that his men had come up with after Gareth’s goal had given them the belief that they could get back in the game. He said: ‘To come back showed great character, it really was a fantastic second-half performance. I gave them a rollicking at half-time, and woke them up a bit. We took the game to them from the start of the second half. We had to go for broke. It wasn’t a case of trying to stem the tide; it was a case of trying to get back into the game. We were either going to get beat 5-0, or have a go. That’s what we did, because that’s my nature.’
Gareth himself was just as delighted with the result – and the way he and the team had shown what they can do when their backs are up against the wall. He told Sky Sports: ‘It’s the one game everyone looks out for and to get the victory, especially at the Emirates, is something special. The gaffer said before the game we have got a great squad and a great team and we can match anybody. We didn’t have the greatest first half but showed what we can do in the second half. The boss brought JD [Jermain Defoe] on for the second half and it paid off. The win was something special.’
Gareth then told the Daily Mirror that he desperately wanted to avoid any more injury setbacks. He said: ‘What’s important for me now, above everything, is to make sure I enjoy every second. I’ve been able to stay calm because, for a while when I wasn’t getting in the team, I was taking it for granted I wouldn’t be playing. ‘When I came to Spurs and picked up an injury just after I arrived at the club it felt like the worst thing ever. Now I’m back playing I realise how much I just love the game and don’t want to take it for granted. So now I am in the side I want to enjoy it.’
He added that the win over Arsenal was just the result they needed as they approached what could be a pivotal Champions League group encounter against Werder Bremen. Yes, it was a match they needed to win if they were to make the knockout stages…another vital match for Gareth. They just kept on coming as his and the team’s success snowballed at the back end of 2010.