Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven talks about 4-1 loss to Arsenal
Spurs’ latest North London derby ended in another painful defeat as Arsenal ran out convincing 4-1 winners, continuing the miserable run for Tottenham and deepening concerns about their position near the bottom of the table.
The atmosphere inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium had crackled before kickoff, especially with the big tifo going, and again at the end of the first half, when Randal Kolo Muani’s equaliser made it 1-1 and briefly suggested that something special might be brewing. For a while, it felt like Spurs had found the energy and intensity the occasion demanded.
Micky van de Ven, captaining the side in Cristian Romero’s absence, admitted afterwards that the team felt positive going into the break. From Tottenham’s perspective, the game had been competitive, and there was a belief that they were still very much in the contest. Spurs had matched Arsenal physically in spells and looked capable of pushing on after the restart, especially with the crowd fully behind them.
Here is what he told the club’s official website, assessing the 90 minutes against Arsenal.
“It was a really tough game. I think in the first half we were going into half-time with 1-1 and I think there’s a good feeling from our side. Obviously, we suffered again, didn’t play really bad, but then we came out in the second half, they scored after two minutes and after that it was really tough.”
More Troubles
There was also a moment early in the second half when Tottenham thought they had taken the lead, only for the goal to be ruled out after a controversial incident involving Gabriel going down in the box. That decision proved pivotal. Instead of Spurs moving ahead and potentially shifting the momentum decisively, the game swung in the opposite direction almost immediately.
For someone who is as strong in attacking corners, Gabriel fell down like a house of cards with minimal contact, and that was enough for Peter Bankes to award the Gunners a free-kick. Unfair, but that’s what you have to deal with.
Arsenal struck just two minutes into the second half through Viktor Gyokeres, and from that point on the game slipped away quickly. Eberechi Eze added another to make it 3-1 before Gyokeres completed the scoring deep into stoppage time, sealing a result that ultimately looked far more comfortable on paper than the first half had suggested.
Van de Ven summed up the turning point clearly, pointing to that early second-half goal as the moment the match became extremely difficult. Spurs had not been particularly poor on the day, but once they fell behind again, the task became overwhelming against a side chasing the title and full of attacking confidence.
The defeat leaves Tottenham still searching for consistency and still hovering dangerously close to the relegation places, with the derby loss another reminder of just how thin the margins have become this season. Igor Tudor has a huge task at hand.