Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur - Emirates Stadium, London - Saturday 2nd December 2006

Spurs' annual trip to play Arsenal, and a renewed opportunity for their idiot fans to try and wreak havoc and destruction in the away end, and as much of the rest of N5 as they are allowed near. A usual trick for away fans at this game is to turn all the taps on in the toilets, then block the plugholes - football hooliganism at its truly most pathetic. Of course, they have significantly more mouth than trousers, so it was no surprise to see a complete absence of Spurs fans in the streets around the ground before kick off.

No Thierry Henry today, which was a blow, especially given the obvious need for a good result. After 2 away defeats, it was important to win today - but the added imperative not to lose to Spurs, and not to allow them to become the first team to beat us in our new ground, meant that a result was vital. Never mind, Rosicky was there for his first North London Derby, and Adebayor has proved that he can be enough of a nuisance to cause problems for an average team like Spurs.

As it turned out, Spurs team didn't really put up any kind of fight - they seemed to roll over and accept their fate - which was very strange for a derby match. Their performance was poor throughout, Jens Lehmann had virtually nothing to do all game, and they actually contrived to make a fairly average Arsenal performance look flattering.

Given all this, it was very slightly disappointing that all 3 Arsenal goals were in some way "controversial", giving both Spurs fans and the massed ranks of the media an opportunity to claim that it was all unfair, and generally detract from Arsenal's victory. Adebayor may have been a couple of inches offside for the first goal; and the last 2 goals were both from penalties, the validity of which could be argued over forever and a day. So, many people claiming that the referee (and Graham Poll does have a good track record of doing this), decided the game.

What this one-eyed, anti-Arsenal viewpoint does fail to take into account, is that Arsenal fans thought he had a shocker too. Spurs could have had 3 or 4 players sent off, and should have been in double figures for yellow cards. The fouls that Poll let them get away with were shocking, right from the word go, and their left back was extremely lucky not to have been sent off before he was eventually substituted at half time. Despite letting so many Spurs fouls go, Poll also continually interrupted the game at the wrong times with constant fussy whistling - a very frustrating referee for a big game. The photo here shows Spurs players arguing over one of the few decisions that didn't go their way, amongst a sea of leniency towards their fouling.

As is often the case, the Guardian/Observer review managed to pitch itself a step above the tabloid rubbish, most of which claimed that Graham Poll somehow cheated Spurs and their fans. Absolute rubbish - Spurs cheated their fans by playing so poorly throughout. Three decisions helped Arsenal get what they deserved, but a great many others did not. Which meant that it was great to see the perennial "leaving early" problem in our new stadium, confined exclusively to the away end, - which was half empty with 5 minutes of play left!