A tale of 2 managers!!!

This weekend’s north London derby provides an added dimension to the ever-passionate rivalry between the two teams. As the first few weeks of the season have panned out, the managers of both clubs, more so than the players, have been in the limelight, but for entirely different reasons.

Following a period of great uncertainty in the aftermath of Thierry Henry and David Dein departing from Arsenal, when it was unclear whether Arsene Wenger would follow both out of the club, the Frenchman has finally signed a new contract.

Conversely, while Wenger putting pen to paper has given Arsenal some much needed stability, a few miles up the road Martin Jol has spent the first few weeks of the season teetering on a knife edge, knowing that one more defeat could be enough for the curtain to come down on his reign in N17.

At the beginning of the season, Jol was one of the big outsiders to be the first manager to leave his job. Wenger, unusually, had shorter odds than the Tottenham boss. A couple of defeats in the first few days of the season, however, meant Jol’s odds to be sacked were cut dramatically and one bookmaker closed his book after the club’s representatives were spotted in Spain.

Back down the road at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal have enjoyed a comfortable start to the season, their 10 points from 4 games meaning they are sitting joint top of the table. Their young players are doing well, the team is seemingly more at home at the new stadium and Fabregas is looking the world-beater everyone expected him to be.

Much has been made of Tottenham’s poor start to the season but most would agree that they have been unlucky in their last two games against Manchester United and Fulham not to come away with more than one point from them. Unfortunately for Jol, this has not stopped the speculation, and you suspect that the Board could pounce on a defeat on Saturday to get rid of their manager. Even despite the fans’ public support for Jol, with the Board’s behaviour so far this season, you could hardly say such a decision would be a shock.

Jol has stated that he hates the break for international games at this stage of the season. The pressure on him is clearly huge, and you can understand why he just wants to get on with the league season to try to put things right as quickly as possible.

What he would love this weekend is a home game against one of the weaker teams. What he has got is the north London derby, a game that Spurs haven’t won for eight years, knowing that if he doesn’t win, his last game in charge at White Hart Lane could well be the same fixture that he started with three years ago. It should add some further spice to the atmosphere on Saturday.

Ironically, it could all boil down to this: an Arsenal victory, in the first game since Wenger has pledged his future to the club, could mean Jol is sacked as Tottenham manager before the weekend is up. It would compound an entirely devastating weekend for Spurs fans, but would be a scenario Arsenal supporters would delight in.