So, just as night follows day, Arsenal's defensive frailties came back to haunt them once again. And in such a critical game, questions about their mentality must raise their heads once more.
Even as Arsenal fans were celebrating the recent success of Arteta's new system of playing three centre-backs (based, regrettably, on the unsuitability of any of them playing in a two) individual errors cost the team momentum and ultimately a game in which once again they could easily have found themselves out of sight of the opposition with a little bit more control, composure and common-sense. And ultimately they paid the price for profligacy, lack of a convincing knockout blow, and specifically those well-documented defensive issues.
Good as the results had been over the past fortnight, it was foolish to lose sight of the possibility - no, likelihood - that Mustafi is capable of Mustafi-ing at any point during any game (Bad Mustafi returned big time in the last 20 minutes), that David Luiz is David Luiz and that, whatever his attributes are, passing is not one of Kolasinac's footballing strengths.
Actually, I sensed bad vibes from kick-off, when Arsenal started sluggishly, gave the ball away and almost conceded in the first minute. Against a team who had only managed a total of two shots on target in their previous two entire games, Arsenal (Luiz, in fact) conceded a chance and shot on target immediately from kick-off. Indeed, whilst dominating possession for much of the game - and especially in the third quarter - they looked vulnerable to the counter-attack every time they lost possession. Kane should probably have scored early when he ran on to a through ball (past a totally unaware Luiz); he was denied by clever and brave goalkeeping.
Losing possession and the immediate aftermath of that is any side's achilles heel, and it showed up against Spurs. For all Arsenal's possession they looked all at sea without the ball in transition, and against a rapid group of forwards. And this must change for next season.
One of the reasons that Spurs looked so dangerous on the counter-attack was the ease with which they could find their way through a midfield pairing who, as I have mentioned before, look uncomfortable without the ball; thus exposing the three centre backs again and again - the last thing you'd want to see as far as those three are concerned. And towards the end the mental - as well as physical - pressure told and they simply couldn't cope at all.
Very often - during the first half as well as the second, but brought into stark relief during the latter stages of the game - losing the ball would signal panic in the Arsenal ranks (and in my living-room). With Bellerin and Tierney pushed well forward, and with Ceballos (for all his skill in possession) and Xhaka continually exposed, there were knock-on effects to the cumbersome back three.
Leaving aside the relative experience of the two managers, this was a clash of philosophies; hard-bitten pragmatism against the desire to use the ball as much as possible. And at the end of the day pragmatism won over aesthetics. Arsenal's system worked to a great extent as they saw much more of the ball, yet their frailties were exposed in the second half by Mourinho's tactical adjustments to make his side considerably more compact, and the pace and skill of Kane, Moura and Son. I would venture to suggest that at this time Arsenal do not possess the personnel to become as compact as Spurs became in the second half; although Torreira was not used at any point, of course.
Vitally, however, the pattern of the game had been changed by Kolasinac's foolish error in the aftermath of Lacazette's thunderbolt of a goal. Instead of being able to consolidate their lead, Arsenal let Spurs back into the game almost immediately. I had already been asking myself why Kolasinac's preferred pass was the square ball back to Luiz instead of out wide to an often unmarked Tierney just beyond the half-way line (perhaps he was operating under instructions?), when he made a crucial error; a simple 10-yard ball totally wrong-footing Luiz and setting Son free on goal. And he was never going to miss, lifting the ball over the otherwise totally excellent Martinez as he went to ground. So for all the beauty and purity of Lacazette's shot - below - there was the spectre of the defensive beast.
So a first half that Arsenal had dominated ended all square, and it was during the initial stages of the second half that Mourinho's tactical changes began to bear fruit. While Arsenal continued to play in the same way - and saw considerably more of the ball - that was by Mourinho's design. It's a risky strategy at times, and Aubameyang had two chances that on many other days would have been goals, but Arsenal failed to score and finally the pace and movement of Spurs' front two outdid them. A succession of schoolboy errors (almost all by Mustafi) built pressure, and from a corner needlessly conceded Aldeweireld headed home almost unchallenged (why Tierney was marking him, and not a centre-back, I cannot answer; the Belgian is not the tallest of players, but he is 4 inches taller than the over-matched Tierney).
A word on Aubameyang. He looked marginalised on the left during this game, and would be of far more use in a game like this one in the middle - alongside his mate Laca. This is the sort of game that will encourage him to leave London in the summer.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the veteran manager had outsmarted his younger, promising opponent. One could argue that Arteta does not possess the personnel to stamp change on matches - especially in the continued - and shameful - absence of Mesut Ozil from the Arsenal squad. However, as we have seen him do many times before, Mourinho exploited his opposition's continual pushing forward by use of the deadly counter-attack. It goes against the grain to give him credit for this, but I suppose that one must; the ends justified the means.
Of course, it's Mourinho's problem to work out how these same players have performed so diabolically recently. I honestly don't care about that. What concerns me far more is how Arsenal bounce back from such a demoralising result.
And so Spurs creep above Arsenal once more. And with Wolves and Sheffield United winning even Europa League football looks unlikely for Arsenal next season. And to top it all, it's Liverpool next. Arteta now needs to make changes, because the thought of what Liverpool's front three might do on Wednesday chills me to the bone. Revert to a back 4, bring in Holding and Torreira, and play in a far more compact manner would be my practical approach to the problem.
Arteta will have had his thoughts on the need for personnel change further crystallised by what he has just witnessed. Whether he gets the support of his Owner and Board (we have at this point no idea what the restructuring of the Club's debt means going forward) remains to be seen, but for all the optimism of the previous few games it is clear that they were merely paper over the cracks.
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