Was Tottenham culling Tomas Rosicky's watershed moment?

The chief adjective attached to Tomas Rosicky’s career at Arsenal would be ‘regret’. A massively gifted player, the nascent stages of his time in London was filled with promise and sneak-peeks at what he could do; postage-stamp nestlers against Hamburg and accomplished double-strikes against Liverpool whetting gooners’ appetites at the unbridled ability of their new Czech acquisition. After a commendable first two years though, Rosicky was victim of a freak injury unlike any other- a seemingly harmless hamstring twang snowballing into something far more serious and keeping him out of the game for a full twenty-four months. The new Rosicky was never quite the same.

He still had that deliciously small turning-circle and burst of pace to beat his man, but the crowd witnessed it far more sparingly than was hitherto the norm. Small muscle niggles and knocks meant that he never quite had an extended run in the team, and Arsenal’s injured warhorse saw entire midfields and philosophy-shifts from the treatment-room, having to adjust to Arsenal’s new style of play every time he came on. The nadir of his seven years here surely came in the 4-4 draw against Newcastle. Having been brought on as a substitute to stem Newcastle’s attack, Rosicky proceeded to be directly involved in conceding all three goals after he came on. As Tiote celebrated and Tomas hung his head, you sensed that this would be tough to come back from.

Nadir

Here’s the thing about watershed moments though; they come in the smallest of matches, and they come in the biggest of them. Rosicky had been doing decently this season, putting in a few good performances but being found wanting at times, much like the entire team. But when Arsenal went behind to a sloppily conceded goal against Tottenham after five minutes, it seems like Rosicky made a solemn self-pact of emptying all cylinders over the course of ninety minutes and not giving up irrespective of the scoreline. For the remainder of the match, Little Mozart’s bell tolled.

After Arsenal had come back spectacularly to 2-2 in the first half, Arsenal’s floppy-haired guitarist melted Tottenham’s faces with riffs and solos in the second. As early as the 46^th minute, he took the ball on the left hand side and went on the maziest of runs past three Tottenham defenders, zooming into the box like a homing missile. The move broke down after Friedel saved from Benayoun, but Rosicky had signalled his intent, and just rinsed and repeated.

Zenith

A few minutes later, brilliant interplay between Gibbs, Song and van Persie sent the Rosicky Rolls-Royce purring down the middle. He laid it wide to Sagna, but continued powering into the box when he would have stopped in another game. Sagna’s low ball found him, and a deft touch past Friedel changed the scoreline when it really mattered. It represented a rising from the ashes for Arsenal in the game, and potentially for Rosicky as well, who for the entire world looked to be seeing off his contract before calling it a day. Not quite.

Arsenal’s fourth and telling goal also owed much to the tireless Czech. After the ball had come out to him following a Bale foray into the Arsenal box, Rosicky chested the ball and released van Persie with a neat lofted ball; barely a second between defence and counter-attack. Brilliant hold-up play from the Dutchman and Walcott’s cool finish will be what people remember, and rightly so, but Arsenal have lacked that transition from defence to attack for so long this season. Something which Rosicky provided on Saturday, and how.

As for what he provided, his industry off the ball was as vital to Arsenal’s victory as his panache on the ball. Scrap, run and tackle, the quickness was back (almost belying his 31 years) and intelligence was rife (justifying his 31 years). One lost count of the number of times a Spurs player had the ball one second, and was laying on the floor the next, Rosicky having harangued him and snatched away possession. It would not be hyperbole to call this one of the best performances of his career, perhaps because he sadly hasn’t had that many.

And that’s what begs the question; was this Tottenham bloodlust a one-off or really a watershed moment? Why wasn’t this solemn self-pact of letting cylinders run empty made at the start of the season? Will rocking Rosicky go back to being rickety Rosicky now?

The man himself had this to say before the North London derby-

“The outside world will try to separate you, they smell blood, so we have to stick together and for the rest of the season fight,”

“Togetherness is very important; we can’t be influenced by the outside.”

Wise words. And on Saturday, they were backed by explosive action.