The message is sent all the way to the other side of England in the title race. After Liverpool’s failure at Nottingham Forrest last night (1-1), the Gunners had the opportunity to make up part of their gap on the current Premier League leader. For this derby, Arteta had also fielded an almost typical team, despite the presence of Raheem Sterling in place of Gabriel Martinelli on the attacking front, to also try to stem the bad series of four consecutive matches. Opposite, Ange Postecoglou continues to deal with a barrage of injuries, with in particular the young Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall returned to the starting lineup. Very quickly, the match transformed into attack and defense, the Gunners monopolizing the ball and coming up against a very solid Archie Gray, again repositioned in central defense to compensate for the absence of Micky Van de Ven.
But against all expectations, it was the Spurs who opened the scoring through Heung-Min Son (0-1, 25th), with a deflected volley after a poorly pushed corner. Martin Odegaard’s teammates will insist on Leandro Trossard’s lane, who is in high demand in his duel against Pedro Porro. It is finally on a corner obtained by the Belgian that Dominic Solanke will score against his camp, pressed by Gabriel (1-1, 40th). A goal which will crack the Spurs rear guard, who will bend once again four minutes later on a lightning counter-attack from Arsenal, concluded by the excellent Leandro Trossard with a cross shot on which the Spurs goalkeeper is not exempt from all criticism (2-1, 44th).
Tottenham totally muzzled
In the second half, Arsenal will maintain their intensity, completely suffocating the Spurs midfield. With more than 60% possession, Kai Havertz’s teammates deprived Tottenham of the ball, creating several opportunities, notably through Raheem Sterling, inspired in his runs but often too imprecise in the last gesture. With the injuries to Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka, we felt throughout the match that efficiency was Arsenal’s problem, but the inspiration of Trossard, Havertz and Odegaard continued to hurt a lot at the back Tottenham guard.
If the opportunities will multiply, with among other things a superb strike from Martin Odegaard which came close to Kinsky’s left post, the Gunners will never worsen the score, but will also not be put in any more danger by Son’s teammates until the 90th minute, and a dry strike from Pedro Porro came to die on Raya’s left post. With this success, Arsenal returns to four points behind Liverpool, but Mikel Arteta’s men have played one more match than the Reds. For Tottenham, the crisis continues, with Spurs mired at the bottom of the table and only eight points ahead of the relegation zone.
