One-Nil to the Arsenal, One Massive Win Away at Tottenham

Three successive away wins in the North London derby against Tottenham.

No Ødegaard, no Rice. No Merino, no Calafiori. No problem.

Before the Kick-Off

Even before the final whistle had been blown at the Emirates in the 1-1 draw against Brighton, attention for Arsenal fans had turned to the North London derby away at Tottenham, and what the absence of Declan Rice might mean for their team against their fiercest rivals.

For all the uproar against Chris Kavanagh’s rash and unjust decision to send the English midfielder off, Gooners around the world were far more worried about this Sunday. And then, the club’s captain Martin Ødegaard and newly-signed star defender Riccardo Calafiori both picked up injuries on international duty to leave Mikel Arteta’s squad extremely light.

The Line-Ups

Tottenham: Vicario, Porro, van de Ven, Romero, Udogie, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Maddison, Johnson, Son, Solanke

Bench: Forster, Davies, Spence, Dragusin, Sarr, Gray, Bergvall, Odobert, Werner

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Jorginho, Partey, Havertz, Saka, Martinelli, Trossard

Bench: Neto, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Kacurri, Heaven, Nwaneri, Sterling, Kabia, Jesus

The Match Itself

So the team which took to the field at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was, by necessity, patched up. Jorginho came in for his first appearance this season, starting alongside Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz. Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, and Gabriel Martinelli made the frontline. On the bench were four kids from the academy.

Tottenham started well enough, forcing David Raya into two early saves but Arsenal grew into the game, creating chances of their own: Havertz forcing an excellent reflex save from Guglielmo Vicario.

As one might expect from the North London derby, tackles flew and tempers raged. Seven players were booked—the joint-most cards ever shown in the first-half of any Premier League match.

Still, it remained nil-nil at half-time.

And then, déjà vu struck for Tottenham. Arsenal had another corner—from where they had scored two of their three goals in this fixture last season—and Bukayo Saka whipped the ball into the six-yard box. Vicario was stranded, and Gabriel Magalhães escaped past Romero to put the Gunners ahead.

With ten minutes to go, Raheem Sterling replaced Martinelli for his Arsenal debut, and young Ethan Nwaneri replaced Saka on 86 minutes to feature in his first ever North London derby.

Soon after, Arsenal had their sixth successive away win, and their 10th in 11 on the road, with nine clean sheets.

Reaction to the Result

Mikel Arteta: “Well, I'm super happy, obviously. We know what it means to our club, to our people to win a London derby, and we have the power to try to make them very happy. So hopefully we have achieved that and that makes it very special. On the performance we had moments in the game, some really good ones, some others that we have to suffer. We suffered because we have to adapt a little bit the plan because of the players that we had available.

I loved it because since the day that we started to get by, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play the game and that's a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way. It's a tough week that's coming up, and instead of finding any little excuses or arguments to do that - the opposite, face the challenge, play with courage, acknowledge our qualities and what we have to be able to do to win a game, and we've actually done it.”

After the Final Whistle

One massive hurdle has been cleared but Arsenal have another two crucial away games to play within four days: Atalanta on Thursday, 19th September and perhaps the biggest match of the season when they visit Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday, 22nd September.