London: Arsenal notched up a third consecutive Premier League home victory and their seventh from eight league games, winning 3-1 against their north London rivals Tottenham who have failed to win their last 12 league visits to Arsenal. It keeps the Gunners at the top of the table.
Manager, Mikel Arteta said: “This should give everyone confidence and belief. It was a great day. A result like this against Tottenham is so meaningful because it’s more than just three points. We all know what is at stake in this game. It gives me a great feeling when I look at the table and see the position the team is in. But I leave it to other people to decide if we are title contenders.”
Arteta added: “There are things to improve and that’s the direction we’re going. I could feel the passion the day they came back from international duty. You have to play with passion and coolness and they did it brilliantly today."
Arsenal started the game at a fast pace and attacked early. Gabriel Martinelli’s volley was tipped round the post and Bukayo Saka kept probing constantly. Thomas Partey kept winning possession and Martin Odegaard directed the play in midfield.
Spurs had a good early chance to score when Son Heung-Min’s free kick found Eric Dier who passed to Richarlison but his shot brought out a fine reaction save by Aaron Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal.
Arsenal opened the scoring in the 20th minute when Saka made space on the right before passing to Ben White who spotted Partey just outside the box and his superb curling shot from 25 yards found the right top corner of the net.
Spurs were able to equalise just eleven minutes later when Richarlison progressed into the box beating one tackle but was fouled in the next tackle by Gabriel Jesus. The resulting penalty was successfully taken by Harry Kane for his 14th goal in North London derbies and with that he became the first player in Premier League history to score 100 away goals.
Just four minutes into the second half, the Gunners, who had much the better of the game, regained their lead. Saka’s low shot was parried by Lloris and Cristian Romero instead of clearing it mis-kicked it towards his goalkeeper who should have easily gathered the ball but let it slip through his hands for Jesus to quickly put it over the line.
Spurs then had the disadvantage of playing most of the second half with ten men with Emerson Royal receiving the red card for a rash, lunging tackle on Martinelli who was sprinting down the right. Five minutes later they extended the lead with Martinelli receiving the ball from Partey and passing it to Granit Xhaka who drove in a left-footed low shot.
Spurs manager, Antonio Conte, unhappy with his player’s sending off, said: “Sometimes you are lucky with the decisions and sometimes you are not but for sure the red card killed the game.”
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