Arsenal could feel the heat. Back-to-back home defeats in the domestic cups had seen to that. One has pushed them to the brink of elimination in the Carabao Cup before the semi-final second leg at Newcastle. The other on penalties against Manchester United in the FA Cup was terminal.
Mikel Arteta’s team could also sense opportunity. Liverpool’s draw at Nottingham Forest had seen to that. So the equation was clear. Manage the occasion against the team they most love to hate. And win to move to within four points of Liverpool at the top, albeit having played an extra game.
There would be a blip when Tottenham, whose recent Premier League form is an embarrassment, went in front through their captain, Son Heung-min, midway through the first half. What a tonic it was for them and for him, as he negotiates a personally trying season.
But the story was about Arsenal pushing out their chests and asserting themselves, running hard and winning the duels, simply doing more than Spurs, who were so tame, so lacking in basic oomph. Profligacy was Arsenal’s enemy in the cup ties, and they knew also that it was imperative to locate a cutting edge.
They did so with a devastating one‑two combination before the interval. First they forced a Dominic Solanke own goal on a corner; they have scored 27 times from corners in the league since the start of last season, 10 now this time out. Nobody can match them in this area. Or stop them. And then Leandro Trossard found a way to work the ball through Antonin Kinsky’s hands. It was not voodoo; just a nightmare moment for the new Spurs goalkeeper.
There were still misses from Arsenal – most glaringly from the captain, Martin Ødegaard, late on; an inability to fully drive home the superiority they enjoyed. While the scoreline was tight, Tottenham were never out of it, even though they struggled to create. At the very end, Pedro Porro crashed a shot from an unkind angle against the outside of a post. A Spurs equaliser would have been a bolt from the blue.
It is now six defeats in nine league games for them; just five points from the sequence. Ange Postecoglou had every right to be unhappy here. The performance was not good enough. Injuries remain a mitigating factor and the 1-0 win against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg has helped – together with the decent position in the Europa League table. But when it mattered so much here, Spurs went with a whimper.
Arsenal had torn into Postecoglou’s team from the first whistle, refusing to give them an inch, forcing turnovers high up. Kinsky was peppered at corners and wide free‑kicks. He also had a couple of dicey moments on the ball.
For 22 minutes, Tottenham barely crossed halfway. And yet when they did, the game would turn. Solanke was denied by a crucial Gabriel Magalhães intervention and from the corner Dejan Kulusevski beat Declan Rice to open up a clear shooting chance. David Raya blocked. When Spurs won their next corner, they made it count, Son watching his volley from the edge of the area deflect home off William Saliba.
What did Arsenal create of clearcut note during the first half of the first period? Rice set up Trossard, who was denied by a brave block by Radu Dragusin but the demons of recent matches were starting to circle, the crowd edgy. Raheem Sterling, a surprise selection ahead of Gabriel Martinelli, could get nothing going.
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Arsenal bent the game to the force of their will and the catalyst had to be a corner, which was controversially awarded as the last touch came off Trossard not Porro. When Rice bent it over, Gabriel jumped with Dragusin beyond the far post, the ball appearing to come off the Spurs defender before flicking off Solanke and going in.
Arsenal completed the turnaround when Thomas Partey robbed Yves Bissouma and got the home side moving through Ødegaard, who went left to Trossard. Kinsky appeared to have the shot covered. He got his arm down and across in time. It was just that the ball bounced and went over it. Kinsky buried his face in the turf. He knew.
What did Spurs have by way of response? Postecoglou felt they were better in the second half but it was not by much. Solanke had a shot blocked and there was the late pulse‑quickener from Porro but Arsenal – with Myles Lewis-Skelly excelling at left-back in front of the watching England manager, Thomas Tuchel – had more of it; the better openings. Kai Havertz might have done better with a header from a corner, Rice banged at Kinsky and Ødegaard really ought to have scored.
Source: theguardian.com
