North London Derby Review (14/03/21)




The big news before the match was the benching of Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang however his presence wasn’t missed in the end up. A big game at the Emirates for Tottenham’s top 4 hopes and Arsenal’s European dreams for next season ended up in a 2-1 win for the Gunners. 


Arsenal came out the blocks and dominated the first 20-25 minutes, hitting the woodwork through Martin Ødegaard, however it was the away side who took the lead on 33 minutes with a wonderful finish. The on form Gareth Bale’s cross field ball was played down to Erik Lamela from Lucas Moura and the Argentine hammered it home with a magnificent ‘Rabona’. Arsenal continued to press for the equaliser and their reward came right on half time. Kieran Tierney was left one on one with Matt Doherty, the former beat him with a drop of the shoulder and played a cut back cross to Martin Ødegaard whose left footed shot deflected in via Toby Alderweireld. 1-1 at the break. 


The beginning of the second half saw a change for the Gunners, Nicolas Pepe replaced Bukayo Saka. The first 18 minutes of the second half were fairly uneventful until the newly introduced Pepe intercepted Hugo Loris’ kick out. The Ivorian played a lovely pass through to the Arsenal captain for the night, Alex Lacazette, he was then clattered into by Davinson Sanchez and Michael Oliver pointed to the spot. VAR then backed the referee up. The man who won the penalty stepped up and sent the World Cup winning Tottenham captain the wrong way and fired into the bottom right corner. Spurs’ night got even worse on 76 minutes when they’re goalscorer was shown a second yellow card for putting his hand, forcefully, in the face of Arsenal left back Kieran Tierney. Lamela’s red card wouldn’t effect Tottenham’s quest for an equaliser though. Harry Kane was their biggest threat in the last few minutes and his header ended up in the back of the Arsenal net  with 7 to play however the linesman had his flag up. 5 or so minutes later saw Spurs win a free kick at the corner of the Arsenal 18 yard box. Kane stepped up and his low effort hit the post, rebounded back out to the sliding in Davinson Sanchez whose scuffed shot was headed away by one half of Arsenal’s Brazilian centre back duo, Gabriel. Moments later, Kane had a second chance to work Bernd Leno however his free kick was a few metres over the bar. That concluded a miserable night for the visitors and Arsenal walked away with an immensely valuable 3 points. 

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