The north London derby ended in disappointment as Arsenal left N17 with all three points on Sunday afternoon.
Although Randal Kolo Muani scored his first Premier League goal just two minutes after Eberechi Eze’s opener for the visitors, the Gunners scored three unanswered goals in the second half – Eze on target again and Viktor Gyokeres with a brace – to wrap up the win at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and repeat the 4-1 defeat they inflicted on us at the Emirates earlier in the season.
The stadium was absolutely rocking as the game got underway, even more than usual for this fixture it seemed, with so much riding on it for both teams. Arsenal made the brighter start as we moved into a low block in the opening stages, with the first chance just three minutes in when Gyokeres’ header hit Radu Dragusin in front of goal and the Romania international cleared his lines.
Shortly after, Guglielmo Vicario had to race off his line to head away from Bukayo Saka, with Leandro Trossard’s subsequent ball forwards needing to be stopped on the line by Dragusin. Gyokeres then fizzed just wide with a right-foot curler in seven minutes as we continued to weather the early storm.
Arsenal’s first corner on 17 minutes almost broke the deadlock as Gyokeres won the back-post header only for William Saliba to glance wide from eight yards out, while they did open the scoring shortly after the half hour mark as the game exploded into life. Saka was extremely lucky to get past Pape Matar Sarr down near the goal-line but once he was free, his low cut-back bounced up for Eze to volley home past Vicario.
The visitors’ joy was short-lived though as we responded almost immediately, Declan Rice dispossessed by Kolo Muani deep in Arsenal territory and the France international striker advanced into the box before sliding a low shot under David Raya to spark wild celebrations inside the stadium.
Back came the Gunners though and they almost regained the lead on 37 minutes when Saka latched onto a long pass from Piero Hincapie only for Vicario to stand tall to deny him, a huge save. And four minutes later, Trossard’s low angled drive flicked off the boot of Yves Bissouma as it drifted inches past the far post. We went through eight minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half after an early issue with the communications set-up for the officiating team but went into the break all square and with everything to play for.
We were quickly on the front foot after the break, just 23 seconds gone when Xavi Simons forced Raya into a fine saving diving to his right. But just a minute later, the visitors were ahead after Jurrien Timber drilled a pass in to the feet of Gyokeres who took a touch and hit a fierce 20-yard drive past Vicario. We had the ball in the net in the 52nd minute, Kolo Muani converting Conor Gallagher’s cross but his slight push on Gabriel was deemed enough of an offence to rule the goal out. It was end-to-end at that stage, with Vicario making an excellent save to deny Saka before Arsenal added a third when Saka’s initial effort was blocked by Micky van de Ven, the loose ball hitting Joao Palhinha and falling perfectly for Eze to convert for 3-1 with 61 minutes gone.
That was a real blow which took the wind out of our sails and for the next 25 minutes, we struggled to make much headway in attacking areas. We brought on Dominic Solanke, the returning Richarlison and Mathys Tel to try to find a way to goal, but it wasn’t until the 84th minute before a big chance came our way. Djed Spence hit a low cross in from the right, Richarlison’s flick went through the legs of Raya but the Arsenal goalkeeper somehow got back to claw the ball off the goal-line and away to safety. Instead, the last word went to the visitors. Spence lost the ball mid-way inside our half and it was played quickly up to Gyokeres, who held off Archie Gray and beat Vicario from 10 yards out.