Daily Mail

Ange Postecolgou pulled no punches following his side's north London derby defeat by Tottenham on Sunday, almost insisting that he would be winning a trophy this year.

It hasn't been an easy start to the season for Spurs, who have lost half of their games so far and have just four points from as many matches to their names.

It's All Kicking Off! co-hosts Ian Ladyman and Chris Sutton looked at the Australian's project in north London on the latest episode of the podcast, with a deep dive into how patient the club should be with it.

Though Spurs finished 33 points behind their arch rivals and lost on Sunday, Sutton was keen to defend Tottenham on the back of the game, with the goal proving to be somewhat controversial.

Listen to It's All Kicking Off! here:

There was however debate over whether Postecoglou could be setting himself up to fail after his near-promise of a trophy, with European action to get underway soon.

Sutton also looked at some of Spurs' players and how they have performed for the club since joining, with a focus on forward Brennan Johnson.

Tottenham's latest north London derby defeat has left them 13th in the table

Jamie Redknapp insists they need to start winning sooner rather than later

LISTEN NOW: It's All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday

Jamie Redknapp has issued a warning to Ange Postecoglou after Tottenham's 1-0 defeat against Arsenal.

Spurs suffered their second consecutive Premier League loss this season and their third straight north London derby defeat at home on Sunday.

Gabriel's second half header proved to be the difference, with the Brazilian leaping highest from Bukayo Saka's inswinging corner.

The defeat has left Tottenham 13th in the table and Redknapp insists they need to start picking up results sooner rather than later.

The former midfielder said speaking on Sky Sports: 'This time last year Spurs were fantastic to watch. We were all waxing lyrical about the manager and the free flowing football.

'Right now it’s not free flowing. If you play well and don’t start winning then you get days like today where the quality drops.

'They need to pick up some results quickly. It’s a fact at this club if you’re not winning games you don’t get long and he needs to start winning some games.'

Former Spurs striker Les believes Postecoglou is the right man for the job, insisting the north London side are 'not far away'.

Asked whether he sees Spurs winning a trophy this season, Ferdinand responded: 'Not at the moment. First three games of the season they played really well.Today they were just missing that cutting edge.

'They’re not far away. I think he’s the right man for Tottenham at this moment in time and they’ll get it right. Today there was a lack of quality.

'In previous games there’s been a lack of personnel in the areas the ball has gone into. Solanke is going to take two or three games to get up to speed. I think Ange is the right man.'

Another trophyless season would stretch Spurs' silverware drought to 17 years but Postecoglou doubled down on his belief that the long wait will soon end.

The Australian struck a defiant tone in his response, but could barely conceal his irritation at the journalist's who asked whether he could win a trophy in his second season at Spurs.

'Yeah, absolutely,' Postecoglou responded. 'Am I going to answer the question or are you going to keep asking it?

'No, absolutely. I'll correct myself. I don't usually win things, I always win things in my second year.

'Nothing has changed. I don't say things unless I believe them.'

Arsenal legend Paul Merson joked he has 'more chance of winning strictly' than Ange Postecoglou does of winning a trophy with Tottenham Hotspur.

In a post-match interview with Sky Sports, Postecoglou reminded the interviewer he 'always' wins a trophy in his second year at a club.

However, Merson disagreed.

'I like Ange, I like him, but I've got more chance of winning Strictly', Merson said on Sky Sports.

Host David Jones cheekily revealed he'd seen some of Merson's dance moves, which was 'not great news for Spurs'.

Merson doubled down on his brutal verdict on Postecoglou and Tottenham as he compared the club with Newcastle's progress.

'No, I don't see it at the moment,' Merson said.

'There's not a lot wrong but you look where they are and where Newcastle are. Tottenham have probably been playing better than them over the first three games and Newcastle have more points than them.

'If they get top four - brilliant. Honestly that would be amazing but 100 per cent, it would be amazing but they'll need to get Solanke to get 20 odd goals and they can only get 20 odd goals if the crossing improves.

'If the crossing don't improve, you can put Haaland up there and it wouldn't improve.'

Unsurprisingly, Merson was nowhere near as critical of Arsenal as he was Tottenham.

In fact, Merson remains adamant the Gunners have 'every chance' of breaking Manchester City's stranglehold and win the Premier League this season.

'They’ll be full of confidence,' Merson said.

'Everyone in the Premier League will have been watching today. The whole of the PL. Missing Odegaard, missing Rice. Two big big players.

For me now this is a heads or tails. This league is a heads or tails this year. I always thought who’s going to beat Man City over 38 games. I’ve seen enough today that Arsenal will be there.

'Arsenal have every chance of winning this Premier League.'

Tottenham legend Gary Mabbutt was out on the pitch at half time talking with affection about north London derbies of yore.

How you never could never tell what might emerge once the rivalry was held to the flame. How each duel created its own identity.

This one though, there was something eerily familiar about. A frantic street skirmish in designer slip-ons settled in Arsenal’s favour with a blow from a set-piece.

After that, they held an outstretched arm with a hand to the Spurs forehead and simply kept it there untroubled by the thrashing about.

That will be tough for Ange Postecoglou and his team to digest. Having finished 23 points adrift of the neighbours last season they were hoping to find evidence of progress but there was barely a hint of it, even with the visitors shorn of their captain and two key midfielders.

Once they survived an intense Tottenham opening, Arsenal looked solid. Stronger, more cohesive and better organised than the home team. Altogether more serious as an outfit.

Once ahead, they never looked like conceding and they protected their goalkeeper David Raya superbly.

Dejan Kulusevski, who forced early saves, fizzed one over in the closing seconds and that was about it by way of a late rally.

The biggest cheers from the home crowd were reserved for Cristian Romero tearing around dangerously at the back and Micky van de Ven sliding into recovery tackles.

It is all part of the Postecoglou vibe. It’s great fun and rarely dull but it can be untidy. And they will always be vulnerable on the break or from a set-piece against the best teams in the Premier League.

Usually, they summon chances but here chances were scarce. There was no late swell of pressure kicking towards the South Stand.

The points were lost to a goal from a corner to trigger cold-sweat flashbacks to last season when this became a recurring theme.

Not because there is no designated set-piece coach on the staff or because they don’t work hard on the training pitch. Rather because they are short of aerial presence.

On the evidence of this and four points from the previous three games little has changed this season.

Dominic Solanke is new to the group and decent in the air but beyond Romero and Van de Ven there are few to compete defensively with Arsenal’s towering quartet of centre halves with Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz thrown in for good measure.

Romero was in vague attendance on this occasion until Gabriel gave him a shove in the back to knock him off balance and eased away, leaping to meet Bukayo Saka’s swerving delivery with a firm header.

Tottenham asked hopefully about a foul but there was no help coming from referee Jarren Gillett. It will go down as poor defending by their best defender. Romero failed to engage with one of Arsenal’s danger men and he knew it.

To complain about a push or claim Jurrien Timber should have been sent off because he went over the top on Pedro Porro in the first half when he was trying to roll the ball away would be to miss the point. Spurs were second best.

Postecoglou sent on subs but the pattern of the contest barely changed. If anything, Arsenal bound tighter. They risked less, limiting themselves to the occasional menacing counterattack.

It was a muscular performance. A classic of the ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ genre to warm the cockles of the pre-Wenger old guard on the red and white side of this divide. One achieved without Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard or new signing Mikel Merino and with five teenagers on the bench.

Arsenal came with a plan and stuck to it. They settled into a 4-4-2 shape. Havertz and Leandro Trossard were the front two but often there was nobody up front as they worked busily back into midfield.

Sometimes the wide men Saka and Gabriel Martinelli were the furthest forward. Sometimes all four of them were up, pressing and hustling. If they were unable to force mistakes from Spurs as they passed out from Guglielmo Vicario they dropped deep and absorbed pressure.

The fullbacks neutralised the wingers and Jorginho and Partey smothered the areas where Kulusevski and James Maddison wanted to operate.

Kulusevski forced early saves and Solanke, at £65million from Bournemouth the most expensive Premier League signing of the summer and back from injury, made a positive start.

He led the line and disturbed both central defenders and went close with a header in each half, but failed to produce an effort at goal from perhaps his best chance which broke to him in the box in the first half.

There were groans at the end with a few boos thrown in. True, they just don’t like to beaten at home by Arsenal but there might be something else beginning to eat away. An underwhelming start to this campaign follows on from an underwhelming end to the last.

Spurs have won five of the last 15 in the Premier League, four of them last season against the bottom four and one this season at home to rock bottom Everton. Wednesday’s trip to Coventry looms large.

The Carabao Cup defeat on penalties with a weakened team at Fulham last season was the low point of a brilliant start to the Postecoglou era.

Another feeble cup exit before another London derby against Brentford on Saturday and the dark mood may deepen.

Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has robustly defended his set-piece policy despite watching his team fall victim to another dead ball delivery in their loss to Arsenal.

The Aussie boss, who has refused to appoint a set-piece specialist coach since his arrival from Celtic last year, has been heavily criticised due to his team’s struggles with defending dead ball situations.

Their Achilles heel came back to haunt them again in the North London Derby as Gabriel Magalhaes nodded home the winner from Bukayo Saka’s corner as Arsenal emerged victorious.

Postecoglou said: ‘I know, for some reason people think I don't care about set pieces and it's a narrative that you can keep going on for ages and ages. I understand that.

‘Like I said, we work on them all the time like we do for every other team. You know that they're a threat, as I said, for the most part, we handled them really well today, but we switched off for one and we paid a price and you learn from that and you move on.

‘But it is what it is, you know, it's my burden to carry and I'm happy to do that.

‘I've always said, for me, there's a bigger picture that's at play here that's much more important than the finer details of us getting to where we want to.

‘For us, the way forward is to try to turn the football we're playing now into something meaningful.’

Postecoglou admonished defender Cristian Romero of full blame for Magalhaes’ winner, despite the Argentine appearing to lose the Arsenal centre-back in the lead up to the winner.

‘Arsenal are obviously a very big threat at set pieces. It only takes one,’ explained Postecoglou.

‘It wasn't just Romero, a couple of others switched off as well. The delivery was spot on and Gabriel is always a threat in those situations.’

Postecoglou believes his team’s biggest problem was not converting their dominance into goals - an issue he insists has dogged them since the start of the season.

‘We had some good opportunities but we created so many more, we just wasted some of our good play,’ he added.

‘Similar to our other games where we haven't really had that conviction in the front third to take advantage of - whether it's us winning the ball back or getting into that front third and nothing coming of it.

‘You keep opposition teams in the game when you do that.

‘We've just got to keep working at it, that's my job. I've just got to keep giving the feedback to the guys, trying to guide them in the right way to make them see that for all their dominance in the game, you need to really be clear-headed in those kind of moments and, that's my role to try to guide them in the right way.

‘We are a team that is progressing in many areas, with all that progress there are always new challenges and things you need to overcome.

‘When I look at the four games in isolation this year, the football is probably more consistent and compelling than our first four games last year but obviously our results don’t reflect that.’

Gabriel headed in a corner from Bukayo Saka to help Arsenal seal a 1-0 victory

Arsenal edged a heated north London derby on Sunday afternoon thanks to a second half header from Gabriel.

In what was a heated first half that saw the most yellow cards shown in the opening 45 minutes of any Premier League game ever, the players clashed after Jurrien Timber narrowly avoided a red card.

It was tight in the second half too, with Gabriel heading in Bukayo Saka's corner for the only goal of the game.

Arsenal went second with the win, while Tottenham remain in the bottom half after a difficult start to the campaign.

Mail Sport's SAMI MOKBEL and ISAAN KHAN give their ratings from north London.

Tottenham (4-3-3)

Guglielmo Vicario - 6

Question marks over Arsenal’s winner. Could have come out to claim Saka’s corner. Good save from Havertz in the first half. Booked. 6

Pedro Porro - 6.5

Had issues with his footing early on but grew into the game and provided am outlet down the right.

Cristian Romero - 6

Bullied by Gabriel Magalhaes for Arsenal’s winner. Was strong up until that costly moment.

Micky van de Ven - 7

His speed is such an important facet of the way Postecoglou wants to play. Didn’t deserve to lose. Booked.

Destiny Udogie - 6.5

Did well to keep Saka’s impact down to a minimum. Supplemented Tottenham’’s attack on occasion. Booked.

Rodrigo Bentancur - 5.5

Efficient and industrious in central midfield but no more than that. Substituted as Spurs chased a leveller. Booked.

James Maddison - 6.5

Showed some promising signs after a patchy start to the season. Still some way of his best.

Dejan Kulusevski - 6

Popped up in dangerous areas but couldn’t supply final product on a frustrating afternoon. Gave the ball away too often. Booked.

Brennan Johnson - 6

Provided Timber with some difficulties down Spurs’ right but couldn’t unlock the door. Subbed.

Dominic Solanke - 6

Brought some physical presence to Spurs’ forward line, but dwelled too long with a first-half chance.

Heung-min Son - 6.5

Caused White issues, particularly in the first half. The skipper was a threat but has more profitable afternoons.

Subs: Sarr 6 (Bentancur 68); Odobert 6 (Johnson 68); Werner (Maddison 80)

Ange Postecoglou - 6

Will feel hard done by, but his team only have themselves to blame. Another set piece conceded to boot.

ARSENAL (4-3-3)

DAVID RAYA - 7

Imposed himself in the air, with Dominic Solanke constantly wading in, and distributed well. Made two good saves in the opening 10 minutes which set the tone for his side.

BEN WHITE - 5.5

Struggled against Son Heung-min but was helped by Bukayo Saka’s tracking back. Lucky his errant pass, which found its way to Solanke after 14 minutes, didn’t amount to more.

WILLIAM SALIBA - 7

Got outmuscled in some duels with Solanke, but kept coming back for more. Showed resilience in that aspect.

GABRIEL - 8

Solid at the back and scored Arsenal’s winner with a powerful header from a corner-kick. A vital goal indeed.

JURRIEN TIMBER - 7

Involved in important phases of play both in attack and defence. Lucky to only receive a yellow for his excessive challenge on Pedro Porro, in light of referee Jarred Gillett’s handling of cautions.

JORGINHO - 6.5

Had not played this season but stepped in at ease. The Italian’s quality allows him to come in for big matches without rust.

THOMAS PARTEY - 6.5

Was not exposed in the middle without Rice alongside him and put in some good tackles.

LEANDRO TROSSARD -6.5

Filled into a midfield role he does not usually play. Marked out by his work off the ball and settling for not being the man in attack.

BUKAYO SAKA - 6.5

Provided the corner-kick resulting in the Arsenal winner. His best work was not in attack but defence, selflessly helping out White on the right flank.

KAI HAVERTZ - 6.5

Worked really hard off the ball and looked to provide an aerial route both in and outside the area. Had two first-half headers saved, one of which required a real stretch from Vicario.

GABRIEL MARTINELLI - 6.5

Should have done much better in the one-v-one chance he had against Guglielmo Vicario End, his product lacking. Though did track back and effectively helped out in defending.

Substitutes

Jesus on for Trossard (80 mins)

Sterling on for Martinelli (80 mins)

Nwaneri on for Saka (86 mins)

Manager: MIKEL ARTETA - 7.5

Squeezed out a win with a makeshift midfield missing key players like Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino. His ploy to keep Havertz upfront worked out. He will be chuffed.

Referee: JARRED GILETT - 5

Was very trigger happy in issuing yellow cards — there were seven in the first half, a joint-Premier League record — which affected the match. The bar for a caution was too low.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd

Most had said it was an opportunity for Tottenham. They had argued that, with Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice, their inspiration and their soul, out with injury and suspension, that Mikel Arteta’s side would never be more vulnerable. This North London derby was Spurs’ moment.

But Arteta had disagreed. He had said the game represented an opportunity for Arsenal, an opportunity to prove they could beat their fiercest rivals even though they were depleted, an opportunity to eschew the temptation to make excuses, an opportunity to stand up.

Arsenal heeded Arteta’s call. They survived a hectic, untidy first half when it felt they were sometimes outperformed in central midfield and they were grateful to Spurs’ inability to take a couple of fine chances that were presented to them.

And then, in the 64th minute, Gabriel rose highest at a corner to head firmly past Guglielmo Vicario and the game was won. Spurs huffed and puffed for the rest of the second half but they never looked like getting an equaliser. North London, once again, was red.

The victory moved Arteta’s side to second in the table and put behind them the hiccup of their draw with Brighton a fortnight ago when Rice had been sent off for a second yellow card he earned when delaying the restart.

More relevantly, it felt like an important restatement of their title credentials. They know from bitter experience there can be no excuses and a bare minimum of dropped points, whether that be at home to Leicester City or away to Spurs, if they are to have a prayer of dethroning Manchester City.

That was their mantra at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. No excuses. They did not seek any and they did not need any. They might not quite have been able to call themselves the better team because there was not much to choose between the two. But Arsenal won and that was all that mattered. They won and now they must keep winning.

This win was also a morale-boosting triumph for the strength of their squad. Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli came in for Rice and Odegaard and played their part in providing the foundation for the victory. Gabriel and William Saliba were the best players on the pitch.

It is too soon to talk about Ange Postecoglou being under any real pressure at Spurs despite the fact that they have only won one of their opening four games. Their summer signing Dominic Solanke missed their best chance in the first half but they did not play badly. They are good enough and ambitious enough that results will start to come.

Spurs had made a promising start. Solanke, back after injury, used a run from Heung-Min Son as a decoy before advancing down the left and passing the ball to the Spurs skipper. Son’s cut-back found Dejan Kulusevski and his shot was saved by David Raya.

Spurs should have taken the lead when their relentless high press forced the Arsenal defence into what should have been a costly mistake. Arsenal attempted to pass their way out from the back but when the ball was deflected into the path of Solanke with only Raya to beat, he hesitated and allowed time for a saving tackle.

Soon after, Saliba was booked for delaying the restart after an Arsenal foul. After what befell Rice a fortnight ago, you might have thought Arsenal would have learned that lesson by now.

Gradually, Arsenal began to gain a foothold in the game. Vicario flung himself headlong to his left to push out a powerful header from Kai Havertz and if Martinelli had squared a pass to Bukayo Saka instead of trying to score himself a few minutes later, the visitors would have been ahead.

The game flowed fast and fluently now. Son ran at Ben White and slipped a pass to James Maddison. Maddison curled it to the back post where Solanke forced himself in front of his marker and looped a header across goal that fell agonisingly wide.

Jurrien Timber was booked for a foul on Pedro Porro and Porro’s hysterical reaction helped create a melee that saw Vicario cautioned for attempting to exact a kind of retribution. It raised the temperature of an already febrile occasion.

There were no goals before half-time but there were more bookings. Micky van de Ven and Kulusevski were cautioned in quick succession to bring the total to seven, a Premier League record for the first half. Postecoglou staggered around in his technical area with his head in his hands as if he could not believe it.

The game grew more attritional after the break. There was even a breather in the bookings. Raya tried to copy Manchester City’s tactics on Saturday by bypassing the press with a long ball up front. City had Erling Haaland to aim at but Raya could only pick out Saka, who was marked by Van de Ven. It was no contest.

Saka soon found another way to make his mark. He curled in a corner midway through the half that was hit with pace into the six-yard-box. Gabriel shoved Romero as the ball was in flight and then rose unchallenged to power his header past Vicario from close range.

Arsenal have now scored 23 goals from set pieces since the start of last season in the Premier League, the most of any side, and it had felt for much of the match as if it would be decided that way here, too.

Raheem Sterling came on for Martinelli ten minutes from the end to make his Arsenal debut and remind everyone watching that Arsenal have made a recent habit of making smart signings to bolster their title challenge.

This was a victory for the collective, the kind of win that will add momentum and steel to a challenge to a City team that is not yet showing any signs of cracking. That was why Arsenal’s win here in enemy territory, and the steely manner of it, was so important.

The north London derby lived up to its reputation as the most heated rivalry in the top flight as the two sets of players to be separated during the first half.

The first half of the clash between Arsenal and Tottenham saw the most yellow cards in the first half of a Premier League game in history.

One of them came when Jurrien timber appeared to go over the ball as he challenged Pedro Porro.

Replays showed there wasn't too much in it and the referee was quick to show the yellow to Timber.

And there was more for the referee to deal with as the pushing and shoving began with almost everyone getting involved.

Scroll down for video

It started as Vicario squared up to Timber, who responded by grabbing the Tottenham man's shirt and staring him down.

Fortunately not player took it too far in the melee and VAR deemed that no further action was necessary.

The first half was fairly uneventful aside from that with Gabriel Martinelli spurning the best chance when he was played through on the left.

Sky pundit Jamie Redknapp believed Timber was lucky to escape with a yellow card for his challenge on Porro but few agreed on social media.

The defender got plenty of the ball and there wasn't much force in the challenge.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has named Raheem Sterling on the bench for the north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

Mail Sport's Sami Mokbel exclusively revealed in the live blog Sterling would not start the clash.

Sterling joined the Gunners on a season-long loan from Chelsea after he was relegated to the Blues' 'bomb squad' by new coach Enzo Maresca.

The deal was complete on deadline day, meaning Sterling has had to wait to make his Arsenal debut.

Instead, Arteta opted for an attacking unit of Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli while Leandro Trossard replaces the injured Martin Odegaard.

Should Sterling come off the bench, it will be his first competitive minutes of the season having failed to feature for Chelsea in their opening games.

Speaking ahead of the derby, Arteta said Sterling had 'a big smile on his face' and 'a lot of energy' as he looked to remind everyone of his abilities.

'When someone has got that in his belly you sense it straight away,' Arteta said.

'Obviously, I don't need to discover anything about his quality and what he can bring to the team.

'What I see is hunger. He is a player who wants to play every minute of every game. When that is not the case he's not happy.'

Sterling's temporary switch to the Emirates Stadium re-united him with Arteta as the pair worked together during their time at Manchester City.

The 29-year-old made over appearances 339 appearances across all competitions from City in his seven-year stint and scored 131 goals.

He played a key role in establishing City as the dominant force in English football and won four trophies throughout his time at the Etihad.

Sterling joined Chelsea for £47.5million in July 2022 but struggled to find form, although he had to play under four different managers in Thomas Tuchel, Graham Potter, Frank Lampard and Mauricio Pochettino.

He was a shock omission from Chelsea's squad for their opening round clash against Manchester City.

In August, Maresca confirmed Sterling was training away from Chelsea's first team and was unlikely to receive many minutes due to not being his style of winger.

'Raheem is a fantastic guy who has trained very well,' Maresca said.

'Every manager has a different idea and he is the kind of winger that is not one that I like. History and numbers speak for Raheem. He knows exactly what he needs to do.'

Tottenham 0-0 Arsenal - Premier League: Live score and updates as Raheem Sterling is on the bench for his firs  Daily Mail