Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur: Gunners slam three goals past a fighting Spurs in first half to kill off an exciting match.
Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur: The match was going to be a thriller and that is exactly what happened. Arsenal had the league trophy firmly in their sights and Tottenham Hotspur had everything to play for to get into the much-coveted Champions Trophy next season. Tottenham were on 5th spot behind Aston Villa with 7 points between them. In any case, Tottenham certainly wanted to derail Arsenal’s title challenge. And playing at home was a big help with all the fans egging them on.
Ahead of the match, out of the last 5 matches that Arsenal played, they had won 4. Tottenham, on the other hand, had won just two, lost two and drawn one.
A draw would not have suited either team. It would dent Gunners’ title challenge and it would hurt Tottenham’s chances of a top four finish.
Where things were headed for Tottenham was made clear by coach Ange Postecoglou. He has laid it down that the team must focus on attack. Whether that would work against Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta’s extremely capable defense was a big question. Add to more problems for Tottenham was that the Gunners’ attack is razor sharp at the front and they knew how to take advantage of all the open the spaces that were made available.
Clearly, there was everything to play for for both teams and they came out with all guns blazing. The early honours went to Arsenal as was expected considering they are the team in form.
However, Tottenham did not falter and attacked as soon as they got the ball but, in doing so, they left too many open spaces for Arsenal to exploit and to score. The first goal was, disappointingly for Tottenham, an own goal off Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg following a sharp corner to the near post. He was shaping to head it outside for a corner, but ended up blasting it into his own goal.
Tottenham too would have scored from a corner immediately thereafter, but Cristian Romero headed it just inches wide!
And just a minute later Romero could have had another only to hit the post! Tottenham were doing everything but score.
In fact they did score and for all intents and purposes it looked legit. Micky van de Ven finds a deflected shot in his path and he slams it past David Raya.
However, VAR rejected it by the slimmest of margins with an offside call!
It proved costly as thereafter as Bukayo Saka found himself quite unmarked after a long ball found him. He calmly side-stepped and put it past a diving goalkeeper!
This happened immediately after Spurs appealed for a penalty and stopped playing, but Arsenal did not and sent the long ball straight for Saka to score.
Tottenham would have felt hard done by. VAR let them down again as no penalty was awarded.
Still, on they came and even though Arsenal became quite sloppy in defense, Spurs just could not score.
Sloppy in defense they may have been for a short while, but their attack still packed a punch and Arsenal showed that by scoring yet again!
It was from a corner that Haavertz headed in. Some clever play as an Arsenal player ran and stood in front oft the goalie to distract him and for Haavertz to find enough space to score. Tottenham defense should have marked him better.
Son Heung-min finally got a chance at the fag end of the first half, but a bad bounce meant he lashed it over the goal. He could not believe it! Great chance, zero result.
Aston Villa fans would have been cheering as this result would help cement their team’s 4th spot on EPL table.
Half-time score Arsenal vs Tottenham 3-0!
All done, bar the shouting?
Not quite! As Tottenham piled on the pressure at the start, Arsenal made some mistakes at the back and the costliest one was by the goalie – an absolute howler. An under-pressure David Raya passed the ball straight to a Spurs player! Cristian Romero accepted the gift gratefully and slammed it past Raya.
A huge number of yellow cards started raining down on both sides as tired legs and frustration crept into the game.
It served to slow down the game especially as Tottenham gave away too many free kicks. Suited Arsenal though.
It followed after Ben Davies was floored inside the box. Although the referee said play on, VAR decided that there was a case for penalty!
Tottenham Captain Son Heung-min took the responsibility and calmly put it past the goallie into the top corner.
Tottenham got one back, but time was simply not on their side. It had come too late at 86:26.
And even though 6 minutes were added, Arsenal hung on for a win.
Full time Arsenal vs Tottenham 3-2.
