Cause for celebration and concern as Arsenal triumph in the North London Derby

Arsenal 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Premier League
Sunday 14th March 2021, 4.30pm

Firstly, it was – given Spurs’ recent rejuvenated form – a pleasant surprise that Arsenal won yesterday’s derby, even if, since 1993, the noisy neighbours have only ever triumphed once in the league at Highbury or the Emirates. Secondly, in terms of possession and chances, the dominance of Mikel Arteta’s side was very encouraging. Jose Mourinho came with a conservative gameplan, in spite of the form and quality of his attackers, and ultimately failed, albeit narrowly. 

The pre-kick off story was the demotion to the bench of captain Aubameyang for disciplinary reasons. Apparently he was five minutes late in getting to the stadium. This was Mikel Arteta sending out a message to his squad – you can imagine this kind of thing is a non-negotiable. Margins for errors are playing a big part in Arsenal’s season and in this instance, Auba cut his too fine, perhaps caught out by an excess of traffic in London, for who knows what reason – Mother’s Day maybe. All these rules about only making essential journeys are largely being ignored these days. Whether or not this will create a rift between the captain and the manager we wait to see, but hopefully it can be forgotten about and everybody moves on – at least it did not cost the team any points. 

The lack of intensity due to no crowd is more obvious in games like these, and initially things felt a bit flat on all levels, as Spurs were not pressing too high, meaning a lot of possession for Arsenal in their own half. Play through us if you can seemed to be the message to the hosts, with the aim of selective smash and grab raids to secure the points.

Emile Smith Rowe, playing on the left side of the attack but moving central as events allowed, hit the crossbar in the 16^th minute with a long range effort after Spurs lost possession under pressure. Then Son Heung-min pulled up with a hamstring which you felt would enhance Arsenal’s chances even more – he was replaced by Erik Lamela.

The refereeing was generous at times, with Michael Oliver seemingly reluctant to give out yellow cards for cynical play such as Ndombele pulling Lacazette to the ground to prevent him launching an attack.  How that was not a yellow is beyond me. It wasn’t the only example. 

Although Alex Lacazette did score the winner, he had a patchy game – with the opportunities to make the match a lot more comfortable spurned. He simply isn’t as clinical as a striker with his price tag should be. 

Spurs took the lead with what you have to say was a remarkable goal, Erik Lamela doing a ‘Rabona’ to place the ball inside Arsenal’s post through a thicket of defenders. Good as it was, at least when we see endless replays of it down the years, we know it won’t have given Spurs anything more than a moment. It proved to be their only shot of the half, which summed up Jose Mourinho’s tactics in a nutshell.

Arsenal responded well, Cedric hitting the woodwork as their overall domination continued everywhere but the scoreboard. At least some kind of justice came just before the interval when Martin Odegaard was found by Tierney – who along with Smith Rowe had provided constant threat on the left wing – and the Norwegian scored thanks to a deflection off Alderweireld.

Pepe replaced Saka for the second half, which felt like a strange substitution – at least in terms of the timing. There was more dominance from the home side, although we had to wait for that to be reflected in the scoreline until the 63^rd minute, when Lacazette sliced wildly at the ball, failed to get much of a connection and was then kicked by Davidson Sanchez. A harsh penalty really, although confirmed by VAR as it was not a clear and obvious error. And let’s face it, Arsenal are due the rub of the green after many of the recent VAR decisions that have gone against them. Lacazette’s penalty was coolly taken – his best moment of the day. 

Arsenal’s chances of hanging on to the win increased dramatically when Lamela received a second yellow. The player is an accident waiting to happen in terms of yellow cards, and I am amazed to hear that this was actually the first time he’d been dismissed. 

Then something went very wrong as Willian came on for Emile Smith Rowe. The latter had been a key component in Arsenal’s game, threading things together with his movement and passing, contributing hugely to Arsenal’s domination and general control. This was a poor sub, as Willian simply didn’t do the same, and handed the impetus to the ten men. As Doktor Schneide messaged me, “What the hell is happening? Did we fall into a trap of having more players on the pitch?”

Suddenly, Arsenal were gifting Spurs possession and set pieces with poor passing and cheap fouls. In the 83^rd minute, momentary panic as Kane headed in from a free kick, but the Gunners were saved by the offside flag. The anxiety wasn’t over, as from another free kick, unnecessarily conceded by Thomas Partey – who faded badly in the last 30 minutes, Kane hit the post. With Bernd Leno grounded, from the rebound Spurs would have scored but for the blocking header of Gabriel. Phew!

How had it come to this? A man up, a goal up. What happened to game management? With the hopes of a Europa League triumph to salvage a pretty disastrous campaign, Arsenal are going to have to do better than this if they are going to win tight ties as the level of opposition on the European front gets stiffer, assuming they don’t contrive to get eliminated on Thursday by Olympiacos. 

Too much pressure was allowed against ten men and you have to question the decision to remove Emile Smith Rowe to give Willian some gametime. The Brazilian generally adds nothing. Who knows how significant the three points might be – I imagine the loss of them will hurt Spurs more, with Champions League qualification an aspiration for them by league position as well as by winning a first European trophy since 1984.

Anyway, three points in the bag, but plenty to improve on at the same time. Let’s see if the players can practice a little game management to show they have learned something from yesterday by the time of Thursday’s round of 16 second leg.

To be notified when there is fresh content on my blog (generally the day after matches), follow me on Twitter - https://twitter.com/KevinWhitcher01