So the big day arrives and Mikel Arteta has made the most minimal changes to his starting line-up to cover for Rice and Odegaard.
Although Arsenal implied Martinelli was playing centre forward, I’m not sure if Trossard or Havertz won’t be swapping positions during the match.
So the match started and within the first minute we had a corner and put Spurs straight onto the back foot.
But within 5 minutes you could see it was going to be an end to end game, and Raya was forced into an early reaction save and dealt clearly with the resulting corner.
Our first big chance came in the 17th minute when Martinelli easily beat his man and centered it to Havertz, whose strong header was somehow clumsily stopped on the line. Two minutes later Martinelli himself had a better chance but fluffed his shot in the end.
The ball then went straight down the other end and Raya was severely tested yet again. The first quarter of the game was certainly end to end stuff!
Solanke then had a chance but his looping header luckily skimmed the outside of the post with Raya beaten.
Both teams were definitely going full pelt to get the crucial first goal with Udogie and Betancur going Saliba in the booked list.
The Timber was very wrongly booked in my eyes, and then Vicario joined him for confronting Timber!
Feisty game indeed!
It thankfully quietened down and Tottenham tried a breakaway before half time which was well dealt with by Timber
There were 3 added minutes in which Raya saw a shot fly over his bar and Two more Spurs players went into the book before the while blew.!
It may be 0-0 in goals but Spurs are 5-2 up in the yellow cars stakes. The most ever in the EPL first half ever!
Tottenham came out quick in the second half and it only took 3 minutes before Jorginho was booked and then we had to weather a good bit of pressure from the home team. The first 15 minutes were definitely going Spurs way although it was less frantic the the 1st half, until we finally got a breakaway and won a corner, and then it was down to Gabriel to outleap everyone and put the Gunners in front at last with just a quarter of the game remaining.
Thank you Nicolas Jover!
Tottenham continued to pile on the pressure but the Arsenal defence were holding firm. Postecoglu threw the ex,-Chelsea flop Timo Werner on for Maddison to add pressure to their attack and Arteta responded by giving Sterling his debut at last to replace Martinelli for the last ten minutes.
Saka needed some attention with 5 mins to go and had to go off, with Nwaneri given his big opportunity as well.
Sterling nearly made his first chance from a Nwaneri pass but couldn’t make enough space, and finally we went into 5 mins off added time, which started with Kuveleski firing over the bar from long range. Raya had to make a couple of saves but nothing serious.
And that is how we got our 3rd win in a row away at Tottenham.
COYG!!!!
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Best defence in the league
No doubt.
It was a fantastic result, because we lost too many senior players. Lady luck smiled upon us and our defenders did a magnificent job today
Havertz, Martinelli, Saka and Partey defended very well too. Timber didn’t deserve the yellow card and Nwaneri looked like a perfect replacement for Odegaard
I think Nwaneri had come earlier instead of Trossard, with Jesus and Sterling up front also earlier, we might have got another goal really. There is something about Nwaneri that just feels he is up to the challenge.
Now before anyone jumps to comment how do I know this, it’s a hunch and his actions, positivity to move the ball forward. By the end of this season, I think we’ll have a gem of a player there.
Nwaneri’s left foot is suited to the right-sided AM role and his close control/ center of gravity looked really good
Least you admit it’s a hunch lol
Others say he’s more skilful then Lemal
Can’t wait to see him in Carabo Cup
Can’t compare with Yamal yet. Better to compare when Nwaneri has a whole season under his belt I think. Still then, we would be comparing with a player who would already have a whole lot more minutes under him. So, I never compare players personally.
Nwaneri had an assured start, but there’s no comparison at all with Yamal (who scored twice for Barcelona today at just 17) or is there likely to be any time soon if we’re realistic.
The Spanish press is reporting that Barcelona turned down a world record bid (for a teenager) of £210m from PSG for Yamal.
Well said
The midfield came alive with Nwaneri
He played 10 mins where we defended
He gave the ball away once and played two passes where player was clearly offside and creativity did nothing lol
Think the midfield did fine for the 86 mins before him ?
Jorginho immense
Immense? I agree with you that it was better that we started jorginho because we weren’t going to control the midfield without rice anyway, and I get you don’t like to see overhyping of a young player, but it’s surely hypocritical to then use hyperbole to describe another player’s performance? The midfield did not have great control of the game but we did well to make sure the defence was always set. The only players who were “immense” were the defenders, imo – Gabriel in particular.
I’m.being sarcastic
If we can say Nwaneri is more skilful then Lamal based on 30 mins In 2 years of senior football then I can say Jorginho was immense lol
In all seriousness , he’s tatically so good , a future manager
Ok, fair enough then.
Agree, jorginho is a very clever player – could follow the guardiola/xavi/xabi Alonso/arteta managerial trend
🙂👍👍👍
@Gai, First of all my appreciation to all the players but I cant but give a big credit to Arsenal backline with Raya. They are golden. Pathey seem back to his best and Jorginho doesn’t really look out of form. Above all the team has good mentality.
I watched Liverpool lost at home yesterday to NForest, it was then I realize our Boy were actually good picking a point against a very good Brighton despite going a player.
Raya played really well and Partey was solid, but Jorginho got stolen twice
If Man City got a red card against Brighton, I bet they would still dominate the game. They did it before and it showed that Man City are still one level above other EPL teams
Arteta has been doing a wonderful job, but he needs to replace the injury-prone players next summer
I think Jorghino lost the ball 50% of the time.
The stats say that he had 82% ball completion rate, meaning that he only lost the ball 18% of the time, contrary to your assertion.
Can’t argue with that. It just looked like, he fell over and lost the ball, nearly every time he got it. 82% is not classed as that brilliant either.
Will have to take your word on that. I can’t find anything about today’s game and Jorghinos stats on the reliable sites yet.
GREAT RESULT. Im so happy. Great way to to head to play City. It also shows that it doesn’t always take a forward/midfielder to score. well done boys. COYG
Maximum points achieved from the North London Derby.
Hip, Hip, Hip, Hurray.
Absolutely 💯 fantastic performance,well done guys,even with the injuries we had in our midfield we did the job.
Spurs are ever behind us💪
Coyg
Phewks! Got the win! Declan Rice will be back next game and hopefully Saka will be alright. Trossard did well in the Odegaard role but that Nwaneri kid really looks like the real deal! We only saw a few glimpses of him but I can already tell he is class. Timber was solid at the back, never got worried when the ball was in hos wing.
Timber was very solid
Super player. Boss performance today.
Gabriel’s best performance to date? Brilliant in defence and scored the winner – couldn’t have done much more.
Probably. Marshalled the defense really. I think it was Timber’s best performance for us as well.
Superb Result especially going into the game with 7 first team players injured/suspended, our whole midfield missing and FIVE teenagers on the bench. Yes FIVE and you’ll hear little about it but if that was Manu or Liverpool media would be all over it.
Yeah, it was hilarious really and a shame of an epic proportion for spurs to not even compete properly knowing the Arsenal bench was just full of kids.
I loved it when Myles was coaching Jorginho from the byline haha.
Such a great result. I’m not going on about who was missing, as we have a SQUAD of players and they proved to me today just how strong said squad is.
They surprised me, as I thought we were short in quantity, but man oh man they proved me wrong.
Our defence is absolutely amazing and I’m tempted to say as good as the Invincibles, such are their performances this season.
Well done lads and MA as well, he selected the best starting eleven he could, substituted at the right time and, yet again, proved he’s got one over on that mob down the road.
Got to praise Arteta, he actually set the team up correctly. Thats what you do when you have players missing. Jorghino (awful) Martinelli (brainless) were a hard watch but everyone else did their job. Plus we actually saw a youth player get some minutes. Forced on Arteta but he did play him. 👏 The bench looked a bit bare today but Rice, Merino and Calaforini to come in makes it a lot stronger. Lets not have any talk about conspiracy theories though. Saliba didn’t learn fromthe Rice incident and we were a bit lucky the ref gave the goal because if he hadn’t, there was no way it was getting overturned. But that doesn’t take away from the very good win away at White Heart Pain.
Oh and forgot Odergaard, even stronger.
Oh and I forgot Tomi. Im sure I may have forgotten someone else.
👍 timber could have gone as well if there’d been a conspiracy
I think at some point, Timber could be our best RB and Calaforini at LB. Timber, is a beast.
Personally, I was surprised because i didn’t even think it was a foul, let alone a yellow. Even in the slow mo, i thought timber tried and succeeded in turning on the top of the ball. Very unfortunate for me. I thought it was a top piece of skill. But in this day an age, you never know.
True
VAR would have overturned it as it wasn’t even a yellow card, but, as usual, one was issued.
Turning on top of the ball is a skill Brazilian players display ever so often, no Arsenal player attempts that more often than Jesús and Martineli.
When it comes off, it’s awesome but it has a better success rate in the box where defenders are more careful with rash challenges.
The referee got that one dead wrong but we are talking about playing in real time.
World class game management
We managed that 96 mins
Great game! Nice to see a lot of regular people with 180 degree comments, means there is no need to chime in. Common sense finally prevailing. Onwards and upwards!
Yes it’s quite funny how the same old people go from “we’re rubbish” to “we’re world beaters” in the blink of an eye.
Just a note GB – if one does play rubbish and then plays brilliantly, or the other way around, then one should say that shouldn’t they?
Not that we have played rubbish this season.
I think its irony Ken. Nobody has said we are rubbish and nobody has said we are worldbeaters. It was a good away performance at a dangerous Spurs. Who are definitely not world class😄
In reality of course very few say we are rubbish or world beaters
Reggie and Dan, precisely.
Surprised that GB would use such language!!
👍 I will give him the benifit……..
It wasn’t pretty, but it was pretty effective, and the three points were paramount.
Fortunately, after the break both sides didn’t conspire to challenge the new EPL yellow card record set by Bournemouth/Chelsea, although with seven between them in the first half anything could have happened.
Arguably, it helped keep a lid on it, for the second half.
Yes. I suspect that the half time talks from the respective coaches probably had a lot to do with it.
The referee wasn’t shy to use his cards – fortunately only yellow, as it turned out – but there would certainly have been more, probably reds as well, had things continued in a similar vein.
Unable to watch it but listened to most of it. Huge admiration for the team today when faced with a tricky away game and first choice players missing. That speaks volumes about the attitude and depth of the team and bodes well.
Listening on Arsenal radio Saliba got a ticking off for getting a yellow card from the commentator- a bit silly in view of Rice’s sending off and needs to be nipped in the bud.
This match could have been a banana skin and the 3 points have really kept us up close to City having had a couple of testing opponents to kick the season off with and the most testing next weekend COYG
That Timber guy , best game yet! Gabo just immense. Those set pieces keep going in brilliant. onwards we go.
As with Sue P. unable to watch game but it looks like we have the defensive structure to beat anyone and the feedback on the kid, Nawaneri sounds promising.
Odegaard is my primary worry just as I said it before the season began, not a striker or a saka’s replacement. A natural replacement for Odegaard in a time like this is all I want
We were a bit fortunate and the hard work of the lads paid off.
We still need Odegaard available when we go to the citizens
Great result yesterday, 3 successive wins in N17, not happened since 1988. So solid at the back, big up the defence. The one player I was disappointed in was Partey, gave away/missplaced so many passes.
🎵 Forever in our shadow you will be,
Your hearts are full of pain and jealousy,
Oh Tottenham, oh Tottenham,
Will you ever win the Premier League 🎵