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!!!!
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
