Tottenham's new White Hart Lane Stadium is Arsenal's only away game in the Premier League without any wins. And in the North London Derby on Sunday, Arteta's team beat their rivals in the same city 2-0 here, winning here for the first time. More importantly, Arsenal extended their lead in the standings to 8 points, and also tied second-ranked Manchester City (28 goals) in terms of goal difference.
According to 캡주소 statistics, the Gunners lost at New White Hart Lane three times before, all during Arteta's tenure. Arsenal only scored 1 goal in these 3 games, and conceded 7 goals successively. Last season's derby loss directly led to the collapse of the team's fourth. In this game, Arteta played the exact same starting lineup for the 4th consecutive round.
Although Tottenham sit at home, their defense seems to be unprepared for Arsenal's opening offensive. Especially the team captain Lloris, who made a mistake in the opening 7 minutes or so, allowing Nketiah to get a shot without marking. Seven minutes later, the French goalkeeper even made an own goal in front of the goal: Saka met Sessegnon in a cross near the bottom line on the right, and the ball flew towards the goal with a slight change of line. Lloris, who was standing near the near post, seemed to be caught off guard by all this, and his down-to-the-ground save directly threw the ball into his own goal.
The home team had a chance to equalize less than five minutes after conceding the goal, but Son Heung-min's shot in the counterattack was easily confiscated by Ramsdale. After that, Tottenham began to be overwhelmed by Arsenal's tidal offensive. In the 25th minute, Thomas hit the goal frame with a long volley, and then Tottenham's Romero and Langlet received yellow cards in defense. In the 36th minute, the Arsenal midfielder once again performed his long-range stunt: Odegaard shot a long-range shot from an area of more than 30 yards, and the ball went straight to the bottom right corner of the Tottenham goal, 2-0!
Arsenal's goal this time seems to be a display of Odegaard's personal footwork, but it is actually directly related to the downturn of Tottenham's defense. The BBC's chief football reporter McNaughty pointed out that Tottenham's defense had become trembling in the attack just now, and they had no intention of rushing up: "You can see Lenglet hesitated for a while, and finally did not go out to interfere with Odegaard's shot. Except for him, none of Tottenham's midfielders and defenders stepped forward to entangle Erdegaard. Everyone stood in their own defense zone and prayed that they would not be responsible for the consequences of this shot. 2-0 Of course, the score does not mean that the suspense of the game is over, but with the mental state of the Tottenham team, Game Over is almost there!"
Tottenham played a little offensive at the last moment of the first half. Kane's header in the penalty area was beautifully blocked by Ramsdale, and in the ensuing corner kick, Hoibel's shot went wide of the goal. However, after he finished his shot, he collided with Saliba, who was defending back, and rolled painfully in the penalty area. The referee once pointed to 12 yards, but after the VAR review found that he collided with the opponent and fell to the ground after the ball went out of bounds. The home team did not get a penalty.
In the second half, Tottenham tried to speed up the tempo, obviously speeding up the speed of the ball, and quickly put Arsenal in the backcourt. Kane's shot in the 51st minute was again resolved by Ramsdale, and then Sessegnon's shot from a small angle on the left was destroyed by the Arsenal goalkeeper. As the outside world expected, Tottenham entered the state late in the second half, but Arsenal's ability to fight is far from comparable to that of the past few seasons. While retreating to defend, they are still trying to counterattack. In the 58th minute, Xhaka sent a beautiful direct pass in the counterattack. Enketia did not handle the ball well when facing Lloris, and then the shot was blocked by the attacking goalkeeper. With this counterattack, Arsenal also began to get rid of the passive state. Conte had to replace Richarlison who had just recovered from injury in 70 minutes, and used up 5 substitutions before 90 minutes.
However, Tottenham's adjustments did not achieve the corresponding effect. Arteta waited until almost 80 minutes before replacing Martinelli with a yellow card with Tierney, and removed Zinchenko with Tomiyasu in 86 minutes. As for the two substitutions in stoppage time, it was a routine delay of time when the victory was already decided. As Ramsdale finally took the goal kick, the final whistle finally sounded. Tottenham's Richarlison immediately stepped forward and had a physical conflict with Ramsdale, who was celebrating the victory on the spot.
The home team fans on the sidelines also immediately lost control. Although Ramsdale went down to retrieve his spare gloves and water bottle surrounded by security personnel, he was kicked on the back by a Tottenham fan who fell off the stand . Fortunately, Arsenal coach Arteta arrived in time and dragged all the players who were on the verge of losing control to the stands of their own fans.
Gary Neville, a Sky commentator, shook his head at the reaction of Tottenham players and fans after the game: "The man who kicked Ramsdale is an idiot, the club must find him and do something about him. And Arteta's restrained performance after winning the game makes you look forward to the team's performance in the next few rounds. They don't need extra problems at this time, and they don't need to let the trouble of the opponent lose the game after the game. .”
Arsenal now lead the Premier League with 47 points, extending their lead to 8 points. And Manchester City (39 points) behind them has been gradually overtaken by Newcastle (38 points) and Manchester United (38 points). They are forming a second echelon between the championship and the fourth. Tottenham are 5 points behind fourth-placed Manchester United with one more game. However, since the point difference between 5th and 10th is only 5 points, the four teams including Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea launched a desperate and cruel battle in the second half of the league.