Arsenal (1) 2 Tottenham Hotspur (1) 2

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 24th September, 2023. Kick-off time: 2.00pm

(4-3-3) David Raya; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Fábio Vieira; Bukayo Saka, Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Jesus.

Substitutes: Aaron Ramsdale, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Cédric Soares, Takehiro Tomiyasu, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny, Kai Havertz.

Scorers: Romero (27 mins own goal), Bukayo Saka (53 mins, penalty)

Yellow Cards: Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz, Eddie Nketiah

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 47%

Referee: Rob Jones

Assistant Referees: Lee Betts, Wade Smith

Fourth Official: Michael Salisbury

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Paul Tierney; AVAR Harry Lennard

Attendance: 60,156

Derby Day again! Today we welcome our “friends” from the other side of the Seven Sisters Road for the first North London clash of the season. Of course, Thomas Partey is still absent with a groin injury, and if we are victorious this afternoon, it means that we would remain undefeated after six Premier League matches for just the second time in the past sixteen seasons, which is certainly something to aim for.

Shortly after kick-off, Yves Bissouma was almost caught out in possession by Gabriel Jesus near his own penalty area, and if the ball had been just a few inches away, our man would surely have opened the scoring today.

The visitors had some early chances, and then at the other end, Eddie Nketiah tried to get in down the left wing, but Micky van de Ven slid in and pinched the ball off our man, sadly.

A few minutes later, Gabriel Jesus nipped in around the back of the visitors’ defence to meet a chipped ball in to him and he steered his angled effort towards the goal; goalie Guglielmo Vicario dived to his left and pushed the effort aside.

Destiny Udogie quite rightly received a yellow card for a bad tackle on Bukayo Saka, and immediately afterwards, our captain also received a yellow card from referee Rob Jones, after he appeared to have said something to him.

After the quarter of an hour mark, Eddie Nketiah got in down the right-hand side after a poor back pass from Destiny Udogie, but the ball was at a tight angle and he could not find a way past Guglielmo Vicario.

After twenty-seven minutes, we opened the scoring when Bukayo Saka moved into space from the right wing and hit a lovely shot that took a deflection off Cristian Romero and flew past the Spurs goalie and into the net.

Just after the restart, Bukayo Saka sent Fabio Vieira away down the left wing, and his cross to the back post was cleared by Micky van de Ven, and then, amazingly, James Maddison appeared to be asleep after receiving a pass from his own goalie on the edge of the penalty area; Gabriel Jesus just took the ball from him and fired a shot over the visitors’ crossbar from close range, when he really should have scored.

Bukayo Saka made some space for himself, jinking and turning the Spurs’ defence, before passing it to Martin Ødegaard, whose firm shot was picked up by the Spurs’ goalie.

Seven minutes before the break, Son Heung-min pulled back the ball, which was met in the middle of the penalty area by Brennan Johnson, who thought he had equalised the scores with a low shot, but David Raya dived across the goal to make an excellent one-handed save.

Four minutes before the break, the visitors equalised through a simple shot by Son Heung-min and although we brought the match to the visitors for the rest of the first half, we went into the break honours even.

Incredibly, Mikel Arteta made two changes at half-time; Jorginho and Kai Havertz for Declan Rice and Fábio Vieira (one injury, one tactical), and with the slight change of shape, the second half will be one mighty interesting encounter.

Five minutes after the restart, there was controversy when Cristian Romero clearly handballed, which was immediately referred to VAR; the referee Rob Jones went over to the pitchside monitor to check and gave the penalty to us, quite rightly so. Bukayo Saka made no mistake from the spot!

Less than a minute after the restart, Son Heung-min grabbed the equaliser after a silly mistake by Jorginho; Kai Havertz was booked shortly afterwards for a tackle on the Spurs goalscorer.

Both teams were actively now chasing every ball, looking to capitalise on every half-chance. Eddie Nketiah received a yellow card for a challenge on Guglielmo Vicario and a minute or so later, our hearts were in our mouths when Dejan Kulusevski found Son Heung-min behind our defence, but thankfully his shot hit the side netting.

Reiss Nelson replaced Gabriel Jesus with thirteen minutes of the match remaining, and despite some clever football, we did not appear to be able to unlock the Spurs defence.

A strong Reiss Nelson shot that led to a corner was headed away by Micky van de Ven for a second corner, which was cleared by the Spurs defence.

We were constantly pressurising the Spurs defence as the match entered the final phase, but Bukayo Saka went down to the ground after an awkward tackle, thankfully he managed to carry on playing. Just after it was announced that there was to be ten minutes injury time, a Bukayo Saka shot from distance was pushed away by the Spurs goalie for a corner which was again pushed away for yet another corner that turned out to be a wasted chance.

Bukayo Saka was replaced by Emile Smith-Rowe with four minutes left on the clock, and relentlessly we brought the match to Spurs, looking for more goals, but it was not to be as the match finished honours even.

No doubt that the neutrals viewing today’s match will have enjoyed it, but we must look at it as a game of missed chances and regrettable mistakes.

For us it was an afternoon of frustration, which was not helped by Declan Rice’s injury which caused him to miss the second half, and the glaring miss by Gabriel Jesus in the first half when it looked like it was easier for him to score than it was to not hit the target may well have cost us dear.

Many lessons learned today for everyone; let’s hope those lessons are heeded in the future.

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Brentford at the GTech Community Stadium on Wednesday, 27th September at 7.45pm (Carabao Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon