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At the end of what was a very electric display of both football and game spirit, Arsenal beat North London rivals Tottenham in a hotly contested tie at the Emirates stadium. Unai Emery's men put up a clinical display, especially in the second half, to come in from a goal deficit to overcome Spurs by a scoreline of 4-2. The local rivals played out a heated derby that saw the Gunners moving ahead of their neighbours into the Premier League top-four.
Aubameyang started the goal-fest by scoring off the spot for Arsenal early on in the game, but Eric Dier's header off a free-kick and a subsequently converted penalty by Harry Kane soon tilted the balance to the Spurs' side. The scoreline stayed 2-1 in favour of Tottenham as both sides vacated the pitch for half-time.
Later on in the second half, quickfire goals from Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, with Lucas Torreira scoring close to the end, settled the contest 4-2 in favour of Arsenal. The win helped them jump above Spurs towards the fourth place, with 30 points from 14 games, edging the latter out by means of goal difference.
Here are the main talking points from the game that concluded:
#1 Emery made the right choices
As the match started, Tottenham's 4-1-2-1-2 formation held well against Arsenal's initial setup of 3-4-3, which was evident from how likes of Son and Kane made a few good runs into the attacking third. It was such a move that also resulted in Son being tackled in the foot by Holding, which in turn made referee Mike Dean point to spot, from where Kane brought the visitors a goal lead, as they advanced into the second half.
With Arsenal now trailing as opposed to their initial status, manager Unai Emery made some substitutions, such as Aaron Ramsey coming in for Mkhitaryan and Alexandre Lacazette turning up in Alex Iwobi's place. With Ramsey choosing to stick behind Lacazette and Aubameyang, the formation shifted to 3-4-1-2, and Arsenal started connecting better, as proven by the Gabonese's goal that set the game's scales at level for a second time.
The progress completed successfully when an injured Mustafi was taken out, with midfielder Guendouzi replacing him. The formation now changed to 4-1-2-1-2, and suddenly Pochettino's men looked lost as Arsenal used that to their advantage to score two more goals and gather the win.
Emery is clearly not a man to be trifled with, as he proves with each game these days.
#2 Game of fouls
It was a real derby-day atmosphere at the Emirates stadium, with flares lightening up as easily as red phosphorus in contact with the atmosphere. The game saw a total 32 fouls in total - 15 from Arsenal and 17 from Spurs. Those also included 3 yellow card fouls from the former and 4 from latter, with Vertonghen's late red-card coming as an added extension to Spurs' rough game.
Things really turned bad several times between the game. It started when Eric Dier chose to celebrate his goal in front of the Arsenal faithful, with a "shush" celebration. It did not go lightly with the Gunners' bench as Aaron Ramsey and co. took to the corner flags to start a tussle between themselves and some Spurs players, including Dier and Dele Alli.
A similar but a more toned-down affair happened after Arsenal's third goal as well, when Harry Winks, famously known to be a Tottenham fanboy since his childhood, tried to rub his wounds on Granit Xhaka. A culmination of all these events was Vertonghen's first ever red card in the history of his PL career.
#3 Lucas Torreira and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang: Emery's main men
Though Arsenal's win was largely due to the way they functioned together as a team, two men can be named as chiefly responsible for the result, and they are Aubameyang and Torreira.
Aubameyang netted a penalty in the first few minutes of the game to give his side the lead and then scored a banger in the second half to level scores after Spurs got in front with two goals in the first half.
Torreira did not have much of a gain in the first half, but he will be remembered for the way he tried to maintain possession and got the back through a spectacular crouching effort after he gave it away unwittingly.
The Uruguayan's bigger contributions came in the second half, when his duty revolved around supplying the ball to either Ramsey or Aubameyang, with the both of whom Torreira had a great sync going on. All his efforts were rewarded in the end when he deservedly scored that final goal which surely put Arsenal in the box-seat for the win at Emirates.
He also went home with the match-ball. This was Torreira's third match-ball in the last four PL outings for Arsenal.
#4 The Spurs' midfield conundrum
Despite enjoying a lead with just 45 minutes more to go, Pochettino's men conceded three goals in the second half, which cost them not only a win but also an important fourth place in the league standings.
It was a night when the Spurs really failed to connect as a team. Both their goals came from set pieces which they couldn't add on to later, as they weren't able to gain an advantage from open play. Poor passing and lack of possession aggravated the problem further, as the midfield section involving Dier, Alli, Christian Eriksen and Moussa Sissoko looked starving for inspiration.
The 4-1-2-1-2 formation was ideally meant to utilise the gaps in Arsenal's initial 3-4-3 and thereby help Son and Kane move forward, while Eriksen, Sissoko and Alli kept the supply line well-fed. Up until this, things worked but when Emery made changes in his squad, Pochettinho failed to catch up.
The system which was supposed to take an advantage of the opponents' gaps, started filling with gaps instead, as the players could no longer complete passes or make runs with proper support.
#5 Several new records made
The North London derby was the 183rd of its kind, ever since both sides first locked horns in the late nineteenth century. Several new numbers were made during the game:
1. This was the first time in 16 years, that both PL sides in a game conceded penalties in the first half.
2. Arsenal's 11-match unbeaten streak in PL 2018-2019 extended to 12, and their 18-match unbeaten streak across competitions extended to 19 by the end of the game.
3. Spurs' 6-match winning run across all competitions ended.
4. Harry Kane continues to score in London Derbies. His tally is now eight goals in eight games, scoring in every North London Derby in the Premier League that he has featured in, except this same fixture last season.
5. Emery came face-to-face with Pochettino for the first time since April 2012, when the Argentinian's Espanyol had won 4-0 against Emery's Valencia. As we all know, Emery returned the favour this time.
6. This was the first time since 1996 (Arsene Wenger) and third time overall, that an Arsenal manager won his first North-London derby.
7. This was the first time since September 2007, that Arsenal has won a PL North London derby after trailing at half-time.
8. Aubameyang scored tonight, with his ninth and tenth successive shot on target, ever since West Ham's Lukasz Fabianski saved a shot of his in August 2018. He also became the first to score 10 Premier League goals this season.
9. Tottenham has lost more points from being in winning positions to Arsenal, than any other team against any competition in PL history (40).
10. Lucas Torreira is the fourth Arsenal man to score his debut PL goal in a North London derby, after Nicklas Bendtner, Mikael Silvestre, Per Mertesacker.
11. This was Jan Vertonghen's first ever PL red card, coming in his 195th appearance across seasons.
