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In a high profile clash at the Emirates stadium, The Gunners took on their north London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur. Coming into this game, Spurs were high on confidence as they had beaten a strong Chelsea side 3-1 and followed it up with a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League.
On the other hand, The Gunners were cruising smoothly under Unai Emery and a victory over Spurs would make them title contenders. Tottenham went with a 4-1-3-2 formation with Son and Kane as strikers. Alli, Eriksen and Sissoko formed the attacking midfield of Spurs with Eric Dier shielding the defence.
Emery opted for a 3-4-3 formation with Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang and Iwobi up front. Right from the whistle, Momentum continued to shift between the sides as both played top-class attacking football throughout the 90 minutes.
Spurs went into the break leading 2-1 after goals from Dier and Kane but Arsenal staged a spirited comeback in the second half. In the end, Lucas Torreira scored his first goal in the Premier League and led the Gunners to a comfortable 4-2 victory. Here are the Hits and Flops from this memorable match.
Hits:
1. Lucas Torreira -
The main reason Torreira was signed by Arsenal during the summer was his ability to break open the games against high profile teams with attacking style of play.
Against the Spurs, He performed his job to perfection and left the Spurs midfielders breathless with his ferocious tackles and interceptions. He never let the Spurs midfielders to keep the ball for long as he pressed hard to win back the ball whenever it was lost.
Torreira was a bouncing ball of energy and never looked tired even for a second in spite of his tremendous work rate. After toiling hard for his team, He finally got the reward for his hard work as Aubameyang picked him out perfectly inside the penalty box and Torreira deposited the ball into the nets with calmness to give the Gunners a stunning victory.
This was a high-quality display of Uruguayan grit and determination from Torreira and the Gunners will be hoping he maintains this form as they look to seal a top-four finish this season.
2. Son Heung-Min-
Without any hint of doubt, Son was the best player for Spurs in this match and he showed his whole talent to the world once again only a week after a memorable performance against Chelsea.
Son is usually deployed as an attacking midfielder by Pochettino but against Arsenal, he was given full license to attack along with Harry Kane up front. Speed is an integral part of his game and he ran into the Arsenal defenders at breakneck speed and caused them to panic.
He was particularly potent from the left wing as Mustafi and Bellerin had no answer for his maddening pace. When the supply from the midfield reduced, he dropped deep to help them to regain possession of the ball. He almost scored a repeat of that stunner against Chelsea and won a crucial penalty for which Kane converted to give Spurs the early lead. On another day, this performance would have been enough for his team to win but unfortunately, the Gunners hit back in the second half and won the game.
3. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang-
Even when Arsenal were going through a lean patch in the second half of the previous season, Aubameyang was the shining light in a team that was filled with players low on confidence after continuous defeats. This season though he has taken his game to a different level altogether and just seems unstoppable at the moment.
His speed off the ball is well documented but he has slowly emerged into a clinical striker this season with impressive finishing skills. Ten minutes into the game, He took a penalty and gave Arsenal an early lead.
Later in the second half, He led Arsenal’s comeback with a brilliant outside the box shot that thudded into the top right corner of the net. He sealed the victory for Gunners with a pinpoint pass to Torreira in the 77th minute of the match. He now leads the Premier League goal-scoring chart with 10 goals from 14 games and looks set to extend his goal-scoring run.
Flops:
1.Serge Aurier-
Going into such a big match, It was obvious that the Spurs will miss Trippier and Aurier’s miserable performance will worry both Pochettino and the Spurs supporters.
Aurier just seemed unsure of his role in this team and was caught napping a few times too as he gave the ball away too easily in dangerous areas inside Tottenham’s defensive third. Traditionally, a right-back is expected to move forward whenever there is space in front of him and deliver long passes to the other wing or feed the midfielders with the ball constantly. But Aurier did neither of those things properly as he is not adept with crossing the ball and Torreira cleverly closed out his passing options and made him pass the ball sideways.
Also, Kolasinac’s pace troubled him a lot and Arsenal targeted the right side of Tottenham's defence for the majority of the match. This is a performance which he would like to forget as soon as possible and to remain in the starting 11 for the upcoming matches, he has to improve a lot of aspects of his game.
2. Jan Vertonghen-
After a two-month injury layoff, Vertonghen returned in style against Inter Milan on Wednesday with a brilliant defensive performance. Against Arsenal, Pochettino made a huge call and decided to drop Toby Alderweireld to accommodate Juan Foyth in the team.
But the decision backfired as Foyth and Vertonghen showed very little chemistry and there was a string of misplaced passes throughout the match. This was a nightmare performance from Vertonghen as he stretched his hand out in a silly manner during an Arsenal corner only 10 minutes into the game and gave away a penalty to the Gunners.
Vertonghen kept getting frustrated and made a few unnecessary tackles in the match. His distribution was also poor and he tried quite a few uncharacteristic skills when he got the ball and gifted the possession back to the Gunners. At the 85th minute, after another rash tackle on Lacazette, he was shown a second yellow card and was sent off.
