Arsenal turn to dark arts and have their prayers answered
Arteta’s side stay top despite Spurs rallying from 3-0 down City trail by point with game in hand after beating Forest
Arsenal turned to God and the dark arts to keep their title hopes alive during a thrilling victory in the north London derby.
Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, admitted that he resorted to prayer in the final moments of his side’s breathless win at Tottenham, as his team teetered on the brink of throwing away a three-goal lead.
Those desperate stoppagetime minutes came after an impressive first-half flourish from the visitors, who struck twice from corners. In the leadup to the first of those, an own goal by Pierre-emile Hojbjerg, Ben White tried to undo one of Guglielmo Vicario’s gloves, before using all of his cunning to nudge the goalkeeper into his own net as Kai Havertz made it 3-0.
Arsenal’s victory means they maintained the pressure on title rivals Manchester
City, who won 2-0 at Nottingham Forest. Arsenal remain a point clear of City at the top, although Pep Guardiola’s side have a game in hand.
“I was praying,” Arteta (left) said of those fraught last few minutes, after a mistake by goalkeeper David Raya had allowed Spurs back into the game. “There were so many Spurs players in the box. It was a really emotional game. A very tough place to come, an incredible atmosphere and a great team to play against. “Three-nil up, you’re in control of the game, you come in the second half and we’re dominating the game and creating chances, then an individual error happens that clicks something. It puts a wrong message in your brain.
“We had to dig in and suffer and react. I’m very pleased with the way the team did it.”
Arteta has warned City that his players will fight until the very end of this campaign, and hope that Guardiola’s team slip up in their remaining fixtures.
“One hundred per cent,” Arteta said when asked if his players would continue the fight until the death. “I have seen that the whole season. They give me the reason to believe that every single day. We are right on it. The motivation for what is ahead is beautiful. We are all expecting that they are going to have a real go.”
Speaking after his team’s victory at the City Ground, secured by goals from Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland, Guardiola said: “I would have preferred Arsenal to lose but we cannot control what they do. There are four games left and nobody has lost any points. We know exactly what we’re going to do.”
Arsenal next play Bournemouth before a trip to face Manchester United and a final-day meeting with Everton. City’s remaining league matches are against Wolves, Fulham, Spurs and West Ham.
Tottenham 2 Romero 64, Son 87 pen
Arsenal 3 Hojbjerg 15 og, Saka 27, Havertz 38
By the end, it almost felt like Arsenal needed an “in-game choke” like this to prove that they are chokers no more.
Or so they will hope, because they so nearly threw away their Premier League title hopes. It would have been as brutal and sudden as that.
At the final whistle, they had held on for another famous win and rushed to their joyous fans as they celebrated, with the PA announcer inside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium feeling compelled to turn up the volume to try to drown out the noise.
Back-to-back victories at the home of your noisiest neighbours, for the first time in 36 years, are not to be taken lightly and, despite the scare, Arsenal fully know the importance of this victory.
They found a way and, significantly, it was not just the points that were on the mind of Bukayo Saka, who scored to become the first Arsenal player to do so both home and away against Spurs in the league in the same season since Ian Wright in 1993-94.
“Maybe last season, that could have ended in a draw, and we showed we have the experience,” Saka argued as Arsenal contrived to allow a commanding 3-0 advantage to be reduced to 3-2 with three minutes plus six minutes of added time to play.
Saka’s words revealed that the accusation of chokers – levelled against Arsenal last season – is in their minds. There were clear parallels to be drawn with last year, when Mikel Areta’s side raced into two-goal leads away to Liverpool and West Ham United and ended up drawing both times.
On this occasion, their advantage was greater, but when Son Heungmin scored from the penalty spot, the fear was just the same. Only days after the 20th anniversary of when Arsenal won the league at White Hart Lane, their last title triumph, they were in danger of losing it at Spurs’ stadium.
That game also finished in a 2-2 draw as Spurs came from 2-0 down, but it was not enough to prevent Arsenal being crowned champions. This time, they held Spurs off and, actually, in the nine minutes after Son’s goal they ended up seeing out the game pretty comfortably, which will have encouraged Arteta.
It was two of Arsenal’s additions last summer – who were, therefore, not involved in the previous title challenge – who were to blame for Spurs’ goals. Goalkeeper David Raya was horrendously at fault for the first, as he miscued a chipped pass, sending it straight to Cristian Romero, who beat him from the edge of the penalty area.
Then Declan Rice made a clumsy attempted clearance and volleyed Ben Davies, rather than the ball. Referee Michael Oliver initially missed it and awarded only the spot kick after being urged to check the pitchside monitor by video official Jarred Gillett.
Before the game, Arteta revealed he had spoken to Arsene Wenger about the challenges of a title race, with the obvious conclusion: it is simply about finding a way to win at this crucial time of the campaign.
Arsenal did that, and in doing so damaged Spurs’ hopes of securing a top-four place and, with it, Champions League football. Finding the way to win here was simple: prey on the obvious weaknesses of a rival.
Arsenal did not even need the ball that often to do so. They struck three times in the first half with just 28.8 per cent of possession, as they depended on set-pieces and counter-attacks – two areas of the game where Spurs are at their most vulnerable. It is a curiosity for their head coach, Ange Postecoglou, that he possesses two of the most admired centre-halves in the league in Romero and Micky van de Ven, but does not have the expected defensive organisation.
The Arsenal goals were shocking to concede. It was unfortunate that Pierre-emile Hojbjerg headed a corner into his own net, but he was not really under the kind of pressure to make such a mistake.
Spurs then naively overcommitted as they were cut through, the impressive Kai Havertz quickly switching play to find Saka, who was suddenly one-on-one with Ben Davies. There would be only one outcome, as Saka claimed his 15th league goal of the season; the best return of his career.
For Spurs, the third was even worse as Havertz was allowed to head home from just three yards out from another corner. Where did his marker Dejan Kulusevski go? Why did goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario stay rooted to his line to reopen the debate over whether he dominates his area enough?
Yes, at 1-0 Romero headed against a post from close range. And, yes, Van de Ven had an effort ruled out for a tight offside call, after a VAR check, when it was the same score. But Spurs were the architects of their own downfall.
That is not to criticise Arsenal. They can only exploit their opponents’ errors and did so ruthlessly, and may have prevented any kind of comeback had Saka’s volley not been superbly turned away by Vicario with his legs.
But they did let Spurs back in and, with three games to go, and presumably needing to win them all, that has to be a concern. Where there is encouragement is that they did not capitulate. Raya and Rice brushed aside their own errors to make key contributions in those last few minutes.
It may not be enough. But it certainly helped to dispel that charge of being chokers.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-2-3-1) Vicario 6; Porro 5, Romero 7, Van de Ven 7, Davies 6 (Lo Celso 88); Bentancur 5 (Sarr 46), Hojbjerg 5 (Bissouma 64); Kulusevski 6, Maddison 6 (Richarlison 64), Werner 6 (Johnson 31); Son 7. Subs Austin
(g), Dragusin, Gil, Royal. Booked Kulusevski, Davies. Arsenal (4-3-3) Raya 6; White 6, Saliba 7, Gabriel 7, Tomiyasu 6; Odegaard 7 (Kiwior 89), Partey 7 Rice 7; Saka 8 Havertz 9 Trossard 6 (Martinelli 63). Subs Ramsdale (g), Jesus, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Jorginho, Vieira, Zinchenko. Booked Partey.
Referee Michael Oliver (Northumberland). Att 61,554.