Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal: Early Rosicky Screamer Settles North London Derby
The second
minute strike came after an Arsenal counter attack, but Arsenal
withstood heavy Spurs pressure througout to pick up the three points
from White Hart Lane.
Tottenham went in to the game
welcoming the news that Younes Kaboul's red card suspension had been
overturned, with the French centre back chosen to start alongside Jan
Vertonghen. Kieran Gibbs was deemed fit enough to start after missing
the trip to Munich in the week, while Lukas Podolski was given the nod
to continue on the left side.
The match began in
sumptuous style, with Arsenal exploiting Tottenham's ever questionable
defence. After winning the ball back, Tomas Rosicky ran into space down
the right side, eventually finding the ball coming back to him after a
lay off on the right of the area. The Czech unleashed a thunderbolt of a
strike, leaving Hugo Lloris with absolutely no chance and giving the
Gunners a second minute lead.
Arsenal continued to
look dangerous coming forward, but slipped into a pattern with Tottenham
dominating territory for much of the opening period. Spurs, however,
looked susceptible to the counter attack, at times holding a high line
with very little pressure on the ball in front of them. In shades of
Benfica's opener on Thursday night, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain managed to
get in behind the Spurs defence and made his way towards goal. The
youngster attempted a dinked finish over Hugo Lloris, but saw the ball
bobble wide of the goal in a huge let off for Tottenham.
While
Arsenal looked dangerous, it was Tottenham bossing it for large parts
of the half without making too many clear cut openings. Emmanuel
Adebayor was targeted with over the top passes throughout, and while he
was taking up good positions, the ball would not fall for him or any of
his team mates.
In typical derby style the tackles
began to fly in, with a Bacary Sagna lunge on Danny Rose causing the
left back to spectacularly front somersault. The game was turning to an
end to end encounter, but still without clear opportunities on goal.
Alex
Oxlade-Chamberlain continued to look dangerous, but perhaps wasted the
two best chances of the half with quite poor finishes and the encounter
ended 1-0 at the break after Rosicky's screamer.
This
thoroughly entertaining game sprung back in to life right after half
time, with Tottenham now beginning to make some clear cut opportunities.
Three minutes in, mayhem in the Arsenal box resulted in Nacer Chadli
rounding Wojciech Szczesny and jinking around in the box, only to fire a
shot at Per Mertesacker from five yards out with a chance gone begging.
Minutes later they threatened again, with Arsenal even more pinned
back.
Andros Townsend was played in down the right
hand side of the penalty area, launching a cross into the six yard box
that Chadli attempted to flick at goal, but the poor connection saw the
ball dribble agonisingly wide from a Spurs perspective. Arsenal were on
the ropes for the first ten minutes of the half, but managed to retain
more control in the following minutes with the game settling down
slightly.
An Arsenal free kick from deep in the 78th
minute fell to the feet of Per Mertesacker with a split second opening,
and a strike from the German defender tested the reflexes of Hugo
Lloris, who got down superbly to deny a second with a strong right
hand.
Time was whittling away for Spurs, who found it
far more difficult to break down their North London rivals in the
closing stages. A visibly frustrated Tim Sherwood made his presence
known from the touchline throughout, but Spurs were condemned to their
third straight defeat under his stewardship as Arsenal kept their title
ambitions alive.
Tottenham (4-5-1): Lloris; Naughton,
Kaboul, Vertonghen, Rose; Townsend, Bentaleb, Sandro (Paulinho 68),
Eriksen (Soldado 82), Chadli (Sigurdsson 68); Adebayor.
Arsenal
(4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Sagna, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gibbs; Arteta,
Rosicky (Flamini 68); Oxlade-Chamberlain (Vermaelen 85), Podolski
(Monreal 77), Cazorla; Giroud.
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