LONDON'S CALLING

Sebastian Zucchet

On Saturday we saw the 192nd installment of one of Britain's fiercest football rivalries, the “North London Derby” between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

A packed out Emirates stadium sang a rousing rendition of “Angel’s (North London Forever)” by Louis Dunford before kickoff to set the tone for the match. Arsenal dominated on the ball for the first twenty minutes of the match, and Gabriel Martinelli came so close to an opener when his shot deflected off a Spurs body and hit the post.

But the key moment in the first half was when Bukayo Saka picked up the ball in the final third just outside the area, where he played a short pass to Ben White who sent it over Thomas Partey’s way, where Partey hit it first time and the ball shot into the top corner of the net like it came out of the canon on the Arsenal logo, to send the stadium into euphoria.

Spurs were able to grow into the match after the Partey goal, and eleven minutes later, sloppy defending from Arsenal led to Granit Xhaka giving the ball away in the penalty area. Richarlison picked it up and in came a reckless challenge from Gabriel which led to a Tottenham penalty. Harry Kane converted from the spot which he does so well and made it 1-1. Both teams traded chances after that but went into halftime even, and you could feel the tension in the stadium.

Arsenal started the second half just as they did the first half, applying pressure onto Spurs. In the 49th minute, Bukayo Saka once again had the ball just outside the area, and made a great move to work his way into the box for a shot on target, where Hugo Lloris deflected the rebound onto his own defender Cristian Romero, where Gabriel Jesus was right there to poach the ball and tap it into the back of the net to hand Arsenal a 2-1 lead. Poor communication and defending from Spurs off the jump was only the beginning of their troubles.

Just after the hour mark, as Arsenal were collecting the ball in their own half to build up play, Gabriel Martinelli attempted to spin away from Emerson Royal, but Royal stamped on the side of his ankle studs up, leaving the referee with no choice but to give him a straight red card. Spurs struggled to cope for the rest of the game with ten men, and only five minutes after the sending off, Granit Xhaka made it 3-1 to Arsenal.

A great give and go between Xhaka and Martinelli on the edge of the box put Xhaka into space where he slotted the ball into the bottom corner. After that Antonio Conte made very defensive changes, and Arsenal would dominate to see the match out. Arsenal 3-1 winners on the day. Tottenham suffer their first league loss of the season.

Until January at least, North London is red and Arsenal sit atop the Premier League with 21 points from eight games.