Tottenham Hotspur – Arsenal: Kai Completes Capital Conquest (2-3)

Arsenal’s accelerator has gained its groove at the moment when the wheels threatened to fall off their ride to the summit. This trip to Tottenham was not one of their cleanest or most controlled affair, but a welcome edge of ruthlessness registered three points in the standings. The capital city must submit to the firepower of the league leaders, who have had the last laugh in London.

Tactical analysis and match report by Emmanuel Adeyemi-Abere.

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The passion of rivalry needs no ignition, but the Premier League prize is the ultimate fuel. Derby day blues on the road have already derailed a title charge once this week. Would lightning strike twice?

Spurs strutted their stuff at the Emirates in a 2-2 draw, still sitting pretty at the top of the table at the end of October. That honeymoon period has long passed. It is another year (the sixteenth in a row) that the club cannot claim to have added to its trophy cabinet while their ideal aspirations for the continent are at risk. On both fronts, their fellow North Londoners could be cause for consternation.

Arsenal’s April has been the stuff of nightmares for its fanbase in the last two years. Defeats to Aston Villa and Bayern Munich harked back to the horror of the past but the glitch seems not to be terminal. Two triumphs, seven goals scored, and none conceded against Wolves and Chelsea have marked a return to normalcy. Could the camp contain the emotions to continue their pursuit of the league title?

Mikel Arteta deemed he need not revise the selection that smashed Chelsea. Takehiro Tomiyasu was on the left of the back four. Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, and William Saliba occupied the other three places. Thomas Partey sat at the base of midfield; Declan Rice worked on the left of the trident, and Martin Ødegaard filled his usual slot on the right. Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka flanked Kai Havertz, who was keen to endear himself to the support with another goal against a London rival.

Spurs had not been in action for a little over two weeks. Their manager, Ange Postecoglou, pushed for a response to the 4-0 rout away at Newcastle United. He pulled out Yves Bissouma in the middle of the park, installing Pierre-Emile Højbjerg next to Rodrigo Bentancur. Destiny Udogie is out of action for the rest of the season following surgery on a thigh injury. Ben Davies stepped in for him as the left back. Son Heung-min stayed as a central forward and Dejan Kulusevski came in for Brennan Johnson.

Clunky circulation caps control

The strain of the schedule has been catching up with Arteta’s men and their ability to contain outfits with a controlled approach. Their liability to unforced errors has been a recent issue— even in their last two matches. Here, pangs of nerves stifled their showing on the ball during the opening phase. 

Long balls from Raya to Havertz were not particularly profitable, typically taken in from white shirts. However, Saka showed himself to be an outlet against the high line with direct access out of the back. It was a welcome relief in a period where slower, shorter routes through the thirds were not working.

White, Ødegaard, and Saka attempted to triangulate with their typical rotations on the right flank. Whether it was the direction of the passing or weighting of set layoffs, the three could not connect as seamlessly as is the norm. Generally, the standard of ball handling is at a lower level on the left edge of the pitch, where plays through pressure produced turnovers. Even that pattern does not excuse two instances of dawdling in possession from Trossard deep in his half of the field in the first 20 minutes.

11^th minute: offensive sequence from Arsenal. Rice had moved onto the last line, then started to drop away from Pedro Porro while the outside access to Trossard was available. Gabriel spun outward to open up that passing lane, expecting Rice to show in the pocket between Kulusevski and Bentancur. However, his teammate was rotating wider, drawing Bentancur along, so Tomiyasu was free. He was not in a solid stance to receive, going back into pressure from Kulusevski to turn over the possession.

Romero rallies the troops

These ruptures were one reason  Spurs set their camp higher up the field than in the reverse fixture. In that clash, the hosts had also engaged in an aggressive high press. The wingers went narrow with the fullbacks in a diamond structure that forced their rivals to commit numbers deep to the consolidation of the ball. Indeed, a phase of high pressure turned into a transition from the right where Rice nearly picked out Havertz at the far post. Højbjerg headed the delivery from the ensuing corner into his net,

However, the habitual stance in this situation was a lower line. Arsenal deployed a 4-4-2 block in which Ødegaard and Havertz were the first line of pressure. These layouts have been a kryptonite for Spurs. Their relative lack of creativity and patience can hurt not only their efforts in the final third but also amplify the risk at the back on the break. Indeed, the compact nature of this structure as well as the dueling dominance of the central defenders against Son often turned the offense to the outside.

33^rd minute: offensive sequence from Spurs. Højbjerg had sprayed a stray pass to Micky van de Ven, who ran almost to the sideline to control possession. So once he finds Johnson, the winger is under immediate pressure. Saliba tracks the underlapping Davies, and Johnson chooses to clip the ball around the corner into the path of Son to combine, setting off on a diagonal sprint. Partey has to reset his positioning deeper in support of Gabriel, but Son cannot contain the pressure to act as a link.

In that regard, Kulusevski had more poise to retain the ball than Werner, who would bow out with a muscle injury in the 31st minute. Another significant element of the work on the right was Cristian Romero. His willingness to break lines caught cold red shirts and added impulse to the offense. Moreover, he rose above Ødegaard and Partey from two set-pieces in a matter of minutes. Neither time did he grab the goal he deserved, missing the target completely, and then slamming the post.

Spurs sucker punched

The Spurs siege returned to the right. James Maddison roamed to demand direct service, flinging a flying ball to Kulusevski. The winger linked up with Porro, working his way inside, and hit the floor after contacting Trossard. The referee awarded no penalty, and Rice robbed possession off Maddison. Their opponents trailed in the transition. Saka swept the ball to Havertz, who returned it to the winger over the scrambling defense. He chopped inside Davies and buried the ball into the bottom left corner.

Bukayo brilliance ✨ pic.twitter.com/2G9DslAyb6

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 28, 2024

Arsenal already cashed in on two of the hosts’ habitual frailties to harbor a two goal lead thanks to a transition and a set-piece. A second corner in the 37th minute would seemingly kill the clash. In the prelude, Havertz had juggled the ball around Romero and lifted it over Højbjerg to access Ødegaard. Havertz hovered at the far post from the setup, running free from Kulusevski, who had bumped into Davies to steer a free headed effort past Guglielmo Vicario. Surely the visitors were home and dry?

At the start of the second half, Arsenal ascended into the realm of control that has typified their performances in the new year. Saka again played his part. His uncanny knack of using his body to protect the ball and roll inside markers relieved stress on the right wing. White began rotating with greater frequency on the overlap, Partey slotted deeper on that side of the field, and this base camp was the foundation to find forward threats on the left. A humiliation appeared to be on the horizon.

59^th minute: offensive sequence from Arsenal. Maddison and Son lock onto Saliba and Gabriel while Pape Matar Sarr picks up Rice in the central pivot position. Johnson, wary of White on the outside, jumps to Partey only once the midfielder receives the ball. The space and time in the deep right channel allows Partey to disguise his intention to shift inside the winger, who tackles his opposite man. Rice reacts quickest to this foul, releasing the right sided triangle to rotate in the final third.

Raya revitalizes the rivalry

Arsenal had gone unscathed through the first hour and expected to manage their way through the final third of the contest. Friendly fire would proceed to unravel that objective. Saliba sent the ball to David Raya, and the central defenders split in preparation to play out from the back. The goalkeeper was willing to angle a pass between converging white shirts, but he fumbled his execution. Romero rolled an effort to his right, exploiting the error. Could Spurs stay strong and summon the spirit of a revival?

Richarlison had replaced Maddison, operating as the fixed point in the middle of the offense, and Son shifted to the left wing. Johnson stuck to the right flank, and Kulusevski was on his inside as the most advanced midfielder. Meanwhile, Gabriel Martinelli had entered the fray as a player who likes to go beyond the last line into open space. Ange was all in and depended on van de Ven to put out fires. It was his miraculous powers of recovery that allowed the deficit to stay within two for such a long time.

66^th minute: defensive transition from Spurs. Romero had committed to crashing the penalty area in the latter stages of the game. Here, Gabriel had headed clear Porro’s cross and Havertz reached the rebound in the air before Sarr, flicking it on for Martinelli to chase. This development forces van de Ven to cover across against the dribbling of the winger, whom he outmaneuvers on the halfway line.

As time elapsed, Arsenal sank deeper. The stadium sounded even more vociferously in support of Spurs at the sight of another blunder. Rice relieved pressure with an intervention on the edge of the area. However, he gave away a penalty, thrashing his boot into Davies. Son, who had scored six times against Arsenal in old episodes of the derby, stood at the spot. He converted from twelve yards in the 87th minute, hauling the hosts to within one goal of an equalizer. But an unnecessarily excitable ending did not bring complete collapse. Jakub Kiwior sat in a back five to see out the success.

Takeaways

Spurs have dropped points across four of their last six showings in the Premier League. It is another afternoon of disappointment at the failure to capitalize on the failings of Aston Villa in the hunt for the top four. However, Ange’s explicit goal has been about having a platform for success rather than just a return to the Champions League. In that sense, a desire for the ball and openness to risk signals a sizeable shift from the past, but summer signings and small details will take them to the next level.

It is the first time in 36 years that Arsenal have won two away North London derbies in a row in the league. Looseness on the ball in the first half and messy mistakes meant this display was not nearly as effortless as the outing at the start of 2023. Yet, it is that type of resilience to record results against momentum that the elite require. The victory ensures the top spot in the table is still theirs by a single point after Manchester City’s success at Nottingham Forest. This title race looks set to go to the death.

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