Premier League

TOTTENHAM 0
ARSENAL 1 (Gabriel 64)

ARSENAL earned early season bragging rights today (Sunday) after scraping a 1-0 win at rivals Tottenham courtesy of a second half header from Gabriel Magalhaes.

It was another disappointing outing for Ange Postecoglou’s misfiring Spurs side, and a solid away victory for an understrength Arsenal team.

Despite going toe-to-toe with their rivals for much of the 90, and creating a hefty slab of decent chances, all too often Tottenham lacked a decent final ball, or the killer instinct when the goal opened up for them.

Speaking after the match, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta said he was “super happy” with his players. He added: “We know what it means to our club, to our people, to win a London derby, and we have the power to try to make them very happy. So hopefully we have achieved that and that makes it very special.

“We’ve won three years in a row here. I don’t know when’s the last time that this has happened, so that’s a big thing. It’s a big week coming up and that’s going to give us a lot of energy and belief. Obviously, there are a lot of things to get better today. I don’t think we’ve done, especially with the ball, the simple things right at all. We will get better.”

In contrast, Postecoglou was markedly deflated in the post match press conference – struck by the similarity of the performance today and the defeat against Newcastle before the international break.

He was clear where his side needed to improve. “There were times when if we had some more belief in the final third, we could have made so much more of our play and our opportunities,” said the Spurs manager. “We lacked conviction in our execution to make the most of them.

“We had good opportunities. We created, but wasted our good play. It was similar to other games – there was not the conviction to take advantage of winning the ball back or getting into the final third.”

Postecoglou recognised the error by Cristian Romero that allowed Gabriel a free header for the goal, but said every player needed to learn from this defeat. He added: “We did well for the most part and switched off for one set-piece. It was always going to be tight, with fine margins: they took their key moment and we didn’t. We paid the price.”

Tottenham set off at a fair lick. James Maddison shot at the near post within minutes of the kick-off to force David Raya into a point blank stop. The Arsenal goalkeeper was required again moments later as he stretched to palm away a dangerous Dejan Kulusevski cross as white shirts lurked.

But the Gunners quality gave the game a sense that they were letting their rivals huff and puff and could step it up when they were ready.

It took around 15 minutes for the away side to trouble Guglielmo Vicario’s goal. Their best chance was a result of a tetchy set-to after Pedro Porro was fouled and Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber attempted to play on. From the resulting melee and re-start, Vicario was forced into a save from a Kai Havertz header that the forward could have done better with.

Spurs responded with a decent spell of pressure. Porro forced Raya to dive low to block a cross, and then the keeper was lobbed by a Dominic Solanke header. Raya had to scramble back quickly to push away the effort away.

Tottenham have, so far this term, created chances but are sorely lacking a finishing touch. With Solanke making his home debut, Postecoglou had, on paper, a focal point for his attack. While the striker worked hard and added an outlet, Solanke was unable to offer the edge required.

Instead, Spurs tried to find an answer in other ways. On 47 minutes, Micky van de Ven met Maddison’s cross with a glancing header, which Raya gathered, and then Kulusevski got in round the back but could not pinpoint a white shirt in the centre.

Both sides mixed a safety first approach with probing attacks when they felt they could get forward without committing too many bodies, and so it was not a surprise the breakthrough came from a set-piece. A break from the visitors saw a corner won on 64. Gabriel ghosted away from his marker and powered a header centrally home from the edge of the six-yard box.

Romero, who offers so much, has been at fault already this term for letting his man get away from him. It is happening often enough to be a worry – and today it cost Tottenham the game. His failings are mimicked by other regulars: each of the starting XI today, bar van de Ven and Kulusevski, had a game in which their limitations were clear.

While the Tottenham players expended plenty of effort, Arsenal had too much know-how to be genuinely threatened by a mix of unsubtle balls from deep – or lofted, ambitious crosses that the Spurs front line never got near to.

Postecoglou has a lot of work to do. Arteta can be pleased with how his understrength side dealt calmly with a furious, if uncoordinated, effort from their neighbours.

Tottenham: Vicario, Udogie, van de Ven, Romero, Porro, Maddison (Werner, 80), Bentancur (Sarr, 67), Kulusevski, Johnson (Odobert, 67), Son, Solanke
Substitutes not used: Forster, Dragusin, Gray, Bergvall, Spence, Davies

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Jorginho, Partey, Trossard (Jesus, 79), Martinelli (Sterling, 79), Saka (Nwaneri, 85), Havertz
Substitutes not used: Neto, Kiwior, Kabia, Kacurri, Lewis-Skelly, Edford Heaven