In an awesome afternoon of football, Arsenal came from behind (having taken the lead) to beat Spurs 4-2.
This game was full-on end-to-end intensity from the first whistle to the last. It was utterly captivating and almost certainly the game of the season. Here are nine moments that gave the game the drive it did.
Jan Vertonghen’s handball (and red card)
As hard as it may be to accept, there are many criticisms of Mauricio Pochettino as a coach. Not a lot of them make sense, mind you, but one that isn’t often brought up is the way he has treated Toby Alderweireld amid the Belgian playing hardball over a new contract.
Anyway, all that to say he dropped Alderweireld for the derby and brought Juan Foyth back into the fold. That meant that Jan Vertonghen, only recently back from injury, was playing his second game in four days.
That always seemed risky and it backfired 10 minutes into the game when Vertonghen’s nonsensical header gave a roaring Arsenal start the goal it deserved. Had the Belgian kept his hands under control it’s likely Arsenal may never have found a way through (in the first half, anyway). And had he kept his legs under control he would’t have slid into Alexandre Lacazette’s ankle with five minutes left, getting sent off and killing off Spurs’ slim hopes of a comeback.
The fight
With the score at 1-0, a fight broke out by the touchline when Stephan Lichtsteiner appeared to take exception to Eric Dier’s celebration. Then other Spurs players took exception to his exception. And a fight, well, a “fight” broke out. There was some shoving, some shouting, players ran from the dugouts to get involved. You could see how much it mattered to both sets of players; and at least for the next 10 minutes the occasion looked to be getting the better of them.
Mike Dean Mike Deaning
Mike Dean is a referee who is probably having mixed feelings about the impending introduction of VAR. On the one hand, his ability to make ridiculous decisions such as awarding Spurs a penalty for the most minimal of contacts between Rob Holding and Heung-min Son (if there was any contact at all) will be severely undermined. But on the other hand, the camera will linger on him for a much greater amount of time as he saunters over to the TV to have a watch. And the gestures, oh, the gestures!
Harry Kane’s penalty
Did anyone really think Harry Kane was going to miss the penalty? The goal made him the joint-top goalscorer in North London Derby history, but man oh man, Kane hit that ball like it owed him money. Just absolutely hammered the life out of the thing and sent it flying into the back of the net. One worries that had Bernd Leno actually dove the right way he’d have had his wrists snapped in two.
Emery’s half-time switches
1-2 down at half-time, Unai Emery made some big moves. He took off Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan (neither of whom had been bad, Iwobi in particular had been really good) and brought on Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette. These two gave the front three a whole new dimension, and it wasn’t a surprise that Ramsey played a huge part in two of the three goals Arsenal scored to turn it around, and Lacazette scored the killer 3-2 goal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s thunderstrike
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is a bit of a tap-in merchant. That’s not to say he’s rubbish; getting all those tap-ins takes real skill in terms of positioning and movement, but he doesn’t tend to score worldies wait hang on what… Aaron Ramsey played a slow rolling pass to him on the edge of the box and he absolutely pelted it first-hand, firing the ball out of his feet like it was shot out of a cannon and curling it into the back of the net? Oh, ok. Nevermind then. Hats off to Pierre.
Emery’s full-back feast
Unai Emery always does one thing without fail: he turns his full=backs into phenoms. He did it at Valencia when he turned Jordi Alba and even Jeremy Mathieu into top-tier talents; earning Alba a move to Barcelona off the back of his coaching. Whilst at Sevilla he oversaw the emergence of Sergio Escudero, turned Aleix Vidal into a hurricane worthy of playing for Barcelona, and got Coke to score twice in a Europa League Final. Now he’s at Arsenal, is anyone surprised that Sead Kolasinac (when fit) has looked good and Héctor Bellerin has been downright delightful? The Catalan has been roaring up and down the right-flank for Arsenal looking like a Millennial Maicon.
The up and (mostly) down of Eric Dier
Eric Dier scored a goal. That’s a good thing Eric Dier did today. Sure it was a weak near-post header only possible because of terrible defending and even worse goalkeeping, but he scored a goal. Everything else Dier did was bad. He didn’t use the ball well (no surprise there) and wasn’t a good roadblock to stop Arsenal. His lax defending allowed Alexandre Lacazette’s shot to ricochet off his leg and into the back of the net and he was all at sea for Arsenal’s fourth goal, too.
Just… everything about Lucas Torreira
When Lucas Torreira signed for Arsenal, it was barely believable. Here was a dogged tenacious defensive midfielder who could pass the ball; basically a player every side in the top six needed, yet Arsenal got him for a fair price and uncontested.
Gary Neville called him a “terrier” today and considering José Mourinho is on record as lamenting the lack of “mad dogs” in his Manchester United side, you really have to commend Arsenal for snagging him. Emery took his time bedding Torreira in, too, which paid dividends this afternoon.
Torreira was resplendent in the derby. Charging about midfield in a focused and directed way, he shut down countless Spurs attacks with his tough tackling. Snapping into challenges but also timing them perfectly. He was no hatchet man, he was a ball-winning beast.
Then, with the score at 3-2, he inexplicably found himself in attack. He turned well and ran away from Eric Dier, receiving a pass from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before steadying himself and thundering home a fourth Arsenal goal.
Torreira had been stopping Spurs’ comeback in midfield and now he deaded it in the box as well. The tone-setting midfield mastermind that Arsenal have waited a decade for is finally here.
The post 9 unbelievable moments to leave anyone who missed Arsenal 4-2 Spurs green with envy appeared first on Squawka News.
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