Superb Arsenal crush sorry Spurs
Arsenal 4 Tottenham Hotspur 2
Arsenal rampaged to victory this afternoon in a breathless performance against Tottenham at the Emirates.
The Gunners were superb throughout, bar a 10-minute spell towards the end of the first half.
Arsenal took the lead early on when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang cooly dispatched a penalty won following a mindless handball from Jan Vertonghen from a Gunners corner.
The home side should have been further ahead following some scintillating play in the lunchtime kick-off, but the game turned on its head when Eric Dier headed in a free kick from the left.
Within a couple of minutes Tottenham were ahead virtue of a Harry Kane penalty when referee Mike Dean adjudged Heung-min Son to have been fouled by Rob Holding.
Replays showed that Son had blatantly dived and Holding had not in fact got a touch on the South Korean.
But this Arsenal side have a resilience and determination others have lacked in recent years, and blew Tottenham away in a second-half performance worthy of winning any game.
First Aubameyang, playing maybe his best game in an Arsenal shirt, curled in a wicked shot from 25 years, before substitute Alexandre Lacazette put the hosts ahead from similar range.
With 10 minutes left Lucas Torreira, the midfield dynamo the Gunners have been yearning for for 15 years, finished off yet another man-of-the-match display with a goal which finished off Spurs.
The away side’s afternoon got worse when Vertonghen’s rash challenge on Lacazette brought him a second yellow card - and therefore a dismissal. He was lucky it was not a straight red as his studs caught the Frenchman as he was clean through.
So with this victory Arsenal silenced a few more doubters. What was great about this win for the Gunners was not simply the three points, but more the way those points were won.
When Dier scored Spurs’ first goal and goaded the home fans today, the Arsenal substitutes came together to show they were far from happy about it, to say the least.
Arsenal don’t like losing to Spurs. Today they didn’t. They completely overwhelmed them. And they have a team who know what it means to beat them.
Arsenal move above Spurs in the table, and Unai Emery’s revolution continues.
As the Gooners sang again, ‘we’ve got our Arsenal back’.
