Relief for Arsenal as they soothe their week of angst at expense of a second-best Tottenham
Arsenal (2) 2 Solanke og 40, Trossard 44
Tottenham Hotspur (1) 1 Son 25
For the winners: Renewed hope and ambition. For the losers: Another long dark night of the soul.
Arguably the Gunners needed this one more, after a dismal week in which they all-but exited two cup competitions. There was a slight sense of things slipping away and of a season with the potential to unravel.
When Hueng-Min Son bagged a goal against the run of play for Spurs, the anxiety was ratcheted up still more. But two goals at the fag end of the that opening half - an own goal from Dominic Solanke and a firm low shot from Leandro Trossard - turned the game on its head.
Arsenal, by far the better team in the night, ought to have made it more comfortable, but they were worthy winners in a fixture where they seldom come unstuck. It is now only one win in 32 top flight games for Spurs at the home of their bitterest rivals.
Victory takes the Gunners to within four points of leaders Liverpool with another home fixture to come at the weekend against Aston Villa. They have played a game more but it gives them hope. For Tottenham, that sinking feeling in the league continues as they drift below half way.
Arsenal the team and Arsenal the fans whipped a storm in the opening quarter. Pinning back the rabbits in a headlight at the Clock End. Much of it was bluster but the urgency was palpable. Stung by the Man United FA Cup defeat. Galvanised by the sight of their biggest foes. The air was dense with murderous intent.
And yet it was Spurs who got the breakthrough. Solanke almost got on the end of a clever Djed Spence ball from the left and Dejan Kulusevski forced a save from David Raya. Then, Son volleyed in a deflected strike off William Saliba and the opening passage of play seemed irrelevant.
Arsenal badly needed something to change the voices deep within and it came with another assist from Nicolas Jover. Declan Rice's inswinging corner was met by the head of Gabriel - stooping at the far post - and his touch ricocheted in off Solanke. The Brazilian' goal from a corner settled this season's first North London derby at Spurs. Here he was at it again.
Goals from corners have threatened to dry up in the absence of the injured Bukayo Saka and his perfect deliveries from the flag but the set piece coach could claim another feather in his cap.
The turnaround was completed moments later when Trossard raced through onto a pass from Martin Odegaard and slanted a shot across Antonin Kinsky into the far corner that the keeper might have done better with.
Spurs, lest we forget, are suffering from major defensive shortcomings with four-fifths of the rearguard sidelined through injury. Their season has been plagued by inconsistency - some sublime wins inter-mingling with abject losses. Mitigation matters. But maybe less so in the NLD. They often seemed timid in the midst of the maelstrom.
Kai Havertz missed two chances to make the game more comfortable with headers that went wide - where have we heard that one before - and straight at Kinsky. An out of sorts Raheem Sterling also spurned a good chance. Then it was the turn of Rice and Odegaard (twice) to miss their cue.
It could have proved costly. Spurs were never great during a one-sided game but Pedro Porro struck the outside of a post from an angle in injury time to underline that it was perhaps much closer than it should have been.
But the double is Arsenal's - along with seven wins in the past nine meetings between the clubs.
Gunners: (4-3-3) Raya - Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly (Zinchenko 87) - Odegaard, Partey, Rice (Merino 87) - Sterling (Martinelli 61), Havertz, Trossard (Tierney 77)
Spurs: (4-3-3) Kinsky - Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence - Bissouma (Maddison h/t), Sarr (Johnson h/t), Bergvall - Kulusevski, Solanke, Son (Richarlison 79)
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