Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal: 15 September 2024
I have to be honest, I have never really enjoyed watching the North London Derby. The stress of this game is real, knowing that the result will dictate my mood for weeks to come and a loss will lead to endless memes and grief in various group chats. Thankfully, over the last few years, things have changed in North London. St Totteringham’s day has once again become an end of season formality and the NLD bragging rights have found themselves heading home with Arsenal the last three times Spurs have played host to this fixture.
Pictured above: Gabriel celebrates the winning goal (all photos in this post are courtesy of Arsenal.com)
In this post I look at some of the key take homes from Sunday’s game and look ahead to the rest of the week, when Arsenal will face their biggest test of the season so far, away to Man City on Sunday, following on from tonight’s tough UCL fixture, away to Atalanta.
Set-piece coach pays dividends
This year the derby was particularly amusing to watch as an Arsenal fan. In the week leading up to the game, there had been a narrative going around that, with Rice and Odegaard both sidelined, Arsenal would sit back deep and look to capitalise from a set piece. With 20 set piece goals in 2023/24, Arsenal were the most potent team on set pieces in the league last season. By contrast, with 18 goals conceded from set pieces since the start of the 2023/24 campaign, Spurs have the League’s second worst defensive record from set-pieces (with only Nottingham Forest conceding more in that period).
There is a clip which has been doing the rounds on social media, showing a Spurs fan looking away as Arsenal took the corner, which led to Gabriel’s goal. If I was a Spurs fan I would be absolutely fuming at the predictability of the goal. Tottenham looked chaotic in the way they defended set pieces throughout the game and Vicario’s jittering seemed to have a disconcerting impact on those around him. There had already been one corner in the first half where Vicario had flapped around when he should have come and claimed the ball, and the same could be said of the goal, when he was caught focussing on the tussle around him rather than the game.
Pictured above: Saka prepares to take the corner which led to Gabriel’s goal (credits: Arsenal.com)
Arsenal for their part have shown an immaculate attention to detail when it comes to dead ball situations. Nicholas Jover has worked diligently to turn Arsenal into a set piece machine. Many teams have big centre backs who are good with their head, but as Paul Merson said in his post-match comments, the Arsenal centre backs go up at corners to score goals. There’s a real plan for every set piece and every player has a role.
I actually thought Spurs defended Arsenal’s corners slightly better than they did last year. However, even if someone had never watched football before, they could probably have worked out which of the two teams on the pitch invested time and effort with a specialist set piece coach. I have seen a lot of people talking about Three Point Lane in the aftermath of Sunday’s game. However, given Spurs’ inability to learn from last year’s mistakes, when they shipped two goals from corners against us, it might as well be called Free Point Lane.
Arsenal’s defence neutralises Spurs
Key to Arsenal’s victory was their defensive set up. Arsenal sat back in a 4-4-2 and played a narrow, low block for most of the game. Spurs created a number of chances during the game. However, these were never more than half-chances and this was reflected in the match stats. Despite controlling the ball for much of the game and having 15 shots on goal compared to Arsenal’s 7, Spurs’ xG was 0.71, which was lower than Arsenal’s xG of 0.74.
Pictured above: Solanke is out-muscled by Saliba (credits: Arsenal.com)
The poor quality of chances that Spurs created, was a reflection of some standout performances amongst Arsenal’s defensive ranks.
Gabriel and Saliba, who are slowly building a reputation as one of the best centre-back pairings in the world, were excellent throughout the game. They were quick to shut the door when Spurs found themselves in dangerous positions in or around the Arsenal box. For example, in the 8th minute, when the ball came to Solanke in space on the edge of the box, Saliba closed him down in a flash to block his shot. Likewise, when Udogie was slipped through in the 24th minute (albeit in an offside position) Gabriel was immediately on him to close down the opportunity. The presence provided by both Gabriel and Saliba in the box from crosses meant that the opportunities created were difficult to convert, such as Solanke’s header wide in the 27th minute from a tight angle.
I was also impressed with the work of both Timber and Martinelli, and White and Saka. Both pairings doubled up well to prevent good crossing opportunities for Tottenham. Although Son got the better of White on a couple of occasions, he was largely neutralised.
On the left, Brennan Johnson had a tough day against Timber and Martinelli. I actually thought that Martinelli had a brilliant game, despite the criticism he has received of late. He put in tireless work and won the ball back for us on numerous occasions. In addition, his pace caused problems and provided us with an outlet to relieve defensive pressure.
Whilst he had a few misplaced passes and probably should have stuck his chance away (or squared it to Saka) when he ran through one on one with Vicario in the 19th minute, I think his work rate was outstanding and we looked a lot more solid defensively, when he was on the pitch. The end result of these performances was that, while Spurs created more chances than Arsenal, the chances Arsenal created (such as the Havertz header, which was well saved by Vicario in the first half) were more clear cut.
Pictured above: Martinelli’s shot is saved after he ran through one on one with Vicario (credits: Arsenal.com)
It was a similar story for Spurs to two weeks ago when they created the majority of chances but still found a way to lose to Newcastle.
Game plays out to Arteta’s script
Other Arsenal players also did well, with Havertz putting in a lot of selfless work and Trossard providing some useful interchanges in an unfamiliar position. However, this game was ultimately about Arteta. The way Arsenal set up played directly into our strengths and exposed flaws in Spurs’ system. The low block exposed the lack of world class personnel in Spurs’ front line, the counter-attacks exposed Spurs’ high line and our set-pieces once again highlighted Spurs' refusal to recruit a specialist in this area.
Pictured above: Arteta celebrates at full time (credits: Arsenal.com)
There was a real inevitably about this result and that's credit to Arteta. Arteta must have come into this game thinking, if Arsenal could defend resolutely and keep Spurs out for 90 minutes, we would almost certainly be able to stick at least one of our chances away at the other end, be it from a set piece or a counterattack. The game played out entirely to his script.
Looking ahead to Atalanta and Man City
As an Arsenal fan, if there is one thing I love more than winning, it’s complaining about things being unfair. This week is no exception. Multiple players have spoken about congestion in the fixture list this week, including Rodri for Man City and Alisson for Liverpool.
However, I think Arsenal have been dealt the toughest hand. Man City played at home on Wednesday night and will play at home against us on Sunday. However, we will have to make the journey to Italy on Thursday evening before then travelling up to Manchester for the game on Sunday.
I would still expect us to come away with a win against Atalanta. Their form in Serie A going into this game is not spectacular. However, tiredness could play a role for Arsenal and the atmosphere will make it difficult.
I think it will be interesting to see how we approach the game against Man City. I strongly suspect that, with Odegaard still out, it will be a similar game to last year where we adopted a defensive approach and looked to shut out Man City’s key attackers. Whilst it’s true that a victory away against City would be a huge statement in the title race, I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that I would be delighted with a point. A loss would leave us 5 points behind City. Even at this early stage of the season, that could be difficult to recover from.