5  Sokratis PAPASTATHOPLOUS
20  Shkrodan MUSTAFI       (29  Matteo GUENDOUZI  71)
16  Rob HOLDING
  2  Hector BELLERIN

11  Lucas TORREIRA       
34  Granit XHAKA  (c)     
31  Sead KOLASINAC

17  Alex IWOBI  (  9  Alexandre LACAZETTE    46)
14  Pierre-Emerick AUBAMEYANG   
  7  Henrik MKHITARYAN  (  8  Aaron RAMSEY  46)

Unused subs: 
  1  Petr CECH
12  Stephan LICHTSTEINER
15  Ashley MIATLAND-NILES
  4  Mohamed ELNENY
 

24  Serge AURIER     
21  Juan FOYTH
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN               
33  Ben DAVIES  (  3  Danny ROSE  82)

15  Eric DIER       
17  Moussa SISSOKO

  7  Heung-Min SON  (27  Lucas MOURA  79)
20  DELE Alli       (  8  Harry WINKS  79)
23  Christian ERIKSEN

10  Harry KANE  (p)

Unused subs: 
22  Paulo GAZZANIGA
  4  Toby ALDERWEIRELD
16  Kyle WALKER-PETERS
18  Fernando LLORENTE

In a London derby that had most things, Arsenal came out on top with a 4-2 win in a match that swayed one way and another, before ten man Spurs eventually succumbed.

With Arsenal having the luxury of making 10 changes from their reserve outing in the Europa League in Ukraine, Spurs had to patch up the side that faced Inter in midweek, with Alderweireld and Moura starting on the bench with Winks, as Mauricio Pochettino rotated his squad in a limited fashion.

Early on, Davies was dispossessed by Bellerin and Mkhitaryan’s cross was headed over by Aubameyang, as Arsenal were sharp from the start, closing down and forcing Spurs into hurried passes that turned over possession.  Then Aurier lost the ball when he let the ball go under his foot and conceded a free kick out on the left. When it came in, Jan threw a hand up and diverted the ball away giving away a penalty, that Aubameyang put away.

Juan Foyth gave the ball away, but won it back with a good tackle, setting Son away and forcing a shot at goal from a tight angle on the right that Leno had to push out for a corner. When it was cleared Kosinac pulled a low ball back from the dead ball line, but Aubameyang was just too far ahead of the ball. Spurs were all over the place and were being forced to play long, as Arsenal closed down space. The lack of options were forcing Spurs to play risky passes and when there was an opportunity to get away, there were some red shirts covering. The effort Arsenal were putting into the game was intense, so the question was would they be able to keep it up ?

Spurs were sleeping when Xhaka took a quick free-kick releasing Kolasinac on the left and his pull back was met by Iwobi, but Lloris kept the ball out with his feet and then Davies denied Bellerin with a good block. Spurs did break at the other end and Dele looked for Eriksen square, but Kosalinac was back to clear to out for a corner. That was cleared, but soon Son was put in on the left by Eriksen and he warmed Leno’s hands down at his near post with a firm shot.

A stupid foul by Sokratis, who stood on Son’s heel in the 30th minute, gave Eriksen the chance to fire a ball into the near post and Eric Dier made the run to head powerfully at goal with nobody around him, leaving Leno only able to scoop the ball into the net at his near post.  Spurs were back in the game with a goal that might have come against the run of play, but had been coming, with a couple of chances created.  Arsenal lost it as Spurs celebrated and there was a huge rumpus in the corner of the pitch after Lichtsteiner started to have a go at the Spurs players.  Players, subs and coaches were all involved and it ended with Dier getting booked for celebrating his goal while no Arsenal player was cautioned.

The home side’ lack of discipline showed just a minute after the restart, when Son ran at Holding in the box after a neat back-heel from Kane put him away and he slid in to take the striker’s ankle from underneath him and Mike Dean had a think about it, but pointed to the spot.  Mustafi and Kolasinac started pushing and facing up to Davies and Dele, but again, no action was taken against them.  The Arsenal crowd weren’t happy, as they already reckon Dean is a Spurs fan, but Harry Kane settled himself before slotting the ball to the keeper’s right as he dived to the left.

Tottenham had turned the game around in a couple of minutes and suddenly, the zip had gone out of Arsenal’s game as they lost their heads. Now, it was Spurs who was looking sharp and foul after foul was committed by the home players and Tottenham looked a bit more like the team that beat Chelsea last week. As thought beforehand, it was the Arsenal defence which was their weak link.

Lloris made a fine save just two minutes before half time, saving with his feet when the striker was unmarked to a low cross from the Arsenal left, not knowing that the Gabon forward was offside anyway. Arsenal forced a couple of corners as the game entered three added minutes at the end of the first half, but they ended with Mustafi trying a bicycle kick that flew high into the Clock end.  Two more came when the game neared the end of the added time and this time Mustafi stooped to head the ball and Hugo got a finger to it, but it was going to hit the bar anyway.

It had been more like a local derby than other recent games, but by being calm and playing our game, despite the early pressure, the side managed to turn the score-line around by the break.

At the start of the second half, it was Spurs doing the pressing despite a double change by Emery. Another silly foul gave Eriksen a free kick to whip into the box and only Holding’s header cleared it for a corner, with Leno coming but getting nowhere near it.  Xhaka then kicked Dele with no thought about what he was doing and another free kick, just a yard outside the right hand corner of Arsenal’s penalty area.  This time it was Kane, who fired it in and Leno dived up to punch it over the bar.  Moussa Sissoko’s confidence showed when a long clearance upfield by Leno was chested down and he tried to knock it back over him from inside his own half, but it was wide of the goal. Arsenal were getting desperate, with every foul seeing them appeal for a yellow card, with the pressure being put on them when they were on the ball.

When Arsenal did go forward, they were trying to find a way into the box and when Foyth cleared and Torreira bumped into him, the crowd roared for a penalty, but it wasn’t given and Holding then had a 25 yard shot that went almost that far wide.  When Bellerin played a ball down the right, Ramsey turned it inside and Aubameyang got there before Aurier and hit it first time, with Lloris unable to react as the ball went just inside his left hand post to make it 2-2.  The tempo had dropped in the game, but now it picked up again. From an Arsenal corner, Mustafi had a shot when the ball was headed down and Dele cleared it, just in front of the line, with Lloris behind him. Torreira hit the rebound back at goal and the ball fizzed over the bar. Now it was arsenal who were pressing and Sokratis headed a corner for them over the top.  Pressure was coming on Lloris' goal because Tottenham’s closing had tailed off as they dropped a bit deeper.

Son had a great chance to take advantage of a loose pass across goal straight to him, but his 20 yard shot was pushed aside by the keeper.  The game started to get a bit scrappy, with Dean awarding a lot of free-kicks for 50-50 challenges, but Spurs broke away from an Arsenal corner and Leno had to come a long way out of goal to clear as Sissoko looked to get onto a through ball. But then, when the ball was played forward, Foyth stood on the ball and Lacazette was put in and his shot came off Dier’s shin to take the ball away from Lloris and into the corner of his net.  The goal was another one that we shouldn’t have conceded and had another slice of fortune for the home side.

A couple of minutes later, Aubameyang slid a pass through into the right side of the Spurs box and Torreira took it on and shot past Lloris into the opposite side of the goal to make it 4-2 with Spurs not picking up players when they lost possession.

Spurs won a corner when Bellerin gave the ball away again, but when the out-swinger came to Lucas, he headed it wide when unmarked.  The Tottenham players looked dispirited and while they kept trying to play, a stretching tackle on Lacazette saw Jan pick up his second yellow and a red to go with it, with Dean adjudging that while he got the ball first, his follow through was worthy of another caution, which Spurs cannot now appeal against.

Arsenal ran time down with a succession of players going down like they had been steam-rollered, when they had hardly been touched, just adding to the bad feeling that they had instigated earlier in the match.  They showed little interest in going forward until the board came up with six added minutes shown by the fourth official.  The Arsenal crowd also found their voice with a 4-2 lead in added time and against ten men. Even then, Aubameyang was kicking the ball away as he had in the first five minutes.  When their fans started whistling with two minutes of added time left, you could tell that they were still worried even then.  Even at the end, Sokratis was telling Son he had dived.  They really are an objectionable bunch.

Like Arsenal of old, they raised their performance for one game a year and were worthy winners. Helped by inconsistent refereeing. Vertonghen’s foul for his second yellow was nothing much different to Holding’s tackle for the penalty or Sokratis’ stamp on Son’s heel. And how there were no Arsenal bookings in the aftermath of our first goal to the subsequent penalty, I cannot explain.  The equalising goal for the home team swung it in their favour, as they were then on the front foot and we shot ourselves in it.

With Chelsea winning too, we drop to fifth. We will also be without Vertonghen for one game and with Davinson injured, it means we lack a bit of cover in the centre-half department. Southampton got a draw against Manchester United yesterday and they are out next opponents, but hopefully we can get back into winning ways, as Arsenal travel to Old Trafford. We will need to be on our game again as the Saints are battling to pull away from the bottom.

Kirk Hammerton