Tottenham 1-0 Arsenal: Premier League highlights and recap

Tottenham beat Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley on Saturday, Feb. 10. Here are all the highlights from the match.

Harry Kane, north London derby, Premier League. If you don’t know how those three fit together by now, you should be paying more attention. Kane scored his seventh goal in seven Premier League games against Arsenal on Saturday, the winner in a 1-0 win that sees Spurs jump two places in the table, up to third, and (probably) eliminated whatever faint hope their rivals had of finishing in the top four.

After getting stunned by Arsenal in the first derby of the season, the win was revenge for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, though not nearly as emphatic as they would have liked, or as it should have been. Spurs’ dominance only came to the fore in the second half, however. The first was an even contest, with the Gunners sitting deep, absorbing pressure and looking exploit Tottenham’s high line on the counter.

The key tactical battle took place down Tottenham’s left side, where Heung-min Son faced off with Hector Bellerin, often exposed by a lack of defensive support from Mesut Ozil. Son consistently found space in the early stages, and his work resulted in the first notable save of the match, Petr Cech diving to his right to turn away the ball after Shkodran Mustafi slid in to cut out Son’s pass.

To his credit, Bellerin adjusted well, and successfully limited the Korean’s involvement as the half wore on. There was little the Spaniard could do to prevent the best chance of the first 45 minutes, which also came from Spurs’ left. This time, however, Christian Eriksen was the creator, curling in an excellent cross onto the head of Harry Kane, who couldn’t quite get over the ball to direct it on target.

That area of the pitch proved crucial again in the second half, as Spurs took the lead in the 49th minute from yet another cross from the left. Ben Davies, in 20 yards of space after Ozil made a weak attempt to tackle Mousa Dembele and with Bellerin occupied by Son, played a high cross, which Kane met emphatically over Laurent Koscielny, heading into the far corner. There was a hint of push by Kane, but not nearly enough for the referee to award a foul.

Arsenal threatened to unravel after conceding, throwing numbers forward with little regard for what was going on behind them. Kane had another open header in the 52nd minute, this time from Eric Dier’s cross on the right, but missed the target, and he drilled an excellent volley straight at Cech two minutes later. Tottenham had their third good chance in 10 minutes shortly after, a free-kick at the top of the box from which Eriksen forced an exquisite save by Cech, diving high to his right.

The Gunners, lucky to be only a goal down by that point, regained some measure of composure around the hour mark, and had their first meaningful attack of the second half in the 68th minute, when a cross from Aubameyang — playing from the left wing after Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette replaced Mkhitaryan and Mohamed Elneny — fell to Jack Wilshere, whose left-footed strike was well saved by Hugo Lloris.

Arsenal’s attacking threat increased, but Tottenham were happy to play on the break, and continued to create a steady stream of chances thanks to sporadic but well-timed pressing game from their front three. Dele Alli poked wide when one-on-one with Cech in the 71st minute and the Gunners keeper saved well from Erik Lamela a minute later.

Spurs sat back after that flurry of chances, bringing on Victor Wanyama to help close out the result. Nonetheless, they were almost punished for their earlier profligacy in stoppage time, as Arsenal had two of their best chances of the match. Lacazette poked just wide when through on goal, albeit from a tight angle, before Ozil struck a free-kick, the last kick of the match, into the wall from two yards.

Next: Ranking every Premier League season

Highlights

Tottenham move third with the win, at least until Liverpool play Southampton on Sunday and Chelsea play West Brom on Monday. Arsenal stay sixth, six points off the top four and nine clear of Burnley in seventh.