North London derbies have always been passionately fought contests and this one saw Arsenal emerge victorious by three goals to one over their fiercest rivals Tottenham Hotspur. With three goals in the first 35 minutes, the Gunners quickly established their superiority which they maintained throughout the match.
Their manager, Mikel Arteta, whose team have made rapid improvement after their worst start to the season losing their first three Premier League games, said: “When you are trying to rebuild and trying to do the right things you have to stay by your values. It’s not about winning but the way we’ve done it, against a top team on the most special day of the season against our rivals.”
He added: “Now we have to be consistent. This win is for the fans. They’ve been incredible in tough moments when we needed their support, and it doesn’t get much better than the atmosphere today. We started really strong, really convincingly, determined. It’s probably one of the best games I’ve seen us play for the first half.”
Arsenal didn’t allow their opponents to settle and went on the offensive to score early with Martin Odegaard passing to Bukayo Saka on the right. Saka having made good ground crossed to Emile Smith Rowe who right-footed into the net in the 12th minute. Within a further 15 minutes Arsenal were two up. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang flicked the ball on the halfway line to Smith Rowe who raced ahead before passing to Aubameyang from the left for the striker to score just inside the right post.
The Gunners were fully in control by this stage, dominating the midfield in which Odegaard was outstanding, ensuring that his team had possession for long periods in that area. The third goal came 10 minutes before halftime. Harry Kane lost the ball to Partey who fed Saka, Kane chased and tried to tackle Saka but failed, and after beating Eric Dyer, Saka gave Hugo Lloris no chance as he drilled the ball in.
In the 80th minute after Kane had missed a good chance to reduce the margin, Spurs managed to get a goal, having put some pressure on their opponents with Bryan Gil and Oliver skipp on as substitutes. Son Heung-Min scored the consolation goal from a cross by Sergio Reguilon.
Spurs manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, said: “The performance was not good. The game plan was not good. It was definitely not a good day for us. Players were not able to do what I told them. A lot of things went wrong starting with the decisions I made.”
He added: “When you have a game plan you have to make the right decisions in terms of who you want on the pitch. I won’t name individuals but the plan was not right for the players. We weren’t aggressive enough to control in midfield. We suffered when we wanted to go in front and let Arsenal to come to us. Bad decisions.”
