FULL TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal
That Harry Kane, huh? He’s just helped Tottenham to leapfrog Arsenal, and make it to the top four! That was a fully deserved victory by Spurs, who were all over Arsenal during that second half. Arsenal, though not at their best, didn’t even play particularly badly; they were simply blown away by the Spurs swarm, and by that man Harry Kane, who is some player all right. Champions League football - and a finish above Arsenal for the first time in a couple of decades - is a very real possibility now!
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90 min +5: The excellent Mason is replaced by Paulinho, the classic time-wasting measure.
90 min +4: Stambouli hacks clear. The whistles are deafening. Ramsey is booked for a shoulder charge on Bentaleb, who was making off down the left. That surely should be it!
90 min +3: Monreal hoicks the ball goalwards from 25 yards. A deflection, the ball zipping out for a corner on the left. Ozil will take.
90 min +2: It’s easily cleared by Spurs. Kane tries to win a corner down the left, but runs the ball out of play himself.
90 min +1: Arsenal have the ball. Spurs are sitting deep. Nerves are jangling all around White Hart Lane. Bentaleb clatters into Ozil, and is booked for his trouble. This will be a free kick, 35 yards from goal, out on the right.
90 min: Rosicky whistles a shot at the Tottenham goal from 25 yards. It’s moving this way and that through the air, and might have taken a small deflection, but Lloris handles it calmly. There will be four additional minutes.
89 min: The last throw of the dice by Arsenal, as Akpom comes on for Coquelin. Spurs respond, as Lamela is replaced by Stambouli.
88 min: White Hart Lane is bouncing. Spurs are a few minutes away from their first victory over Arsenal in five games!
WHAT A GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal (Kane 86)
This is exquisite, from English football’s new star striker. A cross from deep on the left by Bentaleb. It’s high, and dropping onto Kane’s head. The striker’s on the penalty spot, backpedaling, yet rises high, keeps strong, and guides a pinpoint header back into the top left. Ospina was totally wrong-footed by that clever, clever finish!
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85 min: It’s become quite scrappy, as the nerves kick in. Both teams are pushing forward for the winner, though all moves are breaking down as soon as they begin right now.
84 min: Giroud is booked for a late face-to-face clatter on Mason. Nobody really complains.
83 min: Eriksen finds a little space down the left, and slides a clever ball further down the channel, with a view of releasing Chadli into the area. Chadli didn’t read that at all, and Ospina snaffles.
80 min: Eriksen sashays down the left, and pulls one back for Lamela, who screws a shot from the penalty spot over the bar, and wide left to boot. Kane was behind him, in a better position, but made no shout. Speaking of shouts, there was a slight coming together between Chadli and Mertesacker, as the pair contested that free kick a minute ago. Chadli gently tugged the hand of Mertesacker, who crashed to the floor. It would have been the most ridiculous of penalties, but Arsenal will certainly argue that you’ve seen those given.
79 min: Ramsey is bundled over, 30 yards from goal. Free kick, but before that’s taken, Mason goes in the book, having hoicked the ball away so Arsenal can’t take a quick one. The eventual set piece comes to nothing.
78 min: Welbeck, departing to a chorus of boos, is replaced by Walcott, who arrives to a chorus of boos.
75 min: Chadli comes on for Dembele. “I must say (well, I don’t have to) that the White Hart Lane Pie of the Day looks a terrific deal at £3.50,” begins Mac Millings. “In these modern times, I would have expected it to cost around 10 times as much (in which case, I would have opined that, at that price, it had better contain some genuine Pochettino).”
74 min: Ozil curls a delicious cross in from the left. Giroud, ten yards out, meets well, but his header flashes wide of the left-hand post. Arsenal so close to retaking the lead, there, despite having been on the back foot for so long.
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73 min: Magnificent graft by Giroud, who chases a lost cause down the left and, extending a Quinnesque telescopic leg, hooks the ball into the middle when it looked like going out for a goal kick. It loops to Welbeck, who nearly bustles into the six-yard box, where he’d have a free shot at goal. But Vertonghen isn’t having it, and hustles hard before clearing.
72 min: No, not quite, but he’s not far off. Eriksen whips the ball up and down, over the wall and towards the bottom left. Not sure Ospina had that covered, but it’s just over the bar. A decent effort, that.
71 min: All a little bit scrappy at the moment. Kane and Welbeck take turns to apply a little pressure, but the final ball’s lacking. But Spurs are enjoying the lion’s share of possession, and some territorial advantage, and Giroud is panicked into bundling Eriksen over, 25 yards out, a smidgen to the right of centre. Will this be the moment Eriksen gets his dead-ball chops up?
68 min: The quiet Cazorla is replaced by Rosicky.
67 min: Lamela’s arm flaps into Monreal’s grid. The referee decides there was no malicious intent, which seems a fair enough decision. Time for everyone to take a wee breather, though.
65 min: Another Tottenham corner. From the left, it comes to nothing. But this is extremely impressive stuff by Spurs, who are really going for their rivals here.
64 min: This is relentless, and magnificent entertainment. Bentaleb, 25 yards out and level with the left-hand post, hammers a stunning shot towards the bottom right. Ospina saves brilliantly, though Kane’s onto the rebound. No matter, for the keeper spreads himself well to block. What a save! A slight shame that Ospina won’t get the credit for a stunning point-blank block, for the flag goes up for offside, Kane having jumped the gun.
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63 min: Kane wins a corner down the left. Dier meets the set piece by sending a header towards the top right. Ospina might not be getting there, but Coquelin is guarding the post on the line, and heads clear. Then Mason lashes a shot goalwards, but it’s straight at Ospina.
61 min: But Arsenal aren’t exactly finished as an attacking force. Welbeck cuts in from the left, and on the edge of the area curls a spectacular effort towards the top right. It’s flying in, but Lloris tips round the post. The corner, from the right, is met by Koscielny, whose header towards the bottom right is gathered by a stooping Lloris. This is super stuff.
59 min: Arsenal are all over the shop right now. Relentless pressure from Spurs, as Eriksen, Kane and Dembele all take whacks from the edge of the area. Arsenal hack clear in the determined style. Dembele eventually drops a shoulder, to the right of the D, and attempts to thread a ball into the bottom left. He’s nearly successful, but Ospina keeps it out. Kane, sliding in from the left, somehow misses when presented with an open goal, but it doesn’t matter, as he’s flagged offside anyway. But the away side are rocking, and Spurs have their tails up!
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Arsenal (Kane 56)
Lamela takes a corner from the right. It’s flicked on at the near post by Dembele, and the ball’s heading into the top left. Ospina tips it away brilliantly, but it’s all he can do to send the ball to the feet of Kane, six yards out, level with the left-hand post. Bang! And it’s in. Spurs deserve that equaliser. This game is on, and White Hart Lane erupts accordingly.
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54 min: Eriksen’s delivery is appalling, headed clear with ease by Giroud at the near post. The Dane gets another opportunity to send a ball in from the right wing, but that one’s dealt with in the no-nonsense style by Arsenal, too. He’s a magnificent dead-ball technician, Eriksen, but he’s been poor today.
53 min: Welbeck zips off down the left and nearly skins Walker, but his low cross is blocked at source by Vertonghen. Spurs go up the other end through Dembele down the right. Koscielny slides in, clumsily so, and concedes a free kick. He’s booked for his trouble, too. Eriksen will take the set piece from a dangerous position to the right of the Arsenal box.
50 min: Cazorla, in-form Cazorla, has been quiet today, but he springs up here, curling one towards the bottom-right corner from the right-hand edge of the Spurs D. Lloris, at full stretch, fingertips it round the post. Lovely football all round. The same can’t be said of the resulting corner, not that Spurs care, clearing it eventually as they do.
49 min: Spurs have started the stronger. They’re seeing plenty of the ball in Arsenal’s half, though the visitors are holding a firm line, and Spurs can’t find the killer ball. Eriksen’s not far from releasing Kane into the area down the inside-left with a lovely crossfield pass, but the striker’s bustled out of it.
47 min: So much for Rose and Welbeck calming down. The pair challenge for a ball down the Arsenal right. Rose steps in ahead of Welbeck, and is bundled into touch, the normal rules of contract having been transgressed. It’s not enough to earn a second yellow, but Welbeck needs to watch himself here, because the referee’s patience might run out soon.
And we’re off again! Arsenal get the ball rolling. Speaking of which, on the half-time whistle, Rose got the ball rolling towards Welbeck, at some pace from close range, which explains all that nonsense. Grown men. They’ll both need to calm down. Within 25 seconds, the ball’s rolling right to left across the front of the Arsenal area. Bentaleb, racing in, meets it first time, but can only shank his shot well wide left. That’s a determined start to the half by the home side, though.
Official Tottenham half-time repast™: Pies containing spiced Argentinian steak. Mmm-hmm, yes please, sir. And don’t spare the chimichurri.
HALF TIME: Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Arsenal
And that’s that for the half. Before the players depart, Rose and Welbeck, both grown men, go nose to nose, chests puffed out in the try-me-go-on-try-me style. They’re pulled apart, and everyone makes off down the tunnel. Chances are the next 45 minutes will provide much entertainment, if all this is anything to go by. No flipping!
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45 min +2: In the second of two added minutes, Welbeck is booked for stepping across Rose with the full-back in full flight down the left. Eriksen whips the dead ball straight down Ospina’s throat. His delivery has been a bit off today. Most unlike him.
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45 min: Bellerin brings down Eriksen on the left. The ball’s looped into the Arsenal box. Dier eventually sends a squirter of a shot towards the right-hand side of the goal. Ospina wanders across to trap the ball, whistling.
44 min: Monreal is booked for a fairly cynical body check on Walker, who was making good down the right wing. Eriksen takes the free kick, whipping it to the far post, where Welbeck is forced to guide an emergency header wide left with white shirts lurking. The resulting corner comes to nothing. Tottenham’s corners have been dismal so far. Chances to apply more pressure on Arsenal spurned.
42 min: Kane is released into the Arsenal area, brilliantly, by an Eriksen flick down the inside-right channel. Kane takes a stride before lashing a low shot across goal and inches wide of the left-hand post. Brilliant. However, had it gone in, that would have been flagged offside. Incorrectly, as it happens. Spurs haven’t had the luck with the decisions so far.
40 min: It’s scrappy, all of a sudden. Ospina comes off his line to punch a high ball clear. He connects, but also flattens Kane while doing so, much to the home support’s annoyance. Kane gets up, dusts himself down, and after another phase of play, drags an average shot miles wide left of goal from the edge of the area.
38 min: Bentaleb hoofs Ramsey in between the nipples. Oof! Another accidental occurrence. We move on.
36 min: Kane is booked for an old-fashioned slide on Giroud. The Arsenal striker has been limping around for a while already, feeling his ankle. That won’t have helped any. Seconds earlier, Welbeck had clattered into Lloris while chasing a ball down the middle, but the collision was accidental, unavoidable, and resulted in no sanction.
34 min: Walker zips down the right and crosses into the Arsenal box. It’s not a particularly good ball, but it takes a deflection and suddenly it’s sitting on the penalty spot, waiting to be hit. The Arsenal back line are wrong footed, but the Spurs attack are having to react, too. Lamela gets there just ahead of Eriksen, leaning back and lifting a poor shot over the bar. That might have been better left for Eriksen, but Lamela wasn’t to know.
32 min: Eriksen tries to curl one into the top right from 25 yards out, down the inside-left channel. Ospina doesn’t move, but that’s because he doesn’t have to, the ball flying miles wide of the target.
31 min: Another Spurs corner, taken by Eriksen on the left. Same old, same old. But Spurs are on top right now, even if the scoreline is not their friend.
30 min: A really poor touch in midfield by Mertesacker in the centre circle allows Dembele to stream forward. He feeds Kane, who can’t make anything happen, but no worries, as the ball breaks to Mason, 30 yards out. The midfielder looks to arrow a shot into the top-right corner, but the excellent Ospina is behind it all the way. Another Spurs shot turned round that right-hand post. The set piece leads to nothing. But Spurs are keeping the pressure on Arsenal, who are having to work hard to keep hold of their lead.
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28 min: Tottenham have really been going for it, so Arsenal take the sting out of proceedings by stroking it around the back awhile. The pace suddenly drops, though the crowd are still giving it plenty.
26 min: Eriksen busies himself down the left and wins a corner off the backtracking Bellerin. The Dane takes the set piece himself. He hits it high and deep, but it’s swallowed easily enough by Ospina, who appears to have got over that early tweak. That was a confident take.
24 min: Rose is clearly of a mind to make something happen this afternoon. Again he breaks into the Arsenal box, and nearly draws a foul from Welbeck, who is tracking him closely; dangerously so, for the smallest tap of an ankle will result in a penalty kick. Welbeck isn’t rash, though, and Rose eventually wallops a high cross through the six-yard box and out of play for a goal kick.
22 min: And here’s more of it. Rose, who has been slightly dodgy at the back so far but excellent going forward, bombs down the left again and from 12 yards hammers a low shot across Ospina and inches wide of the right-hand post. Mason isn’t far away from sliding in to convert.
20 min: Spurs haven’t let that early blow affect them too much. They’re piling forward with some panache. First Dembele wins a corner down the right. Tottenham’s set pieces haven’t been up to much so far, though, and that continues. Then a minute or so later, Bentaleb drops a shoulder to advance down the middle, before dragging a shot just wide right.
18 min: A replay of the goal, with one of those fancy lines drawn across the pitch by the TV folk. It might be that Ozil was in fact offside, his big toe ahead of Dier, perhaps. But it would have been a very picky official who wheeched a flag up for that, with the benefit of doubt always going to the attacker in such marginal circumstances. It looked a decent decision, though don’t expect consensus.
16 min: Arsenal are causing Spurs quite a lot of bother down the right wing. It’s as though the pitch is tilting towards the East Stand. A couple of calls for handball in the area, the ball rolling down Vertonghen’s arm, then clanking off Mason’s, but neither man knew much about it. The referee’s not interested, and to be frank, neither are the Arsenal players, who appeal for the penalties in a very half-arsed fashion.
14 min: A more constructive response, now. Rose makes good down the left and unleashes a pearler of a daisycutter towards the bottom right. Once again, Ospina turns it around the post at full stretch, with Kane lurking. It would appear the keeper’s all right. The resulting set piece comes to naught. This is magnificent, end-to-end entertainment.
12 min: Tottenham’s response is through Mason. And through the back of Ozil. No yellow card.
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GOAL! Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Arsenal (Ozil 11)
This was so simple. And it happened in slow motion. Welbeck zips down the left, burning Rose with ease. Upon reaching the edge of the area, he drags a pullback to Giroud, level with the right-hand post, 12 yards out. Giroud shoots, but miskicks, the ball squirting left to Ozil, who is unmarked ten yards from goal. Blooter! And it’s in. For a second, it looks like Ozil is miles offside, but he’s being played on by Dier, who is hanging deep in Welbeck territory. Another fast start at White Hart Lane for Arsenal!
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10 min: Rose is sent clear down the left wing. He’s in acres. Arsenal are backtracking with some panic. Rose whips a dismal cross into the box, looking for Kane in the middle but getting nowhere near his team-mate. Ospina, at the near post, wanders over to save, though perhaps shaken by that early injury concern, doesn’t gather in the comfortable style, the ball bouncing on the floor before being gathered at the second attempt.
7 min: There’s a couple of minutes between save and corner, because Ospina rolls around on the floor, having tweaked something on the left-hand side of his body while making the save. Ooyah oof. It’s decided he’s OK to continue, for now anyway. Spurs should be testing the keeper immediately at the set piece, with a base hoick into the box, but opt to play it short instead. Nothing comes of it.
5 min: Mason passes poorly in the midfield, allowing Arsenal to break along the left through Ozil. The ball’s shuttled on to Monreal, who crosses low into the Spurs box. Rose performs a song and dance before hacking clear, but hack clear he does. Spurs flood up the other end, Kane picking up the ball down the inside-left channel. He’s got Eriksen on the overlap down the wing, but opts instead to curl one towards the right-hand post. It’s going in, a superlative effort, but Ospina tips the ball round the post at full stretch.
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3 min: Lamela, dropping deep, attempts to spray a pass down the inside-right channel to release Kane. It’s a clever effort, threaded through the eye of a needle, but Koscielny steps in to intercept before the ball can reach the young Spurs striker. The spectators are singing quite a lot. It’s loud.
2 min: It’s one minute, 41 seconds before Arsenal get their first meaningful touch. They quickly lose the ball, as Cazorla and Giroud unsuccessfully attempt to make their way down the left. All a bit scrappy right now.
And we’re off! Spurs get the ball rolling, and they’ll be kicking towards the Park Lane end. They stroke it around the back awhile, not really interested in going anywhere right now. It’s all about getting a feel.
The teams are out! A belting atmosphere at White Hart Lane today. As if you expected anything else. It’s handshake time. Or handslap, gentlemanly shaking being so 1890s. We’ll be off in a minute!
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A classic aesthetic, as always, in the North London derby. Tottenham will be wearing their famous, crisp, white shirts ...
... while Arsenal will sport tops of similar renown: red, with Chapman-inspired white sleeves.
So Tottenham welcome back Nabil Bentaleb and Eric Dier as starters. North London derby fixture Emmanuel Adebayor doesn’t even make the squad. Meanwhile no Alexis Sanchez for Arsenal. The Chilean had hoped to be named at least as substitute, despite a hamstring tweak, but it would appear he’s not in good-enough nick. And Theo Walcott is nudged onto the bench by the returning Danny Welbeck, despite having scored in his last two games. It’s tough at the top.
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Today's teams
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose, Bentaleb, Mason, Lamela, Dembele, Eriksen, Kane.
Subs: Paulinho, Soldado, Vorm, Fazio, Chadli, Stambouli, Davies.
Arsenal: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Ramsey, Welbeck, Cazorla, Ozil, Giroud.
Subs: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Rosicky, Walcott, Flamini, Akpom.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)
“Everything is no more than Saturday.” As laconic football observations go, it may not quite be up there with “The ball is round”, “Football’s not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that”, and “If God had meant football to be played in the air, he would have put grass in the sky”. But then again, Mauricio Pochettinho isn’t talking in his first language. And in any case, there’s something rather lyrical about the Tottenham Hotspur manager’s pithy aphorism. It’s all there, if you’re looking for it, packed into six little words: acknowledgement of the supreme importance of the North London derby; a manifesto, a commitment to concentration, effort and honour; and a rallying cry to send his troops into battle. Not bad for something that’s half the length of a haiku.
Arsene Wenger’s no poetic slouch himself, mind you. “I can be torn between my head and my heart,” he wondered, when asked whether his in-form team will sit tight or take the game to a Spurs side who recently tore a usually parsimonious Chelsea to shreds. “But the first thing my heart wants is to win.” It sounds even better than it reads, on account of Wenger’s lilting accent. Ah, the yearning. We are all lost in reverie.
Both managers are fully aware of this fixture’s enormity, then. Like that needs saying. And both teams will fancy their chances today. Tottenham have won two of the last three North London derbies at White Hart Lane, but Arsenal managed three wins out of three against Spurs last season, and have only lost one of the last seven match-ups, a run which includes two 5-2 shellackings, though both of those humiliations were dished out along Ashburton Grove. History teaches us little. With Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud all with their scoring chops up, and a Champions League place for next season perfectly achievable, this could be a cracker. It’s on!
Kick off: 12.45pm.
