José Mourinho had said he could not wait for the season to finish and, given the gloomy mood that shadowed Tottenham into this derby and the state of the Premier League table, it was easy to see why. Yet there was a dose of unexpected cheer at the expense of their nearest and dearest rivals when Spurs found a way to turn the tide of a second half that was slipping away from them.
The decisive blow was struck late on by Toby Alderweireld, who rose to flick Son Heung-min’s corner into the roof of the net. Defensively, Arsenal broke down – why was Kieran Tierney marking Alderweireld? – and it meant Spurs had done enough. It was not a vintage performance from them and there remain doubts over the cohesion of their attacking football. But this was a day when Mourinho needed a result and he got one.
Arsenal had led through an Alexandre Lacazette screamer – Son would find an immediate riposte – and the visitors were in control in the first half of the second period. At that point, Spurs looked out of ideas.
Arsenal would rue the moment when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang rattled the crossbar on 59 minutes and, from their point of view, this was a game they found a way to lose. If their lack of cutting edge was bad, then the manner of both of the concessions was worse. Arsenal have now dropped 21 points from leading positions this season – 15 of them under Mikel Arteta.
Spurs would argue that it was their proactivity towards the end that won the day. With Harry Kane enjoying his strongest performance since the restart, up alongside Son in a new-look 4-4-2 formation, Spurs jumped above Arsenal into eighth position. Finishing above their neighbours for the fourth season in succession would be nice but what Mourinho wants is Europa League qualification. Victory fired the possibility of both.
Arteta knows no team can defend as generously as Arsenal did and expect to win and he squirmed with frustration at Son’s equaliser. Sead Kolasinac tried to play a pass back to David Luiz but he rolled it wide of his teammate and Son was in. The Spurs forward held off David Luiz before clipping a lovely finish over Emiliano Martínez and Arsenal’s hard work to get in front was undone. The TV camera focused on David Luiz looking sad but Kolasinac had to carry the can.
Arsenal’s goal had come when Granit Xhaka won a 50-50 challenge with Serge Aurier to send the ball spinning towards Lacazette, who took two touches and fizzed a rising drive past Hugo Lloris into the near top corner from the edge of the area.
Behind-closed-doors football is weird but this game was weirder than the new normal. Derby day in these parts is normally frenzied and there were plenty of the usual on-pitch accoutrements during an entertaining first half – off-the-ball digs, a high tempo, yellow cards, thrills and spills. We were left merely to imagine how the crowd would have seethed.
Spurs might have taken an early lead when Lucas Moura shot straight at Martínez after Kane had leant on David Luiz but the big chance came after Nicolas Pépé lost the ball cheaply and allowed Lucas to run away from him. Lucas’s ball was dropped over David Luiz for Kane but Martínez used all of his 6ft 5in frame to stand tall and save the first-time lob.
Spurs could point to the first-half moment when Ben Davies struck the crossbar with a bang from 30 yards but Arsenal also had their chances before the interval. Héctor Bellerín cut back for Aubameyang after beating Davies and Harry Winks only for the striker to fluff his lines while Pépé would curl just wide and Aubameyang was off target with a free-kick.
It was interesting to hear that Arteta shouted many of his instructions in Spanish with a bit of French thrown in when he was encouraging Lacazette. His team began the second half on the front foot, monopolising possession, probing for openings and they fashioned a glorious one when Pépé robbed Alderweireld on the edge of the Spurs area and found Lacazette. Aubameyang peeled away inside the area on the left, Lacazette found him and the Arsenal captain was denied by the woodwork.
Arsenal called a more measured tune with Spurs dropping deeper, happier to punch on the counter. Mourinho’s team looked tired, possibly because they had been given two days less to prepare than Arsenal. Yet they found a way to break out and land the killer punch.
Son went close after Kane got the better of David Luiz and, once Aubameyang had forced Lloris to save at full stretch, Kane was denied by the advancing Martínez. After Alderweireld’s goal, Spurs might even have embellished the scoreline only for Martínez to save from Kane and Son to shoot into David Luiz.
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