the short fuse 
28-04-2024 17:57
28-04-2024 17:57
Arsenal 3 - Tottenham 2 match report: happy St. Totteringham’s Day
Arsenal held on to win 3-2 over Tottenham Hotspur but made it way tougher on themselves than it needed to be. The Gunners were up 3-0 at halftime but a horrible David Raya giveaway gifted Spurs a goal and a way back into the match. Declan Rice gave away a penalty as the match ticked towards added time, and Mikel Arteta (and all of us) had to sweat it out.
At the end of the day, three points are three points, no matter how you claim them. Derbies are always going to be weird, and this one was no exception. The win keeps the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, puts a dent in Spurs’ Champions League hopes, and sets off the St. Totteringham’s Day celebrations. The win was also Arsenal’s second consecutive win away to Tottenham in the Premier League, a feat that Arsene Wenger never managed.
The Gunners’ 3-0 halftime lead was as not 3-0 as a 3-0 has ever felt. Arsenal played...fine but weren’t anything special. As you’d expect from the stingy Arsenal defense, they didn’t surrender much to Spurs. Their best chances came when Cristian Romero headed off the woodwork at the back post (from a free kick that came off a soft foul and probably a missed handball to control the ball) and Son volleying over on a semi-break, under decent pressure from the centerbacks and David Raya.
Spurs thought they had equalized shortly after Arsenal took a 1-0 lead, but Micky Van de Ven was ruled offside by VAR. To be fair, it would have been a lucky goal had it stood. A blocked shot from well outside the box fell perfectly into the defender’s path. The bounce could have gone anyway.
Nor did Arsenal manage to create much. But Set Piece FC, which had gone a bit quiet of late, stepped up in a big way. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an own goal, with an assist to Ben White harrying Vicario on the first corner of the match. Kai Havertz headed home an Arsenal third from a corner, as well. In the middle, Havertz was instrumental in setting Bukayo Saka free on the break. Ben Davies, who was overmatched against the Arsenal winger all game, allowed him to cut inside and score a routine shot into the bottom corner.
Havertz was my man of the match. His season got off to a slow start, at least in terms of goal contributions, but he’s been red hot of late — 8 goals, 5 assists in his last 11 Premier League mathces. His physicality and workrate, on display again today, have been there the entire time. All the people rubbishing the purchase and having a go at him in the fall were very, very wrong.
The broadcast crew made a really big deal of a Spurs penalty shout not given just before Arsenal went up 2-0. Dejan Kulusevski cut inside of Leandro Trossard in the box, and Trossard, who was looking the other direction, caught the back of Kulusevski’s heel as the two were running. Michael Oliver was in an excellent position to see the coming together and determined it wasn’t a penalty on the pitch. VAR had a look and determined there was no reason to send him to the monitor.
That should have been that, but the NBC announcers and studio personalities kept banging on about it. If we’re being generous, you could term it a “you’ve seen them given” moment, but in reality, that only gets given in the minority of cases. It was incidental contact, created as much by Kulusevski as it was by Trossard. Further, wanting Michael Oliver to go to the monitor is wish-casting. That’s simply not the VAR protocol. The only way he should be sent to the monitor is if he thought there wasn’t contact when there actually was. If he’s seen the contact and deemed it not a foul, it’s not a clear and obvious error.
Michael Oliver had a good game refereeing. Strangely enough, I think that by not flashing the cards, he kept more of a lid on things than if he had been handing them out left and right. Richarlison’s hot-headed antics probably should have earned him a booking down the stretch, but that was the only miss from Oliver all match.
The VAR-awarded penalty against Declan Rice was an unfortunate but correct call. Rice did not track Davies, who got to the ball first and was kicked for it. The only mildly irritating thing is that it had bigtime echoes of the James McArthur kick into Bukayo Saka’s leg two years ago, for which nothing was given. But that’s not a reason to not give a clear penalty.
The match should have been a comfortable one for Arsenal, but David Raya made a horrible blunder in the 64th minute. He appeared to change his mind mid-kick, which resulted in him presenting the ball to Romero for an easy goal. Raya may have slipped a bit, as well, but there really isn’t an excuse for it. It was a terrible mistake and it gave Spurs a foothold in the match they shouldn’t have had.
I guess it’s a testament to Arsenal’s resilience and mental fortitude that they didn’t concede what would have been a killer equalizing goal, but really, it shouldn’t ever have gotten close enough for that to come into play. The Gunners’ didn’t sit back any more than they had been in the first half — Mikel Arteta set his side up to nullify Spurs’ quick, direct attack. You’d like to see them try to get a 4th and really put the game away, but I can’t really fault them for not sending more men forward at 3-0 up. If they’d been caught out, we’d be lamenting the side leaving themselves open at the back with a three-goal lead.
It was just a weird game. Arsenal won. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. North London is RED. Enjoy St. Totteringham’s Day. Three more to go. Arsenal have to take care of business and hope Manchester City slip up.
At the end of the day, three points are three points, no matter how you claim them. Derbies are always going to be weird, and this one was no exception. The win keeps the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table, puts a dent in Spurs’ Champions League hopes, and sets off the St. Totteringham’s Day celebrations. The win was also Arsenal’s second consecutive win away to Tottenham in the Premier League, a feat that Arsene Wenger never managed.
The Gunners’ 3-0 halftime lead was as not 3-0 as a 3-0 has ever felt. Arsenal played...fine but weren’t anything special. As you’d expect from the stingy Arsenal defense, they didn’t surrender much to Spurs. Their best chances came when Cristian Romero headed off the woodwork at the back post (from a free kick that came off a soft foul and probably a missed handball to control the ball) and Son volleying over on a semi-break, under decent pressure from the centerbacks and David Raya.
Spurs thought they had equalized shortly after Arsenal took a 1-0 lead, but Micky Van de Ven was ruled offside by VAR. To be fair, it would have been a lucky goal had it stood. A blocked shot from well outside the box fell perfectly into the defender’s path. The bounce could have gone anyway.
Nor did Arsenal manage to create much. But Set Piece FC, which had gone a bit quiet of late, stepped up in a big way. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an own goal, with an assist to Ben White harrying Vicario on the first corner of the match. Kai Havertz headed home an Arsenal third from a corner, as well. In the middle, Havertz was instrumental in setting Bukayo Saka free on the break. Ben Davies, who was overmatched against the Arsenal winger all game, allowed him to cut inside and score a routine shot into the bottom corner.
Havertz was my man of the match. His season got off to a slow start, at least in terms of goal contributions, but he’s been red hot of late — 8 goals, 5 assists in his last 11 Premier League mathces. His physicality and workrate, on display again today, have been there the entire time. All the people rubbishing the purchase and having a go at him in the fall were very, very wrong.
The broadcast crew made a really big deal of a Spurs penalty shout not given just before Arsenal went up 2-0. Dejan Kulusevski cut inside of Leandro Trossard in the box, and Trossard, who was looking the other direction, caught the back of Kulusevski’s heel as the two were running. Michael Oliver was in an excellent position to see the coming together and determined it wasn’t a penalty on the pitch. VAR had a look and determined there was no reason to send him to the monitor.
That should have been that, but the NBC announcers and studio personalities kept banging on about it. If we’re being generous, you could term it a “you’ve seen them given” moment, but in reality, that only gets given in the minority of cases. It was incidental contact, created as much by Kulusevski as it was by Trossard. Further, wanting Michael Oliver to go to the monitor is wish-casting. That’s simply not the VAR protocol. The only way he should be sent to the monitor is if he thought there wasn’t contact when there actually was. If he’s seen the contact and deemed it not a foul, it’s not a clear and obvious error.
Michael Oliver had a good game refereeing. Strangely enough, I think that by not flashing the cards, he kept more of a lid on things than if he had been handing them out left and right. Richarlison’s hot-headed antics probably should have earned him a booking down the stretch, but that was the only miss from Oliver all match.
The VAR-awarded penalty against Declan Rice was an unfortunate but correct call. Rice did not track Davies, who got to the ball first and was kicked for it. The only mildly irritating thing is that it had bigtime echoes of the James McArthur kick into Bukayo Saka’s leg two years ago, for which nothing was given. But that’s not a reason to not give a clear penalty.
The match should have been a comfortable one for Arsenal, but David Raya made a horrible blunder in the 64th minute. He appeared to change his mind mid-kick, which resulted in him presenting the ball to Romero for an easy goal. Raya may have slipped a bit, as well, but there really isn’t an excuse for it. It was a terrible mistake and it gave Spurs a foothold in the match they shouldn’t have had.
I guess it’s a testament to Arsenal’s resilience and mental fortitude that they didn’t concede what would have been a killer equalizing goal, but really, it shouldn’t ever have gotten close enough for that to come into play. The Gunners’ didn’t sit back any more than they had been in the first half — Mikel Arteta set his side up to nullify Spurs’ quick, direct attack. You’d like to see them try to get a 4th and really put the game away, but I can’t really fault them for not sending more men forward at 3-0 up. If they’d been caught out, we’d be lamenting the side leaving themselves open at the back with a three-goal lead.
It was just a weird game. Arsenal won. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. North London is RED. Enjoy St. Totteringham’s Day. Three more to go. Arsenal have to take care of business and hope Manchester City slip up.