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RESULT
Spurs 0 Arsenal 1
London, UK | ARSENAL.COM | Gabriel was our north London derby day hero as he headed home the only goal to secure a third-straight victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Brazilian defender towered over the Spurs defence on 64 minutes to divert home a Bukayo Saka cotrner and settle a game of few chances, which we enjoyed the better of throughout the contest and ultimately deserved our hard-fought victory.
It ensured we remain unbeaten in the Premier League this campaign, but more importantly for all Gooners, saw us claim a hat-trick of wins at the home of our neighbours for the first time since 1988 as our superb away record in 2024 continues.
Early chances
We started a Premier League game without Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard for the first time since the England international’s arrival, but our midfield of Jorginho, Thomas Partey and Kai Havertz were superb throughout.
As is usually the case on derby day, the home support was boisterous from the off and that propelled Spurs in the early stages. Fresh off winning the Premier League Save of the Month award, David Raya was forced into action twice in the opening eight minutes, pushing away a Dejan Kulusevski drive from close range before tipping an awkward untouched cross from the Swede around his post.
But we fought back and conjured up the two biggest chances of the half within a 90 seconds of each other. Firstly, Kai Havertz met a cross with his head on 17 minutes and only a fine reflex save from Guglielmo Vicario kept it out, who also got lucky that the ball didn’t creep in off the unaware Cristian Romero.
Then a neat pass by Leandro Trossard released Gabriel Martinell through on goal down the left, but after he charged into the box he couldn’t find any curl as he took aim for the bottom corner and Vicario claimed comfortably.
12 of our 16 goals against Spurs under Mikel Arteta had been scored in the first half, but as it progressed there were no other sights of goal for us to change that statistic. Indeed, only a couple of half-chances fell the hosts’ way with Dominic Solanke heading wide and Brennan Johnson wildly thrashing a shot over without troubling Raya again.
The busiest man in the opening half was referee Jarred Gillet who dished out seven yellows – the joint-most cards ever shown in the first 45 minutes of a Premier League match – as the derby day passions began to boil over.
Gabi grabs the goal
The beginning of the second half began much in the same way, but we were looking dangerous as we attacked the final third, although our final pass at times was letting us down.
But we kept knocking, and on 64 minutes the quality came to the fore. A swift counter-attack saw us win a corner, and Bukayo Saka whipped a devilish ball right into the six-yard box, where Gabriel escaped Romero’s marking and powerfully dispatched a header past a helpless Vicario to send the travelling supporters wild.
Spurs offered little comeback to that setback and Raya was barely troubled throughout the remainder of the game, as chances dried up. With 10 minutes to go Raheem Sterling was introduced from the bench for his Gunners debut, while Ethan Nwaneri was also added to the fray late on as he got to sample a taste of the derby for the first time.
Hearts were in mouths when Kulusevski let fly from 25 yards in stoppage time but his shot screeched just over the crossbar, and meant we won for the sixth league game on the road in a row, have won 10 of our 11 away games and kept a ninth clean sheet as the derby day delight was again our Gooners’.
What’s next
We head to Italy next week for our first Champions League game of the season against Atalanta on Thursday, before we tackle reigning champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, September 22.
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SOURCE: Arsenal.com
