While insisting on the pressure on Manchester City, Arsenal unleashed a perfect storm on Tottenham, which they knocked out with a 0-3 score and a huge hit in the first half, unbearable for any opponent, but with whom they suffered and against whom He then resisted until the end with a 2-3 score due to his own errors.
Nobody imagined it with 1-3, in a mistake by David Raya. Nor moments before 2-3, due to a penalty committed by Declan Rice. Even less so when Mikel Arteta’s team scored 0-3 in the 38th minute. He had barely shot on goal twice then (the 0-1 was an own goal) and had controlled 30 percent of the ball until then. (at halftime it dropped to 28th).
An insubstantial statistic when a team gets it right every time, as Arsenal did in the first half, the leader with three games remaining, one point above City, which has played one game less.
Arsenal, winner of 13 of its last 15 matches in the ‘Premier’, is still not dependent on itself, obsessed with the revenge that has been pending since last year – when a title that seemed its own throughout the season slipped away -, facing Manchester City and with the conviction that anything is possible. It’s already a fight between the two. Liverpool are already behind: five points from the provisional top of the London team. Very far away already.
The first half of Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. It was incontestable. He surpassed his opponent on set pieces and on the counterattack. Two skills that are so fundamental in football, perhaps much more than the possessive obsession with the ball that, at times, is assumed as an essential style. Even more so when you have resources with a strike as threatening as Saka or Declan Rice, decisive for the 0-3 lead at halftime.
The winger led the first two goals. The 0-1 score scored by Kai Havertz was annulled moments before, the corner taken by Saka promoted the goal. Tense, powerful, with the difficulty that implies for any rebound, the center was cleared by Hojbjerg against his own goal, between the ‘poisoned’ blow from the corner and the presence of Tomiyasu. Minute 15.
Then he suffered Tottenham’s offensive, with two headers from Cristian Romero. One came out. Another hit the post. A matter of millimeters the tie. The same ones that invalidated Van de Ben’s 1-1 in the 22nd minute. The conscientious and complex VAR review revealed his offside position by a hair’s breadth. He had already celebrated the goal. He wasn’t.
Five minutes later, Arsenal scored 0-2. In the middle of the local attack, with Kulusevski, unbalanced by Trossard, and Maddison on the ground in the Raya area, each claiming penalties, an unstoppable counterattack was activated, which was started and completed by Saka. From his territory to the opposite. He first connected with Havertz and then ran and ran. He received the long cross, controlled it, dribbled and passed to the net. Minute 27. First shot on goal. The 0-2.
In the 38th minute they increased the difference, again through a corner. This time from the other side, to the right of the attack on Vicario’s goal. Declan Rice launched it, also closed, also a hieroglyph for the defense and the goalkeeper, even more so when Kai Havertz connected with the header. The 0-3. 30 percent ownership. Two shots… three goals. In addition, Tottenham had lost Timo Werner, injured, after half an hour.
It was even close to 0-4 in a volley by Saka that was miraculously saved by Vicario, with his right foot, already in the second half, who was encouraged after the hour mark had passed due to a clumsiness by David Raya: he controlled a transfer with his right foot and tried play a ball with his left foot towards Thomas over Romero, who guessed the failed pass and beat it with his right foot.
Suddenly, Tottenham Stadium roared again. Suddenly, it seemed like his team was in the game, still two goals behind. Nothing more than appearance, until Rice kicked inside the area. The referee did not see it live. He pointed it out later, when he reviewed it in the VAR. Son Heung Min transformed it to rekindle Arsenal’s excitement and anxiety.
The South Korean’s right-footed strike then put the Gunners on the ropes, with Mikel Arteta asking his players for a head start, with the defensive change of Kiwior for Odegaard. A declaration of intentions for the final stretch, just like the introduction of Lo Celso for Davies, with Arsenal locked in their area, but a resilient 2-3 winner. Tottenham no longer depends on themselves for fourth place in their fight with Aston Villa.
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