By Rob Kelly
WHAT HAPPENED
We lost the first north London derby at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium despite taking the lead through Alex Lacazette’s stunning strike.
For long stretches we looked the more threatening of the two sides, but paid the price for some slack defending and headed back up the Seven Sisters Road empty handed.
It had started so well too, when Lacazette received the ball 25 yards out, and took one look up before arrowing an unstoppable shot into the top corner.
But within 137 seconds the hosts had equalised when Sead Kolasinac’s misplaced pass back towards David Luiz put his team-mate in trouble, and Heung-min Son took full advantage.
An entertaining and open first half continued to yield chances, with Emi Martinez at full stretch to divert Ben Davies’ long-range strike against the bar before Nicolas Pepe curled a low shot just wide at the other end.
The Ivorian was growing in influence as the half wore on, and after winning a free kick on the edge of the area after escaping Davies, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck a firm effort inches past the post.
We kept pushing in the second half and came close to restoring our lead when Aubameyang was found in space in the area by Lacazette but our captain hit the frame of the goal.
The hosts then had a chance themselves when Harry Kane got past Mustafi and poked the ball toward Son, but Martinez flew out of his goal and got there just before the Tottenham forward.
Aubameyang had Hugo Lloris at full stretch with a curling half volley in the closing stages, before Martinez saved well from Kane as the game opened up.
Tottenham though, claimed the points when Toby Alderweireld headed home Son’s pinpoint corner to cap off a disappointing derby day for Mikel Arteta’s side.
HOW IT HAPPENED
See how the derby unfolded with our play-by-play commentary.
WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT’S NEXT
It doesn’t get tougher than our next two games, as we host champions Liverpool on Wednesday before taking on Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup semi-final at Wembley three days later.
Then it’s our final two Premier League games of the season, as we travel to Aston Villa before finishing up at Emirates Stadium against Watford on July 26.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
