Arsenal not good enough against a Son and Kane inspired performance.

Full-time result

Tottenham

Son Hung-min ‘13

Harry Kane ‘46

2

0

Arsenal

MATCH STATS

Possession: 30%—70% 

Fouls: 16—12

Yellow cards: 1—2 

Offside{s}: 1—0

Corner kicks: 3—9

Saves: 2—1

It was another loss for Arsenal as they gifted three points to Tottenham.

Despite enjoying more than twice the amount of possession as our hosts, we couldn’t trouble the opposition goalkeeper often enough and suffered another damaging Premier League defeat.

Mikel Arteta’s side looked promising after 10 minutes with a long-range drive from new man Thomas Partey which went wide, and three minutes later, they would go 1-nil down after Harry Kane proves his linkup play with Son. Kane’s pass found Son Hung-min on the left side who saw some space by the retreating Rob Holding and cut it in with a ‘curler’ to the right end of the post, beating goalkeeper Leno.

Arsenal resumed gameplay, and 19 minutes later, an unmarked Son made a cross to Harry Kane but was headed out for a corner by Rob Holding, who has been helpful with the high clearing passes coming into the Arsenal yard.

Arsenal pressed harder all through the first half, but all moves seem futile with captain and top striker Aubameyang yet to find his scoring form in the premier league season. Arsenal pressed for an equalizer but missed a good chance with Willian not connecting to the pinpoint cross from Aubameyang in the 39th minute.

An equalizer could have happened in the 43rd minute with Alexandre Lacazette’s free-kick, which was goal bound, headed to the corner by Harry Kane.

Tottenham appeared happy to sit back and catch us on the break, which is exactly what they did in the final minute of the first half. Alexandre Lacazette – playing in the number 10 role – found Hector Bellerin well inside the box. But when his cross was cut out, the hosts sprang forward, outnumbered us, and finished through Harry Kane.

Dani Ceballos replaced Thomas Partey after he suffered another injury. A good cross by fast-rising star Bukayoko Saka was headed goalward by Lacazette, but fellow Frenchman and stopper Hugo Lloris had it nicely and safely kept.

In the 48th minute, a Tierney cross found Aubameyang, who nods it wide this time. In the 67th minute, a cross from Bellerin was headed to the goal by Lacazette but was yet stopped again by Hugo Lloris.

Tottenham vs Arsenal Review

on the performance…

In terms of the performance they did everything that I asked them to do, absolutely everything. We played a way that I believe we had to play this game. You look at all our stats, they were in our favour, but at the end of the day it is about putting the ball in the box. The first situation they had, from 30 yards they put it in the top corner. You have to applaud it. The second one, Thomas has to come off, we can not fill the gap that he should be in and we get done. Just before we had an open situation to score a goal as well. After that, in this moment, normally the team will fall. And the team got better after the first one, the team got better after the second one. They tried to generate situations. We had chances. We generated probably more than ever this season, put the ball in the box more than ever, we had numbers there but at the end of the day you have to score the goals. When they had half chances they scored and at the moment we haven’t. So to build something you need results. I take a lot of positives from the way we played. When you come here in this moment and play with a personality, and courage, and passion, the energy, the belief that the boys showed, but at the end it’s a football match. You have to win it and we lost again today.

~ Mikel Arteta

The result leaves us in the wrong half of the table and winless in our last four league games.

Arsenal will host Burnley FC in their next Premier League match; hopefully, it brings a turnaround and good luck.

WHAT’S NEXT

We conclude our Europa League group stage with a trip to Dundalk, Ireland on Thursday – looking to make it six wins out of six in the competition – before Premier League football resumes at the Emirates on Sunday against Burnley.

COYG!!!

Match Review by Adeyemo Adesola