Coming into this year's first edition of the North London Derby, it looked like these two teams were going in different directions. Spurs, after a horrid start, had won their last two EPL matches. Arsenal were not quite ready to pull out of a slow start, despite winning their last three in all competitions.
No matter what the form of the two sides is, these matches are almost always competitive, and this one was no exception. Most of the possession and indeed the midfield battle belonged to the Gunners in the first half, even though Spurs created most of the better chances. Unfortunately for Arsenal, their defense continues to have communication issues. Scott Parker got a chance in the 7th minute after some defensive bungling, but in the end his shot was on target but not much of a test for Szczesny. Rafael Van der Vaart had nice look in the 28th, but his cheeky shot was again saved by the Arsenal 'keeper.
The Gunners did have their chances in the first half though. The best of these chances came in the 29th minute. Szczesny triggered a counter after the Van der Vaart shot that found Gervinho with a great look at a semi empty Spurs net. However, the new Arsenal signing somehow bungled his shot wide.
In the 40th minute Spurs finally got on the board, making Arsenal pay for having the possession but not chances. They came down on a counter and totally sliced open the Arsenal defense and it resulted in Van der Vaart slotting home a goal to make it 1-0. There was a talking point here though as the Dutchman appeared to handle the ball as he was bringing it down. The goal stood though and Spurs led 1-0 at the half.
Arsenal came out determined to answer in the second half. Whatever Wenger said to them at the break seemed to help. In the 52nd minute Aaron Ramsey, who had been atrocious for the whole match, took a nice low cross from Alex song and put it past Friedel to knot the match at 1-1, and it looked to be game on.
Unfortunately for Arsenal though, it wasn't. That was about the last thing they had to cheer about. Spurs continued the attack and took the lead for good in the 73rd minute as fullback Kyle Walker slammed home a golazo from outside the 18 to make it 2-1. Arsenal never really got much going after that, and Spurs held on to the 2-1 win to move closer to the top of the table and send Arsenal reeling back toward the relegation zone. Poor performance really from the Gunners.
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