Leandro Trossard transformed the mood at Arsenal with the winning goal as they recovered from an early setback to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at home and move back into second place in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Belgian Trossard fired in just before halftime to seal a derby victory that not only rekindled Arsenal’s title hopes by cutting the deficit to Liverpool to four points, but also proved a timely tonic after a difficult start to the year.
A 2-0 defeat at home by Newcastle United last week in the League Cup semi-final first leg and then a penalty shootout exit at home against Manchester United in the FA Cup third round had left Arsenal’s season in danger of unravelling.
A season-ending injury to Gabriel Jesus added to Arsenal’s woes this week and when Son Heung-min’s deflected volley gave Tottenham the lead against the run of play after 25 minutes it looked as though Arsenal’s gloom might deepen.
But they hit back impressively to deservedly win a third Premier League north London derby in succession for the first time since 1989. Arsenal moved back above surprise package Nottingham Forest with 43 points from 21 games with Liverpool, who drew with Forest on Tuesday, on 47 from 20.
“Outstanding today. From the first minute we were really at it, really intense. We played with a real purpose to hurt them. We created an unbelievable atmosphere,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said. “The attitude we played with, not feeling sorry for ourselves, was phenomenal.”
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou had no complaints about his side’s 11th league defeat of the season which leaves them in 13th place with 24 points. His side have won only once in nine league games and the Australian knows far better is expected.
“We were nowhere near the level we needed to be in the first half in such a big game,” he said. “Way too passive.”
Tottenham barely got out of their own half in the first 20 minutes but almost took the lead from their first attack when Djed Spence’s low cross looked like being a tap-in for Solanke before a superb interception by Gabriel.
Arsenal keeper David Raya then made a great save from Solanke but he had no chance when Son’s volley flicked off William Saliba to leave him wrong-footed.
The hosts equalised in the 40th minute from a reliable old routine as Declan Rice swung in a corner that left Tottenham keeper Antonin Kinsky floundering and Gabriel’s back post header deflected in off Spurs forward Dominic Solanke.
Tottenham had reason to feel frustrated though as the corner from which Arsenal equalised was shown to have been wrongly awarded, although a downcast Postecoglou made little of it.
Four minutes later the turnaround was complete as Tottenham were yet again guilty of losing the ball in dangerous areas and were punished as Trossard was played in by Martin Odegaard to fire a left-foot shot past the dive of Kinsky who would have been disappointed not to get a hand on it.
Arsenal failed to finish off Tottenham after the break with Kai Havertz and Odegaard both guilty of failing to give their side some breathing space. It almost cost Arsenal as Pedro Porro struck the outside of the post deep in stoppage time for the visitors but Arsenal had done enough to secure the points.
Arteta’s side are unbeaten in 11 Premier League games and while there is still a gap to Liverpool, victory over Tottenham could prove the spark they need to chase down Arne Slot’s team.
“The three points is the most important thing. Hopefully now we can go on a run because this is the most important part of the season,” Rice said.
