Arsenal fell behind to a first-half Erik Lamela fluke, but Kieran Tierney provided the assist for Martin Odegaard to equalise before the break.
Substitute Nicolas Pepe produced a great pass for Alexandre Lacazette who was clumsily taken out by Davinson Sanchez, and the striker picked himself up to score the penalty which took all three points.
There was late drama as Lamela was deservedly sent off, Harry Kane hit the post with a free kick, but in the end the Gunners hung on to take all three points and make Jose Mourinho sad.
Here’s how the players rated.
Read the Arsenal 2-1 Sp*rs match report and see the goals here
Arsenal 2-1 Sp*rs – Player Ratings
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Great win for us!
Lamela got what he deserved. Rabona that red card you god damn loser.
The win gave me a raboner.
LOL!
Comment of the day.
Take a bow, Mayor!
Reading this made the win even more satisfying! Brilliant!…
win!
Winning!!!
I don’t know whether its their cock-on-a-basketball badge, their completely unfounded arrogance or their cohort of bang-average cheating players that annoys me more.
You look at Lamela and think Is that the most punchable face in football? But the. You look around and there are 5 or 6 more in the same team including the manager.
For me, Harry Kane is the most punchable face in football, followed in joint second place by Lamela and Bale.
bruno fernandes must be 1b to kane’s 1a, yeah?
John Terry. Man, Captain, Lumpy Forehead.
Nah…Newcastle’s Miguel Almiron takes that title. Lamela comes a close second though
Lamela wins it hands down. The absolutely most punchable mug in PL. I cancelled my trip to South America because of him
Punchables Starting XI?:
Kepa
Trippier, John Terry, Phil Jones, Shaw
Almiron, Fernandez, Lamela,
Kane, Vardy, Richarlison
Manager: Mourinho, obviously
A cock is an appropriate image for their badge
You don’t have to choose.It’s ok to hate everything about them.
By my calculations Lamela could have had 3 or 4 yellows. What a dirty player.
You could see Michael Oliver had lost patience with him. A very satisfying turn of events.
As much of a dick Lamela is, and as much he tried to bait Luiz and Xhaka, I wish we had someone who apart from adding flair also enjoyed provoking. We are blessed with a lot of young, hardworking talent coming through (level headed and uber focussed Saka and ESR – I love these guys, Wenger would have been so proud to have them around instead of Ox and Walcott) but I would like someone spiky and sneaky sometimes. I remember Cesc on his day would leave in a foot, as would Van Persie – not quite Wilshere, who would… Read more »
Mace Guendou
Eric Lamela – from rabona to red boner
Great stuff. Pepe was excellent when coming on. Simply has to start our next couple of games or he’ll put the lie to the idea that this is a meritocracy.
I like Pepe as a Super Sub. Run at defenders when they are tired. Bring him on at the 60-70th minute. Thought this was ESRs far and away best play out “wide” consistently causing Hojbjerg and Sanchez all kinds of problems over/underlapping with Tierney.
That would make sense if he hadn’t been our best player on his last few starts as well. He finally got some confidence and started playing with consistency and was dropped for Willian.
No he wasn’t.. willian came in for smith-rowe to perform his “role”. That he came on for Saka isn’t a coincidence. I think he needs to prove to arteta he’s worth changing the system for, but I think he can.
His ball for Laca was sublime. I don’t think he’s done enough to displace Saka if he’s fit, but I’m just happy we have attacking options again.
I’m less upset about Arteta benching him for ESR-MO-Saka, but it’s Willian who is rotating in for one of those.
Pepe came on before Willian tbf, seems that Arteta know prefers him on the right over Willian which makes sense.
His spell on the left seems to have given him confidence and he seems to be roaming more
Today he did. My comments here are clearly in reference to the past several weeks. He’s choosing to play Willian out of position instead of playing Pepe or Saka on the left.
I guess we drop Saka then because he’s not getting in ahead of ESR or Odegaard imo
Saka needs a rest and it shows. Would be good to see Mikel give him a week out of the starting lineup against Olympiakos and West Ham, with Pepe in his place
Agreed and sick of the poor protection the refs give him. I guess people thought I was being sarcastic but I wasn’t.
Yeah he’s been class recently. Really want to see more of him.
Martinelli?
You know I was pining for ESR all along and then Mikel unleashed him. I’m hoping when Martinelli comes he will be ready to rock, too.
For me Arteta’s reticence to start him, particularly in light of the chances given to Willian (who yes has been in better form compared to the low bar he set for himself) has already put the lie to the meritocracy. It’s insane to me he hasn’t started more games since finding some excellent form during February.
0/10 for Martin Tyler in the first half repeatedly saying the ref hadn’t blown up for half time when there was still a whole minute of stoppage time left
Init wtf was that!!!
“The ref hasnt blown for halftime yet”, yes martin, because its not halftime yet
Haha! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one, thought I was going nuts.
The twat is so biased. We were absolutely dominating them and he was making out that this was all fine and get excited when ever Spurs got over half way. If it was the other way round he’d have been ridiculing us.
That annoyed the fuck out of me – plus, nobody was in his earpiece to tell him how to count to 2. Sky want him gone.
Lee Dixon and Arlo White on US commentary actually said at one point that Arsenal were “bossing” it—but then again, they didn’t think there was anything there for Kane’s late foul on Gabriel, which had me fuming.
Gabriel will take that shove as a compliment for bossing Kane around all day. Remember Rob and Diego C? I’m proud of the composure we showed yesterday (not the last 10 mins though). Next step, stomp some Lamela’s ankles accidentally, punch Kane’s kidney when jostling, rake Hojberg’s calf, etc
Yes looking at it again, we’re lucky it was on Gabriel. Had that happened to one of our smaller youngsters like Saka, ESR or Odegard I think we would be looking at some lasting damage.
Smith Rowe you beauty!
Him or Tierney my man of the match today. Absolutely roasted their right wing.
Yes, add Odegaard into the mix, hard to pick one from 3.
Imagine when we have someone who can head in crosses (coughMartinellicoughcoughcough), Tierney will get 30 assists a season.
Exactly. I love Mikel…but I swear to god, him not playing Pepe and martinelli is starting to piss me off.
10/10 for Cedric’s swimsuit pose behind the wall to guard against low shots on the last two Sp*rs free kicks.
Get that man on a calendar! We need funds this summer.
Cedric’s delicious humble pie. I want more
I don’t know that I’d have him as first choice each week, but he’s been quietly brilliant whenever called on
Spuds are sh*te
And in other news….
That’s redundant.
10/10 for that picture too 😂
Really impressive performance today. Ødegaard was my man of the match, he looked really busy today. Smith Rowe, Partey, Xhaka and Gabriel were all superb. Great to see that disgusting cunt get sent off too, and Kane was almost anonymous until the last 10 minutes. A perfect way to end a weekend.
Not forgetting Bale being rendered completely anonymous. Lovely to see that in the first hour.
So true..I actually had to double check he was on the team sheet afterwards
He’s on there as “Wanker”.
Bale has no more passion for football. Wasted talent.
Xhaka wasn’t bad, but he’s so frustrating.
The amount of times he could have played an early ball to people in good positions, but he has to take one or two extra touches because he has no right foot, then he turns and plays the safe ball backwards.
If we really want to be challenging, we need an upgrade next season, but considering Mikel was just the same, as an Arsenal player, Xhaka will still be first choice.
hate to disagree, but he was damn close to my MoM today, and we also need to give him credit for how good he has been defensively lately. i think at least once per match we’ve had a “xhaka with a risky but perfect goal saving tackle” moment. give credit where it is due
Don’t hate to disagree. We can’t all agree, we’ll have nothing to say. Like I said, he wasn’t bad. However, our attack would be so much more fluid and dangerous if he moved the ball quicker. The space will be there, but he moves in slow motion, controlling the ball/moving the ball both with his left foot. By then, the pass is gone and he goes backwards. End of the match, he has a 90+% pass completion. Great! We won’t compete at the top until we get an upgrade on Xhaka, somebody even 1.5 footed who will see the pass… Read more »
Give credit to David Luis too for his calm and experience distributing and defending.
Nah, I’ll give that one a miss.
Kudos to Arteta because I think he prepared & set up the team perfectly for this one. Would like to know what his first reaction once he walked into the changing room was as he looked like he’s gonna absolutely murder them for that closing sequence.
I don’t say this to take anything away from Arteta, but Spurs were diabolical and got it completely wrong. They only had any life late on because they were forced to actually go for it.
Christ people – I’m saying Arteta got it right, that’s what the first clause there was for. It just so happens that Mourinho also got it completely wrong. Hence them only having one half-chance before the final ten minutes.
I don’t understand the thumbs down there
Is there a Spurs player more annoying that Lamela? He is so hate-able!
Their 10 other twats are not far behind
Plus the coaching staff, subs and the dinner lady in the canteen ( Not the one who served them Lasagne I might add )
Dele Alli used to be level. The moustache somehow makes his face less punchable. The fact he’s shit nowadays helps too.
still punchable
Kane deserves more scrutiny, a technically excellent player but also a conniving, cheating bastard!
Agreed, Kane is the luckiest player alive to be England captain, gets away with every snide foul going.
I agree that Kane does a lot of sneaky things, and knows he will get away with almost all in England–but Lamela is pretty clearly a cut above him in being perfectly happy to injure an opponent. It’s not Spurs in this case–he does the same for Argentina.
How is kane not happy to injure an opponent? haha
I can say easily, I hate Kane more than Lamela. Lamela is a prick that every one can see, including the refs and the media. Kane is an equal cunt, but we ALL know if Kane slapped our player the ref isn’t even blowing for a foul, let alone a red card. The way he backs in players jumping for headers in hopes the break something, and knowing he’s the white lion of England and the refs will allow play to go on. Fucking hate him.
That late foul on Gabriel really pissed me off. Linesman was right fucking there too.
Dier
rose and walker, back when those were the starting fullbacks
Kane not far off. Dirty, dirty prick.
I’m so happy we won but those last 15 minutes were torture! I thought we were excellent before that though. Proud day to be a gooner!
Lovely to see Lamela put in the full pantomime villain performance and get his marching orders at the end. What a cunt.
Good to see Leno putting his boot thru the ball sometimes rather than feeling he always has to play the ball out from the back.
Some of those in the last few minutes were odd though, given they had 10 men it was basically just conceding possesion to there centrebacks.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a penalty taker as money as Lacazette. But – genuine question – does he actually bring anything else that say, Nketiah or Martinelli wouldn’t?
Made some strange decisions in the opposition box today but, generally, his hold up play is better than both Nketiah & Martinelli (& auba) and his link up play with ESR, Ødegaard & whoever supports him is pretty good as well.
Despite not getting some pretty standard shots off today, I was happy he started
Hasn’t had much game time recently. Maybe a little rusty.
Lacas been rusty for going on 4 years now…I’m sure he’ll come good soon though…
I thought Lacazertte was very good as part of the four-man attacking unit (or five, if you count Tierney), creating “pre-chances” for each other, keeping possession in dangerous areas, reclaiming the ball quickly when we lost it. If you think of it that way, he more than did his part.
Personally I don’t think he was great today penalty aside. He missed some great opportunities and he was incredibly static in and around the box. When you have tierney and Smith-Rowe passing and moving so well you have to make runs in behind.
Yeah if it hadn’t been for the pen we’d all be destroying him on here for missing some very presentable chances
he strikes me as a smaller, more mobile giroud at this point. not a massive goal scorer, but at this point he’s on more to bring those around him into play
Had we lost the game, the likes to dislike ratio on the tweet would be invesre. Laca was absolutely pathetic
Laca give 100 pct. He fight for every ball. But I hope those battles can be more productive. Good strikers are elusive, intelligent and mobile.
After weeks, I can start looking at the table again and work out all kinds of silly permutations and combinations! E.g. West Ham drawing or losing. The life of an Arsenal fan these days.
St Totteringham’s Day is back on..
heh
Ohhh to be a gooner
I always back Lacazette but he was dreadful today, he hasn’t had a bad game in a while but his all round play wasn’t good at all. Terrific pen but I expect player of his quality to be having a much better game, his touch was off, he looked off the pace, looked leggy, missed a good chance. However he has only started twice in the last 8 games and he has been hard done by there, he had a great game against Leicester, then he still gets dropped, Aubameyang missed 3 sitters against Benfica and he started the next… Read more »
True Lacazette gametime has been pooly managed by Arteta especially when he’s been in form. Lacazette has had a better season than Aubaameyang stats wise (Shooting accuracy, goals per minute ratio etc.) I would extend his contract as he’s not in the same boat as the Bellerins and xhaka’s of Arsenal and he would still contribute to the squad and help young players.
I couldn’t have said it better myself
Is it just me or is ESR one brilliant footballer ??? Really good from him today he makes that team so much better ! Ødegaard was class and Kieran Tierney almost God like ! Ditto most of the team until the last 15. Stop it lads just stop it !
I thought he was superb, reminds me of Ramsey playing out on the wing. Honestly the best way to include both him and Ødegaard, and makes our left side so strong with Tierney running the touchline.
Ramsey is the wrong comparison for ESR, I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned already but he looks like Nasri out left when it was him, Fab, Theo, and RVP
I fucking hate Spurs. Like properly hate. Take all your combined hate, double it and you still don’t come close to a fraction of mine.
Love Arsenal though.
Love the analogy bro
My wife managed to convince her sister that Lamela’s goal was cancelled when he was sent off. Her sister is a bit gullible.
I’m sure during the break, Mou asked his players to rough up ours, suddenly ESR was being hauled down so frequently, off the ball fouls and shoulders et all and then he bitches about the referees! But out game management sucks, we just keep dropping deep for no reason when all we need to do is hold the ball and against 10men. Willian seem to be back again, looked to have lost his touch in between with the running and assisting, but in this game, he was back to his old self. Don’t understand why Arteta wouldn’t give Martenelli a… Read more »
Fantastic result and tactics. Absolutely dominated until Spurs went down to 10 men, then we seemed to panic. ESR’s best game by far out on the left. We have some brilliant youngsters! One tweak I’d like to see more of: our attacking players get the ball in the entry corner of the penalty box and then pass it back out too often. I’d like to see ESR, Saka, Odegaard take on the defenders more often. Put them under pressure. Penalties and goals will come. They (plus Pepe, probably too much!) do that to some extent — I’d just like to… Read more »
I’ve watched back that penalty
Sanchez is nowhere near the ball, he’s late, and clatters Lacazette
Why did everyone in the Sky studio think it’s not a penalty?
Without my pro Arsenal bias, that was a clear cut penalty
Because most of the commentors on Sky are morons.
Biased at that.
Didn’t I hear Redknapp say “It’s reckless but it’s not a penalty”.? That one is straight out of the Michael Owen handbook of shite.
Think I heard Jenas say Laca was also reckless and shouldn’t have been a penalty as a result. I wonder what these guys smoke.
What the studio failed to notice or take into account is that because Laca missed shot the ball was beside him when tackled in box. So Sanchez stopped him getting to ball AGAIN and scoring by wiping him out (without getting ball). Thats why its a penalty
The shot and where the ball is are immaterial. It’s a foul and it’s in the box, thus it’s a penalty. You’d get done for a late chop like that anywhere on the park, so no argument over whether it’s a foul.
If Laca were still on the ball, that would be deliberate denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity, still a penalty, but with a red card to ice the cake.
Exactly!
I wonder why no one took notice of that! Laca could have easily retrieved the ball as it was still in play after the miscue.
At last…
the Xhaka – Partey partnership produced what we hoped for. It was great to see their composure and solidity.
To be fair, Mr. Perfect Partey was pretty poor today.
Not one of his best days but did a job 🙂
Fantastic performance all-round, arguably our best under Arteta up until their red card which weirdly made them much more dangerous. Ødegaard just edges ESR MotM for me, hopefully Madrid weren’t watching that! Those two and Saka have serious talent. Honourable mention to Tierney as well, arguably the league’s best LB this season. And Cedric will have given Arteta serious pause for thought again.
We have two very good rightbacks, but Cedric edges it.
ESR and Gabriel were phenomenal today! Good game from Xhaka too. 🙂
when i try access this site through facebook, no comments get shown .. dont know if its only me going through this just thought id let you know.
2 matches in a row for me, that the starting lineup and all the other articles don’t come up till after game (quiet a bit actually) anybody else having that problem
Only on my ipad, front page is missing new articles. I found them on the matches page, but then I think that page stopped updating as well. It is as though the browser keeps loading the cache instead of new content.
Facebook is shite.
Honestly , i find Soares a better player than Bellerin.. He can shot ..he can dribble ..he can run fast ,almost like Hector do …
Great performance! Cedric is 1st choice RB for me now
Bale who?
He’s that guy with the man bun peaking out of Tierney’s pocket😀
bale’d out
Gareth Fail
Gareth Balrenghi’s Darkplace
0/10 for the fact the officials, and VAR, didn’t even look at Sir Harry ‘England captain so gets away with everything’ Kanes complete doing of Gab. Disgraceful challenge, he knew what he was doing.
I don’t know if Oliver didn’t see it, but as far as VAR is concerned, I have no problem with letting it go. It’s not a clear-cut red, and I don’t want the game re-officiated. That said, it would be nice if referees, when they do see what he is doing, judged Kane with the same yardstick they use on a player who is (a) not English, (b) doesn’t play for England, and (c) is not England captain. Oliver, actually, is probably a referee self-confident enough to do that. Ask Gigi Buffon.
Was a red. These are the exact things that VAR should be picking up. The ref couldn’t see how bad it was in real time but VAR it was clear.
Plus it was direct contact with the head – which under the new HIA rules is supposed to be extremely strictly policed.
Would even had been in card in rugby, ffs!!
Glad that skull-faced prick was sent off
NO one has noticed Saka having a bad game since ESR has been moved from CAM… he doesn’t have the same understanding with Odegaard because Odegaard Occupies a lot of the areas he likes to play in on the right Odegaard tends to drop right to receive a pass instead of stay in pocket or run behind like ESR so that style doesnt suit Saka and congests his space to cut in from the right hence he’s been quiet lately. I think Arteta has to look at this combination carefully and find a solution for it. Because it happened against… Read more »
Give odegaard more time to learn where saka likes to play. To be fair saka was picking up the positions of a right sided Cf in a 2 man partnership today…
Bukayo Henry??
Completely agree. One possible solution (before Odegaard adapts) is to reverse ESR and Saka. My observation is that Odegaard passes to the right much less often the left. Put Saka on the left and he’ll see a lot of the ball, and in useful spaces. Even if ESR is getting low-usage he’ll make himself useful defensively. He’ll also make himself useful by making runs that divert defensive attention.
Odegaard is class. Less chaotic than ESR. It’s no coincidence that we’re controlling games more with him in AM.
To me Saka just looks tired.
Saka’s looked off the boil. Poor management by Arteta. Hope the injury isn’t serious.
Odegaard’s tactical pressing is impressive. Kept ndombele on a leash which isn’t easy. Seems to still be studying the League. Would love to keep him permanently.
The less said about that last 10 minutes the better. Partey was awful in that period.
Happy with the win. Hoping manutd stuff westham so that we stuff them too.
Cedric deserved to start. Moura caused us all sorts of problems. Wish we’d doubled up on him early as.
Happy to sale bale disappoint mourninho.
That was great, nothing like beating spurs and Mourinho in the same game. Smith-Rowe is slowly becoming my favorite player, we should make sure he lives up to his potential by bringing in Rosicky to coach him in thirty yard screamers and music taste.
Also, thanks for the blogs, Blogs. I enjoyed reading about your father recently, and everything else over the last dozen or so years of course, cheers.
COYG!! And if there’s a player you always want to see sent off, it would be Lamela. Delightful stuff.
I really can’t understand the stick Partey is getting for the “foul” on Kane. That dimwit did what he always does, backing into defender and kicking his legs behind, what was Partey supposed to do about that?
Yep that was a clear kane dive
I cannot take my eyes off esr and kt when playing. Gosh the shoulder drop by esr is something. Oh and Pepe. Wow
watching the 1st half I thought we got our arsenal back. Getting better making progress.
Although I’m from Norway I have to say that Martin Odegaard has a big role to play in this team. Who is running the most? Picking the pocket? Always wanting the ball!?! Starting the press. Love Martin and think that the sky Is the limit for him… Newly appointed National team captain and scored in the El and PL for us this week. Let’s keep this diamond. 🙌
Mr. Odegaard is a total baller.
Really REALLY hope we figure out a way to keep him!
Have to eat my previous words and agree that Odegaard is starting to adapt. Was previously concerned that ESR would be marginalised but clearly both can play effectively in this structure. Both were outstanding. Big shout out for Xhaka yet again; the man is class and a big character.
Harry Kane is a prize winning turd. Deliberately wiped out Gabriel off the ball and badly but nothing done about it as always…that bloke is a massive fucking bellend
And that dive on the Partey “foul” just outside the box, if not for Lamela he’d be the biggest prick on a team full of pricks
Fuck yes.
How was Kane nit penalised for that late tackle on Gabriel? What an absolute tosser.
Ratings spot on today. 1) Leno – Agree, last 15 you need your keeper to calm things down not put the ball back into play by lobbing it forward. 2) Cedric – Reasonable game today. Tidy enough with possession. 3) Luiz – Good today with long balls to left side (Tierney/ESR). Must have been 4 or 5 superb cross field balls and a couple lobbed forward. Even came forward a couple of times for forays upfield. 4) Gabriel – Good cover. But turning point of match his intercept of goal bound rebound off the Kane shot which hit the post.… Read more »
Is there a more cunty player in the PL than Lamela? He even scores cunty goals
Not currently butbrheybare predicting that Diagi Costa will return
Great win. Gabriel had Harry kane in his pocket throughout all the game. We definitely deserved this victory
Congratulations to Tierney for his new home. Gonna be living rent free in Matt Dohertys head. May have ended his sp*rs career after that performance. Shit season but at least we beat those cunts
How Kane was still on the pitch at FT is absolutely beyond me. To a man I thought we were fantastic tonight, dodgy moments aside, really really solid stuff on the back of a long trip back from Greece not to long ago.
I thinks Soares earned himself some more playing time. Odegaard is a keeper and I think he enjoys being a goner. Smith-Rowe, what more can you say.
LOVED to see Bale proven the broken player he is once Son came off – been useless all season excepting Championship level opposition, but don’t tell the pundits that. ØMG gotta stay. Fits perfectly in Arteta’s system and with our young crop. Clearly loves it here. Love his celebrations. Please start Pepe more. As much as I love Saka, assuming his injury isn’t too bad, I’m happy for him to see some rest, and for Pepe to play more. ESR was leggy and dogged leading up to his recent niggle and now that he’s refreshed he’s back to his best.… Read more »
Gabriel, Tierney, ESR, Cedric, Xhaka–all of them were very good today. Sp*rs set up as if they were scared of us.
What I like about today is Mourinho came with the exact same plan he had in the away fixture against them but we dealt with them much better. Like in so many areas, the team is showing real improvement.
MØ is just a motivated and defensively active MÖ. I hope we could sign him on a permanent term.