Martin Odegaard says Arsenal’s second goal against Sp*rs was absolutely crucial to wrestling back momentum in the north London derby.
In a pulsating first half, the Gunners dominated possession and deservedly took the lead before Harry Kane’s penalty, awarded for a foul by Gabriel Magalhaes on Richarlison, cancelled out Thomas Partey’s eye-catching opener.
The half time whistle arguably came at a better moment for Mikel Arteta’s side with the visitors, buoyed by their goal, looking increasingly confident on the counter-attack.
Conte’s men were the first to attack after the restart but after William Saliba had snuffed out a surge by Cristian Romero, the Gunners struck a deadly blow.
Saka cut in from the right flank and arrowed a low drive at Hugo Lloris and Gabriel Jesus pounced on the loose ball to convert from close range. After that, the Gunners never looked back. Granit Xhaka hammered home a third just past the hour mark before Sp*rs were reduced to 10 men.
“I think it was crucial,” said Odegaard of Jesus’ goal.
“We dominated the game from the start but they scored out of nothing and it was important to strike back and get the momentum again and the energy, so I think it was crucial to get the second goal.
“From that moment I think we controlled the game again and it was a solid win in the end. It’s always nice when you get two goals up and then after that when they had one man less we could keep the ball and I think they suffered a lot.”
Odegaard also took a moment to reflect on the manner in which Arsenal broke the deadlock. A patient 22 pass move saw the ball worked from side to side before an unmarked Partey whipped an effort into the top right corner from 24 yards.
According to our captain, the club had worked on taking advantage of such situations.
“It was a great goal. We knew before the game he was going to be free in those areas and we practised that a lot, to find him in those areas, and he made a great shot.
“I think he played a great game as well so a lot of credit to him, and of course the team.”
I love Thomas Partey. What an effortlessly excellent player.
I’m here again. To milk every ounce of feel good feely feelings from this win
Milk it baby! Squeeze them titties
Oozing confidence
Shmoken’en them if you got em.
Still top of the table in October! Stuff of fairy tales!!! Arteta ball is ahead of schedule…
Yes, I don’t think Arteta, or many fans, would have thought we’d be where we are now. October though will be a real test of the squad – nine games, I think in various competitions. It’s too soon in the season to say it’s a “make or break” month, especially with the World Cup looming but we should get a better idea by the end of the month as to whether we’re going to be able to maintain a real challenge for the Premiership title rather than, say, a top four finish.
No team in EPL history with more than 20 points in 8 games has ever finished below 4th position …. Champions League, here we return …. Champions …. why not🤩
Hahahah! Beautifully put Olawale, me too!
Watched the game at the local Arsenal pub here in Aalborg, Denmark. Glorious atmosphere, made better by the fact that my girlfriend had taken our daughter with her to work at the theatre – she was getting ready for a play starting a good half hour after the final whistle (thanks honey, for letting our 3½ year old run around trying costumes and makeup with your wonderful colleagues while you got ready). As I walked into the backstage area, I magnificently bumped into her two Sp*rs-supporting colleagues… it was like a perfect storm of an unexpected afternoon off, a great… Read more »
Great buy, Jesus (and Zinchenko).
Plus Saliba coming back, awesome player. Please get that contract signed Edu.
I remember being worried about buying a short striker and being underwhelmed by his signing. Thank God I am not a football manager and if I were I’d take my concepts to Sp*rs and get them relegated. What a signing he’s been! all of them in fact
Have definitely both contributed hugely to the overall team’s winning mentality. Something we have lacked for quite sometime. We’ve had the odd player like Alexis but instead of raising the team’s mentality, it gave him the individual feeling of being to big for the club. This time round it is in pure unity.
Spot on about Alexis, unreal player ability but plays for himself not a unifier. Mikel has recruited players with the proper winning mentality. Long may it continue. And it goes without saying but fuck Spurs and that diving Harry Kunt.
5 year one please Edu
Preferably 10!
Xhaka goal was not any less crucial. That absolutely calmed us down. On another note, Partey was immense yesterday. Also feels really wrong to keep a player of Tomiyasu’s quality out of the starting XI. His inclusion in the team will take this team up another notch. Although not sure how he can be accommodated given White is doing well. Only way I see is playing White in place of Gabriel (who seems to have an mistake in him every game) and putting Tomi in White’s place. But since we are winning and Arteta seems wedded to the idea of… Read more »
I would like to see a White/Saliba partnership tried out.
Im sure we will see all these combinations, its a long old season and having Tomi as back up shows we are really starting to get strength in depth. Tomi will play lots of football this season
Just to add another possibility: Tomiyasu has played as a left-sided centerback for Japan.
Jesus has the tenacity and spirit of Laca, the finishing composure of Auba, and the poachers instinct of Nketiah, all rolled into one player.
Top quality purchase.
And thankfully didn’t get booked so he’ll be available to terrorise Liverpool next weekend.
That’s a pretty bad player you’ve imagined there.
Now if you said:
Tenacity of Sanchez
Composure of Henry
Poachers instinct of Wright
If Carlsberg did strikers.
That was sweet. I read everything everywhere even the sh!t talksport and want some more, when is the next game?COYG
We didn’t have anyone to score those type of goals before. Brilliant quick feet, poachers finish after Saka’s good work. It is like all the goals we now get from set pieces. Back under Wenger that never used to happen. Credit to Jesus for being brilliant, but also Arteta and his coaches for setting us up to maximising our chances to score.
Mate, if you think we didn’t score from set pieces under Wenger, may I kindly point you in the direction of Henry’s quickly taken free kick against Villa, Welbeck’s injury time header against Leicester from Ozil’s free kick and the direct free kick goals we had aplenty from Bergkamp, Van Persie, Ozil and Alexis.
It’s fantastic to see the current side utilising it’s skill sets so comprehensively, but to imply with a sweeping statement that scoring from set pieces never happened under Wenger is beyond ridiculous.
Oh Welbecks against Leicester…… we should have won it from there.
But for a leaky defence, we would have done so.
That’s where we lost that title – the defence.
Kos and Co were ok, but they weren’t mentally strong enough for a title tilt. They let Arsene down.
Granit Xhaka hammered home a third just past the hour mark before Sp*rs were reduced to 10 men. Needs to be changed to AFTER Sp*rs were reduced to 10.
But I’m here to more importantly remind everyone that NL IS RED!!!
Liverpool, although in mixed form, will be a tough challenge next week so it was important to keep momentum 🙂
I was going to say the same. Looks like nobody really cares in the circumstances, and who can blame them! North London is Red, that’s all that matters
Indeed! COYG
I was convinced a good striker would make 12 points stronger. I hope I’m wrong and it’s more than that
You’re right. Coming into the season, I was hoping/expecting us to get a smidge over 80 points. But based on everything I’ve seen till now, I’d say it’s about time we go all out for the title. Also, before the season Arteta said he’s target was to score 100 goals. We’re averaging 2.5/game works to 95 goals for the season although it is worth noting that this is a little skewed based on the fact we still have to face last season’s top 3 oppositions. Although all in all good progress, couldn’t have asked for anything more. Up the gunners!!
Before the NLD there were quite a few pundits bigging up the nasty ones from down the road; maintaining that they were definitely in with a shout for the title. How did the Mugsmashers do yesterday? Funny how things work out in the game of football,right? Hope we can keep this impetus up for the whole season and the injury devils keep their distance. A joy to watch our lads yesterday!!
The media in general have had their tongues firmly up Tottenham’s collective butt holes for ages.
Long may it continue say I, as they are being proved, time and again, to be what they truly are; as delusional and clueless as the Spuds themselves.
Harry kane’s the reason,can’t do no wrong in the media’s eyes. He’s a sneaky dirty cunt. He gets away with some filthy challenges.
Remember that potential leg breaker against Robertson? This was Paul Tierney’s response when asked why he didn’t show Kane a straight red:
“Captain Kane was on a peaceful, studs-up, completely-out-of-control patrol over the turf when Robertson cut across his flight path. The Liverpool player suffered extensive damage, but thankfully, Group Captain Kane is perfectly fine and is even now getting ready to dive for his next penalty.
The Big News from yesterday; with X players out on loan, with Y injuries, we had 3 games to play. This on a Saturday after interlull (players from all age groups travelled). Further remember match day squads are 18 +/- nowadays. Apart from own win v the guys from N17, our 21’s drew v Liverpool away whilst our 18’s beat Norwich away. That a great day.
Sore head this morning, got a bit celebratey! Still, gonna cut the grass with a smile as well as a hangover.
Isn’t payback lovely!!!
Haha just don’t let Emerson’s studs anywhere near it and I’m sure that lawn’s gonna look lovely.
That last cut before the Autumn really kicks in, eh? I did mine Friday.
Yoi wonder what they think at man city now? “Yeah, well, we have this 400 million quids here, we should buy best striker from the markets again then next summer, because we are money wasting lot with no history. So whose that player then? Oh, Jesus, is 200 million enough?”
If Saliba can keep Haaland (reasonably) quiet, we have a great chance against City.
Think of how we ripped them a new arse at the Emirates on New Years Day. We only lost that game for the same reason we lost up at Old Toilet recently: the cunts in charge of VAR.
‘If’
Watching the highlights from the United city game I still think we’ve got a way to go, 2 hat-tricks from 2 different players, you’re going to have to do more than just shut haaland up. They look like a more refined us. The only way we beat city on the day is by taking every chance that falls to us. That being said I’m more interested to see how we stand against a faltering liverpool.
Best striker this season, so far – Haaland.
Best centreback this season, so far – Saliba.
Best two teams this season, so far – City & Arsenal.
It’ll be a hell of a game. I just pray whatever the result, it’s not down to some cunt in a black shirt sitting in front of a monitor making shyte decisions.
Blogs: Small correction. The last sentence of the fifth paragraph should read: Granit Xhaka hammered a third home just after the hour mark AFTER Sp*rs were reduced to ten men.
He’s quite right. We played very well (good football, possession, the great goal etc) for most of the first half but after their penalty things were looking less assured. The break came, as the article says, more for our benefit than theirs. We needed that vital second goal fairly quickly – and great news that it was Jesus who scored it given this was his first NLD and the first “big” game at The Emirates this season. It was Arsenal from then on of course. Not sure we would have done that last season in similar circumstances, so it shows… Read more »
This is very selfish but I hope all our Samba boys skip the World Cup. We need everyone fit and fresh. Also I hope in January we can add a couple of more players to squad to cover for injuries. We might be able to get Douglas Luiz for a good deal soon.
I misread that as ‘David’ Luiz 🤣
I see Spud fans creaming themselves over Romero stomping on Jesus ankle and hoping he’ll be out for months. That’s their level i guess. He was limping after the game and I hope he’s alright.
I missed that stomp, which minute of the game did it happen?
Not sure. Towards the end. Happened in the Tottenham box. Did you not see him limping even after the game?
Still basking.
Life is good. 😊👍🍺
Bask away buddy….. 🙂
I can hear Xhaka talking to theses youngsters. “ In this new age where both arrogant fans and weak managers can effect the trajectory of your career, if you have a chance to play for a manager of this quality…you must do everything possible to to continue that! Look at what has happened to me…I am now playing and scoring in ways no one except Arteta and I imagined possible. Trust the process, and trust a manager who trusts you…And believe in Jesus! “
Possibly, but it’s also worth remembering that only around 18 months or so ago the vast majority of fans commenting on this site wanted Arteta sacked! Football (boards, fans etc.) is and always has been, mostly short term in its thinking. Sometimes, however, it pays to stick with what you have even though that’s unpopular at the time. It seems to have worked for us in Arteta’s case, doesn’t it.
Less than 6 months ago in fact. Some really embarrassing and nasty comments after the block of defeats against Palace, Brighton and Southampton in April of this year.
But not me.
Manure got thrashed 6-2 by City. Life is good. 🥳
We want to win the league, so it would have been better for City to lose.
That is true but we don’t want Manure to fight for top four.