Any victory against Tottenham Hotspur is one to be treasured, and Sunday's 1-0 success on the other side of north London is another that will be remembered for some time by our supporters.
But why did we manage to return to N5 with all three points? Adrian Clarke has happily watched through all the footage again and dug into the game's stats to unearth five key reasons we're all still smiling 24 hours later:
The decisive moment
Let’s begin with our winning goal, the 24th strike we have produced from dead ball situations since the start of 2023/24 - a Premier League high.
Initially Tottenham Hotspur keeper Guglielmo Vicario thinks he has an easy ride with no one (not even Ben White!) trying to crowd his space inside the six-yard box. Cristian Romero has the unenviable task of man-marking Gabriel on the penalty spot.
As Bukayo Saka runs up to take the corner, in a pre-planned move both White and Saliba drag their man-markers with them into the Spurs keeper’s domain. Purposely allowing the defenders to engage in physical contact right in front of Vicario, the Italian stopper is pinned in, unable to come out to punch or catch the cross.
With Saka’s inswinging ball put into the perfect area, all Gabriel had to do was evade Romero’s attention, and his canniness and aggression ensured he was successful. Thundering a free header into the net, Gabriel won us the points, with his 10th headed goal for the club.
Nullifying Spurs
This was only the second time Tottenham have failed to score at home in the Premier League under Ange Postecoglou. While the stats will say our neighbours had 63.8% of the ball, our disciplined defending ensured they created very little. Spurs' expected goals tally of 0.71 was their third lowest under Postecoglou, and their worst in a home match during that time.
Our game plan was to press high when it was on to do so, but in general we sat back in a low 4-4-2 block that often resembled a 5-3-2 out of possession, with one wide forward dropping back to help, and the other tucking in.
This ploy was designed to help slow down the hosts’ attacks, crowd space in central areas for their most creative talents, and enable Jorginho and Thomas Partey to operate in smaller areas where they only needed to cover short distances.
The compactness of our shape can be seen in this freeze frame from late on in the first half, where Gabriel Martinelli is filling in at left back:
Arsenal Clearances v Tottenham
Kai’s big shift
Mikel Arteta’s team needed an outlet up front who would hold the ball up for others, pressurise with aggression, win his aerial duels, and in addition to all that, also provide a goal threat. The in-form Havertz ticked all those boxes.
It is very unusual for centre forwards to enjoy the most touches in a game, but that is what happened here with the German enjoying 51 in this north London derby. That shows how hard Havertz worked to put himself about, in and out of possession, so it was no surprise to see that he covered 10.77km; second only to Jorginho (11.09km) on the day.
He also won eight of 13 aerial duels, which included several vital clearances from inside his own box.
It was also Havertz who held the ball up superbly under pressure from the counter-attack which led to the corner we scored from. He anticipated Leandro Trossard’s volleyed forward pass into space, sprinting from deep to win a foot race against speedy defender Micky van de Ven:
And once he gained possession of the ball, he held it for the supporting run of Martinelli who worked it right to Bukayo Saka, who went on to win us the decisive corner.
Left-side combos click
White, Martin Odegaard and Saka share a longstanding chemistry that makes them incredibly difficult to deal with, but in this contest our left-sided combinations shone brightest.
Jurrien Timber, who was very sharp on and off the ball, joined in with moves to good effect in support of Trossard and Martinelli. There were six telling forward passes from Trossard and Timber (3 each) to the Brazilian winger, who got himself into some excellent advanced positions, while his six successful dribbles also indicate how positive he was with the ball at his feet.
The Main Man
William Saliba was imperious once again, losing possession just once and making a magnificent early block from inside the box, but it was his partner Gabriel who just shaded it as my man of the match. Aside from his winning goal, the Brazilian produced yet another fully committed defensive display.
He made two excellent blocks from Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson, which were vital interventions in a performance that also featured a collection of well-timed clearances.
Always first to get contact on the ball, our 26-year-old central defender was a man that couldn’t be moved in this north London derby.
This victory, our third in a row at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, was earned thanks to an outstanding team effort. But our steadfast attitude, and obsession with keeping a clean sheet, was very much typified by the man wearing number 6.
