Arsenal survive Spurs' counterattack to boost title charge
Arsenal maintained their position at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable 3-2 victory over arch-rivals Tottenham in the North London derby on Sunday.
Mikel Arteta's side silenced the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with three goals before half-time as they look to stay ahead of Manchester City in the title race.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's own goal gave Arsenal the lead, before goals from Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz put Arsenal in full control.
Tottenham had a tense finish after the interval with goals from Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min, but Arsenal held on by their fingertips.
Arsenal are four points behind second-placed City and will play struggling Nottingham Forest in the first of two games against the Gunners later on Sunday.
City need to win their remaining five games to seal an unprecedented fourth successive title in England.
However, Arsenal are doing everything they can to make Josep Guardiola's side sweat, hoping to avenge the disappointment of falling eight points behind in last season's title race.
The Gunners bounced back impressively after suffering a crushing defeat at home to Aston Villa and being eliminated by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Arteta knew there was little room for error as City chased him and called on his players to show their hunger for success, and they responded to his challenge.
Tuesday's 5-0 victory over arch-rivals Chelsea was just the appetizer before the main course Arsenal served to 3,000 jubilant fans packed into one corner of the stadium.
Arsenal famously won the league twice at Tottenham's old White Hart Lane Stadium in 1971 and 2004.
Although the Gunners were unable to secure silver this time, they continued their bid for their first title in 20 years with a fifth win in the last seven North London derbies.
This loss was a blow to 5th place Tottenham. Tottenham are seven points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa and have two games remaining to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive.
Tottenham, playing for the first time since losing 4-0 to Newcastle 15 days ago, will be fresher than Arsenal's side, who have played four times in that time.
However, thanks to a welcome gift from Hojbjerg, it was Arsenal who broke out of the frenzy and took the lead.
– Arsenal survive –
Saka's corner kick was curled into the six-yard box and Hojbjerg tried to head it clear in front of Arsenal's Takehiro Tomiyasu, but the ball deflected into his own net.
Romero should have equalized when Arsenal keeper David Raya misjudged James Maddison's free-kick. On that occasion, he allowed a defender to take a header from close range, but he managed to hit the post instead of an empty net.
Mickey van de Ven thought he had equalized for Tottenham when he smashed home after Pedro Polo's shot went off course, but VAR intervened and the centre-back was narrowly ruled offside. Ta.
Arteta's side celebrated the decision as if they had scored, and in the 27th minute that was exactly what happened.
Havertz played a nice long pass to Saka on the right, the winger drove towards Ben Davies before cutting inside and beating Guglielmo Vicario with a clinically low shot from 12 yards.
Arsenal were relentless in front of goal and Havertz scored their third goal with a superb corner kick in the 38th minute.
Tottenham's adoption of a zonal marking position left a group of Arsenal players, including Havertz, unmarked on a late run into the area, giving the German space to head Rice's corner kick from close range. .
But Tottenham refused to throw in the towel and in the 64th minute Romero leveled the gap with a ludicrously bad pass from Raya and a shot from the edge of the area.
Rice set up an unnecessarily tense final match for Arsenal with a reckless foul on Davies, with Son conceding a penalty in the 87th minute when he drilled past Raya.
In Sunday's other early kick-off, Bournemouth beat Brighton 3-0 with goals from Marcos Senesi, Enes Unai and Justin Kluivert.
Source: guardian.ng