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Tottenham conceded three and lost for the third game in a row after they were repeatedly ripped apart by Arsenal in the first half at the Emirates

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Sun 26 Sep 2021 14.09 EDTFirst published on Sun 26 Sep 2021 10.36 EDT
Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka celebrate victory.
Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka celebrate victory. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
Mikel Arteta and Bukayo Saka celebrate victory. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

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Mikel Arteta says this:

This win is for the fans. They’ve been incredible in tough moments, when we needed their support. We started really strong, really determined. it was probably one of the best games I’ve seen us play for that period, and in the second half we did what we had to do. [What was important was] the determination, the conviction, the connection with our people, they came here to do what we spoke about before the game.

It’s not about winning as much as the way we did it, against a top team with top players, and on a special day when we played our rivals. Today is one example of what we are trying to do, now we have to be consistent, do it every game and do it better.

Those fans who interrupted Sky’s interview with Aubameyang and Smith Rowe have struck again:

Sure enough Nuno has walked away from his TV interview because the Arsenal fans were giving him stick. Don't blame him. Totally unworkable.

— John Cross (@johncrossmirror) September 26, 2021

Here’s David Hytner’s match report from the Emirates Stadium:

Inspired by Tottenham playing host to Anthony Joshua’s world title fight against Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday night, Nuno Espírito Santo had used boxing parlance to illustrate what he wanted to see from his team.

The Spurs manager said that they could not throw punches all the time and, when they took one, they had to cover up; to stop the bleeding. Their response to being dumped on to the canvas in the previous two Premier League games – the 3-0 defeats against Crystal Palace and Chelsea – had been nonexistent.

And yet Spurs continued in precisely the same vein. They barely threw a punch during a first-half that they will want to forget very quickly and, once behind to Emile Smith Rowe’s opener, they were taken apart by an Arsenal team in rampant mood.

Much more here:

The White challenge on Kane should have been a penalty, but it was also an argument against the penalty law as it stands. Kane was on the edge of the area with his back to goal, and flicked the ball wide before being clipped by White and going down. There was no imminent goal threat there, and for that to lead to an uncontested shot on goal from 12 yards is ridiculous, surely?

Geoff Shreeves has a go at interviewing Aubameyang and Smith Rowe, but the fans near them have stayed behind to watch, and are shouting loudly enough to make the interview extremely difficult. Smith Rowe does, however, declare this “probably the best day of my life”.

“Dele Alli has had enough opportunities under four managers now, and despite his hard work and running (which deserves credit) has shown he needs a new challenge,” writes Yash Gupta. “The change is midfield after the second half was massive even though we only scored one.” Alli is like the ghost of Christmas future for a few of Arsenal’s promising youngsters. I fear that everything is not right for him now, but it’s not clear how or where he can put it right. I’m still not sure he has to leave, but if he is to stay and to flourish, he needs to work with a coach he really clicks with, which hasn’t happened for a while.

The history boys. Spurs are going to take a bit of a kicking in all quarters for this, particularly given their second-half capitulation to Chelsea last week and their miserable showing at Crystal Palace before that. There is still much writing to be done before the story of the season is complete, but I think it’s clear that those three initial 1-0s were a much less accurate reflection of the team than the three games that have followed them.

2 - Tottenham are only the second team in Premier League history to win their first three games of a season and then lose the next three, after Everton in 1993-94, who went on to finish 17th. Reversing. pic.twitter.com/27ga9CqCIr

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 26, 2021

Final score: Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham

90+6 mins: The final whistle sounds, Arteta raises both fists to the sky, and Arsenal bank three points and several months of local bragging rights!

HappyArsenal fans in the stands celebrate the win. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA
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90+2 mins: Spurs hit the bar! Lucas Moura hits a shot from 20-odd yards that deflects off Maitland-Niles and loops and dips towards goal, but Ramsdale fingertips it onto the woodwork!

89 mins: Smith Rowe is named man of the match. It feels like he is almost always man of the match when Arsenal win. “Ronaldo had a great 2008/09 season despite everyone and their mam knowing he wanted to go to Madrid,” remembers Ben O’Connell.

Young Guns both with a goal and an assist each. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
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86 mins: Arsenal have sat deep and let Spurs have the ball for the last 15 minutes or so. They’ve been punished for it once, but they’ve had enough of a cushion for it not to matter (yet).

83 mins: Tierney lashes a shot over the bar from range. “Modric was excellent the season he was forced to stay at Spurs,” recalls Stephen Godfrey.

80 mins: Xhaka is down again now, and apparently in some pain. He was caught by Lucas Moura after the Brazilian was bowled over by Partey, and replays show his right knee twisting awkwardly.

GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Tottenham (Son, 79 mins)

Spurs are back in the game! Nearly! Reguilon sends a low cross into the area and Spn runs beyond Partey and sidefoots past Ramsdale, who gets a hand to it but can’t keep it out.

Son Heung-Min nips in behind Kane and scores. Photograph: Javier García/REX/Shutterstock
Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min pulls one back. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
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78 mins: “You’re getting sacked in the morning!” trill the home fans, as Spurs pass the ball about for a bit.

73 mins: A lovely little spell from Arsenal ends with Saka cutting in from the right and shooting from the edge of the area. It was a straightforward save for Lloris, but it bounced just before him so he decided to push it away rather than try to hold it, which made the shot look better than it was. Still, excellent work from Arsenal to move the ball out of defence and through midfield.

68 mins: Spurs pass the ball around defence, but with Arsenal always pressing, and eventually Lloris boots it out of play, to wild cheers from the crowd. “Can you recall of a single example of a player who had been kept against his will at the club that didn’t have a sub-standard season afterwards?” wonders Admir Pajic. “I can only think of Luis Suarez in 2013-14. Kane looks a lot like Alexis Sanchez at Arsenal in the first half of 2017-18 so I fully expect him to play that Old Trafford piano come January.” Forcing players to stay rarely pays off, but I think in their decision-making Spurs’ ownership was focused on their own credibility rather than the impact on the player or the team.

How the other half live: Spurs fans look on in silence as Arsenal fans sing in full voice. Photograph: Javier García/REX/Shutterstock
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67 mins: Then Arsenal win the ball, keep it for a while, and Skipp earns the day’s first booking for taking down Partey in his desperation to win it back.

64 mins: Spurs have had more than 70% of the ball in the last 10 minutes. Given that they’ve twice scored after ripping them apart on the break this isn’t necessarily bad news for Arsenal, of course.

62 mins: Spurs so nearly get back in the game! It’s a long ball forward from inside Tottenham’s half, and he gets past Tomiyasu, runs onto it and lifts it past Ramsdale but also just past the far post!

61 mins: Kane’s low shot looks to be going narrowly wide but Ramsdale dives to palm it away and it looks like it’s rolling to Son until Tomiyasu slides in to cut it off.

Harry Kane looks to the sky. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
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60 mins: Spurs win a free kick on the left, and after a lengthy build-up while their players get forward and position themselves, Son dumps it straight into the arms of Ramsdale.

56 mins: Another penalty shout, but at the other end, after White makes contact with Kane. The referee puts his whistle to his lips, then takes it away again. It would have been a really stupid penalty to give away, but it did look like a penalty to me (and Gary Neville).

Referee!! Arsenal’s Gabriel shouts for a penalty. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP
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53 mins: A big shout for a penalty, after Sanchez is first to Aubameyang’s header, leaving Partey on the floor.

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48 mins: Nothing much has happened since the restart, which is probably good news for the visitors. “Attributing Kane’s lackluster performance to a phantom injury is clutching at straws,” says Ted Graves. “He’s stuck back on his middling team and his motivation is dwindling. Couple that with the fact that even his attempts to pick it up are at the moment resulting in stuff like nicking the ball off Saka and then sliding it right back into his path.” Also, Siddhant Lazar points out that Antonio is now a fully-fledged Jamaica international, so he isn’t in competition with Kane either.

Arsenal fans in good voice. Photograph: Javier García/REX/Shutterstock
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Spurs are making a half-timely double substitution. Emerson Royal and Skipp are coming on, Tanganga and Dele Alli are not.

“Kane looks… not very good,” says Joseph Harvey. “Perhaps he’s carrying an injury? Regardless, calling him up for England over Antonio would be a travesty.” Particularly as Kane now appears to be a midfielder so isn’t in competition with Antonio.

Half time: Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham

45+1 mins: Ndombele and Reguilon exchange passes, freeing the midfielder to run towards the Arsenal area. This might well be the best few seconds Spurs have mustered this half, and the referee is so astonished by it he immediately blows his whistle for half-time, to Reguilon’s evident disgust.

Shellshocked Tottenham Hotspur. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
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44 mins: Spurs pass the ball across the backline, just inside their half. Ahead of them, the front three are on the edge of the penalty area. Ndombele goes up to join them. The two full-backs push up on the flanks. They thus have six players in a line on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, three players passing among themselves in their own half, and really no way of getting the ball from one group to the other.

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42 mins: The cameras linger on poor Nuno Espirito Santo, who looks troubled. If it helps, Spurs have looked brighter these last few minutes.

36 mins: This will be the first league game of the season in which Spurs will trail at half time. They are generally a better first-half team than second-half team, which isn’t encouraging.

Bukayo Saka (20y & 21d) is the youngest Englishman to score a league goal for Arsenal against Spurs since Stewart Robson at Highbury in April 1984 (19y & 167d).

— Harvey Downes (@HarveyDownes92) September 26, 2021

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