David Hytner’s report is in, which means I’m off. Thanks for your company and emails, especially the ones about advertising boards. Bye! The Sky Sports panel, including Paul Merson, think Gabriel should have been penalised for the push on Cristian Romero before the goal. I didn’t think it was that bad at the time, but you can see their point on the replays. The VAR threshold is higher this year, which may have been decisive. Arsenal reaction Gabriel We’re so happy to win here, so let’s enjoy it now. It means a lot score the goal. Jorginho We had to work really hard, but we know it would be a difficult game. We were missing important players but we know we can count on each other and that’s what we did. We stick together and at the end the work paid off. I’m so happy we won and so happy for this guy to score the winning goal. We’re really proud of the team. This result meant that, unless Newcastle run riot at Wolves, next weekend’s big game at the Etihad will be 1st v 2nd. Sir Alex Ferguson once said of peak Alan Shearer that he hit the ball “like he wanted to kill it”. Today, Gabriel headed the ball with the same intent. There’s a great replay (not on this clip, alas) where you can say him straining his neck muscles like Bruce Banner undergoing the change. Full time: Idealism 0-1 Pragmatism Gabriel’s brutal header has given Arsenal their third straight victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a wonderful response to that utterly miserable night in May 2022. They survived a torrid start before slowly breaking the will of Ange Postecoglou’s side. In the circumstances, without Rice and Odegaard, that’s pretty much the perfect day for Arsenal. The manner of the victory will give them more confidence than any other result, even 12-0. It was an increasingly dispiriting afternoon for Spurs. They didn’t run out of ideas but they did run out of belief, precision and eventually hope. Full time: Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal Even when Arsenal wear black, North London is red. 90+4 min Odobert’s 25-yarder takes a deflection, wrongfoots Raya but bounces well wide. No matter: the deflection was off Werner, who was well offside. 90+3 min Odobert twists outside Timber in the area but crosses too close to Raya. Spurs’ response to the goal hasn’t been great. 90+2 min Kulusevski takes matters into his own left foot, hitting a heatseeker across goal from 25 yards that flashes just over the bar. Raya was very worried as he leapt to his right. 90+2 min “Nice Alberto Juantorena reference,” writes Adam Roberts, and I have not a clue what he’s talking about. 90+1 min Five minutes of added time. 90 min Arsenal have defended so well, particularly in the second half, and Spurs look a beaten side. 89 min Romero, playing as a centre-forward now, has a header comfortably saved by Raya. 88 min Spurs continue to do it their way: passing the ball left to right and back again, probing for openings. There’s no eye in the Arsenal needle at the moment. 86 min: Arsenal substitution Ethan Nwaneri replaces the limping/weary Bukayo Saka. 84 min Not everybody loves Bukayo Saka. He’s being booed viciously after stopping the game to receive treatment. Who knows whether it’s genuine or not. 83 min It’s been a hard game to assess. You can legitimately argue any or all these contradictory points: that Spurs have dominated, that Arsenal have had the clearest chances, that Spurs haven’t really looked like scoring, that David Raya has had an excellent game. Ach, I don’t know. 82 min The crowd appeal for a penalty when Gabriel makes a firm but clean tackle on Solanke. Sarr collects the loose ball and belts it wide from 25 yards. Not a bad effort. 81 min: Double substitution for Arsenal Gabriel Jesus and the debutant Raheem Sterling come on for Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli. Although Martinelli missed a good chance in the first half, his defensive work was extremely good. 80 min: Spurs substitution Timo Werner for James Maddison, who flattered to deceive a little. 79 min “This Tottenham team is going in right direction,” says Yash Gupta. “But their three leaders in Son, Romero and Maddison aren’t doing heavy lifting. Not the first time this season Romero has been atrocious in defending in clutch moments. “Odobert has been brought on but on the right. He looked tame on the right against Newcastle. But Big Ange plays Son on the left despite the likeliness of Odobert’s positive play for the whole team and Son being underwhelming out on the wing. I think it is time to move Son central along with Solanke.” How would that work in Big Ange’s 4-3-3 though? 78 min For all their possession Spurs don’t really look like creating a chance, never mind scoring. They’ve taken the goal badly and Arsenal are controlling the game for now. 77 min Arsenal’s best move of the amtch is jiggered when White is caught offside. Trossard’s shot was saved by Vicario anyway. 75 min “Ballon d’Or: Nicolas Jover,” says Charles Antaki. Ballon c’Or, surely. Christ, sorry. 74 min Spurs work the ball neatly across the face of the area, only for Solanke to be caught on his heels when Maddison tries to play him in. Arsenal, as Gary Neville observers, are defending with admirable discipline and ferocious discipline. This is surely their best defence since the Back Four barely conceded a goal in the 1998-99 season. 71 min The Spurs players and fans are getting frustrated at, well, everything: the referee, the scoreline, climate change, the reveal in the last episode of Presumed Innocent. 70 min “Romero has the look and antics of a defender’s defender but is he really any good?” wonders Sean Orlowicz. “That is so poor to just get shoved like that and take it.” I think overall he’s a really good defender but that was weird. It was like he forgot where he was and what he was doing. 68 min: Double substitution for Spurs Wilson Odobert and Pape Sarr come on for Brennan Johnson, who didn’t have his best game, and Rodrigo Bentancur. 66 min What was that Pet Shop Boys song again? Saka curls an inswinging corner into the six-yard box, where Gabriel eases Romero out of the way and thumps a header into the net. Romero was moved aside too easily, Vicario couldn’t get through a crowd of players and that gave Gabriel the space he needed. It was a cracking header. GOAL! Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal (Gabriel 64) You bet he will! 64 min Arsenal break from a Spurs corner. First Havertz almost gets clear, then Saka has a shot blocked by Porro, then Arsenal win a corner. Will Saka put this under the crossbar? 62 min Arsenal’s evolution from dreamers to pragmatists is fascinating. Those of you who watch them every week will know more than me, but it feels like that miserable night at the Etihad was to Mikel Arteta what Arsenal 1-3 Benfica was to George Graham. 60 min Johnson moves promisingly into the area, only to shoot tamely at Raya with his left foot. To me he looks lower on confidence than ability, though there are legitimate questions as to whether he’s good enough for the team Spurs aspire to be. 60 min “Kári Tulinius was right, of course, about the advertising hoardings, but the picture made me nostalgic for the times when you could name a stadium just by seeing one of the goals,” says Paul McGrory. “Green stanchions at Highbury, dark blue at Spurs, red netting at Anfield, stanchions through the netting at Old Trafford. Now the goals have been designed by science to make sure goals are always spotted - the earliest form of VAR. And don’t get me started on decimal currency...” 59 min Johnson runs at Timber, into the area, and drives a low cross that is put behind for a corner by Gabriel. This game is still very difficult to call. I have a hunch Arsenal might nick it, mainly because of their experience, but you can make an equally good case for Spurs to win I’m sure. 57 min Havertz threatens to put Martinelli through on goal, only for Van de Ven to open his legs and show his class. Okay, his speed. 56 min “Kári Tulinius is right,” says Jeremy Boyce. “No more Raleigh Bikes or Castrol GTX. Viz Comic’s Billy The Fish strip was great for this, the Fulchester United stadium was full of Eat Food, Smoke Tabs and Drink Beer hoardings. As bad for footie fans as smartphones are for our kids, eh?” Yeah but at least with Food, Tabs and Beer you only hated yourself after the event, not during. 55 min As in the first half, Arsenal have survived the first 10 minutes and are startint to play a bit. There has only been one goalless draw in this fixture in the 21st century, for whatever that’s worth. Weirdly, before that they were four in six games between 1996 and 1998. 54 min “Maybe next summer, Howard Webb can convene a preseason zoom call with all 40 Premier League managers and captains, and simply put on the screen the long list of things that call for a player caution,” says Eric Peterson. “‘Guys, this is not that hard. This is basic math. Games last for 90 minutes. You only get a combination of two shirt pulls, cleats on the ankle, wasting time, delaying a free kick, mouthing off about an obvious call, et cetera, et cetera, before my referees are going to tell you to hit the road. This is not that hard. Maybe, just maybe, you lot might just play the damn game, and stop trying to game the game. Grow the eff up.’” Though I agree with you, if he tried that he’d probably have a shiny new P45 by sundown. 52 min Spurs have made a fast start to the second half, as they did the first, and White has no choice but to give away another corner. Arsenal deal with it pretty comfortably, as they have all afternoon. “Love Charles Antaki’s Zappa reference,” says Joe Pearson, “but my inner pedant has to point out that Over-Nite Sensation came out in 1973, which is a little more than 35 years ago. Don’t mess with the Zomby Woof!” 50 min “From an Arsenal point of view, we’re really missing the control that Odegaard brings,” says Will Vignoles, “but cautiously pleased with how it’s gone so far - arguably should be at least a goal up. Fingers crossed they get their shooting boots on second half.” 49 min Jorginho pulls back Maddison and is booked. This is getting tedious but I really feel for the referee. 48 min Johnson’s flat cross is met in front of the near post by Solanke, whose stooping header deflects behind off Partey. Or did Solanke miss the ball? Either way it’s a corner. Maddison takes it short and curls an inswinging cross from the right that Van de Ven meets with a decent flicker header. Raya makes a comfortable save to his right. 48 min A stop-start start to the second half. 47 min “Regarding your comment about players cheating. Yeah, they do and it’s good if they stop getting away with it, but some of the bookings today, and yesterday for that matter…” begins Espen. “The game isn’t that physical anymore anyway, and when you look at that Betancour booking for instance. It’s a nothing foul. If a yellow becomes the norm for stuff like that we will eventually end up with a non contact sport. Or a lot of 7 a side games.” A big problem is that cheating has become so sophisticated that it’s very hard for referees to distinguish between, for example, a clumsy foul (no yellow card) and a cynical one (yellow card). The dam’s almost ready to burst. 46 min Peep peep! Spurs begin the second half. “You know, even when I fell in love with football I knew there was something not quite right,” says Niall Mullen. “But the relentless, almost obsessional, player positioning by mega-brained coaches is the missing piece I didn’t know I needed. Emotion and off-the-cuff invention be damned, this is football!” If you want improvisation, go and watch Now this is the sort of email we want “As the first half petered out,” begins Kári Tulinius, “I found myself nostalgic for old advertising hoardings. Ads for local plumbing companies and century-old breweries made a feel grounded in a real place. Offshore betting companies and official crypto partners just add to the feeling that the Premier League is taking place in a non-place.” The consensus from the Sky Sports pundits, Jamie Redknapp and Paul Merson, is that Jurrien Timber was lucky to stay on the field after his tackle on Pedro Porro. Liverpool’s Curtis Jones was sent off for a not dissimilar challenge on this ground last season. I can see both sides! Half-time reading, aka whatever happened to Arie Haan? “Is Brennan Johnson the worst £50m player in the history of the Premier League?” says Andrew Hurley. It’s Spurs all over... Arsenal are in one sense playing it very well (considering who’s not there) and should have taken an opportunity - on the other hand, Martinelli is very poor and with the two on the bench a change at HT is needed...” I’m not going to name names, because why can’t we all get along, but Johnson isn’t even the worst £50m winger in the history of the Premier League. Half time: Tottenham 0-0 Arsenal The end of a frantic, intriguing, spiteful and – cut to the chase, man - goalless first half. The half-time whistle brought boos for the referee Jarred Gillett, who has shown seven yellow cards, but it’s not his fault the players are trying it on all the bloody time. It’s not their fault either; it’s the culture of modern football and if you don’t adhere to it you’ve got no chance. 45+3 min Two Spurs bookings for the price of one. Jarred Gillett played the advantage when Van de Ven wiped out Trossard, then booked Kulusevski for fouling Jorginho. Spurs are complaining but, while it’s all a bit ugly, they both looked fair enough by modern standards. 45+1 min: Chance for Johnson! Kulusevski wins the ball 25 yards from goal, rumbles forward and plays the ball to his right for Johnson. He has to take the shot first time, which is slightly awkward as it rolls across his body, and he slashes it over the bar. Still a pretty good chance. 45 min Three minutes of added time. 44 min Spurs break really well, giving Arsenal a taste of their own. Eventually Johnson runs into the area and drives a low shot that deflects behind off Timber. Good defending. 43 min “As Frank Zappa put it in one of his lyrics: ‘I figure the odds be 50-50 that the game ends with 22 men on the field’,” writes Charles Antaki. “I may have imagined the second clause, but Frank was a clever chap and I wouldn’t have put it past him to predict events in derby game 35 years down the line.” This recent spurt of yellow cards is interesting. Anthony Taylor got a lot of stick for last night’s record-breaking game at Bournemouth, but ultimately the problem stems from a culture in which players try to cheat literally thousands of times in every game. It’s far too easy to blame the referees, especially when the law gives them no choice. 41 min Saka again declines to swing a corner under the crossbar. Very strange. It almost pays off when Martinelli wriggles away from two defenders, but Udogie comes across to challenge. 38 min Vicario is booked for instigating a row with Timber. Not sure how that works – isn’t VAR only for red cards - but anyway. I can see why Timber’s yellow card wasn’t upgraded, as there wasn’t that much force as his foot slipped off the ball and into Porro’s achilles. In previous seasons he might have been sent off. 37 min Timber’s tackle wasn’t great: he put his studs on the ball, which then plunged into Porro’s leg. We have seen players sent off for things like that, though on this occasion the yellow card has been upheld. 36 min Timber fouled Porro, for which he was booked, and then half the players got involved in a shoving match. VAR are checking to see whether anyone raised their hands. 35 min: It’s kickng off! 35 min For reasons best known to himself, Saka takes a short corner that is cut out. No idea why he didn’t waft it under the crossbar to test Vicario. 34 min Timber again makes a good run into the area, this time to win a corner. Martinelli’s inswinger scrapes the fist of Vicario, flailing more in hope than expectation, and goes behind for another on the far side. 32 min Bentancur is booked for a common-or-garden foul on Havertz. “Once you start giving yellow cards for that,” says Gary Neville, “you cause yourself problems – especially with this atmosphere.” 32 min Now Spurs are having a decent spell. There are a few grumbles when Timber wrestles Johnson away from a cross from the left, but there wasn’t enough for a penalty. 31 min “The pass to Saka seemed pretty obvious,” says Sean Orlowicz. “How does a professional not look up and realize they have a two on none? I fear he is purely average with elite speed. Hope Arsenal can sell him for £40m before everyone realises how limited he is.” It always looks obvious on TV, no? I reckon maybe 7/10 elite players in Martinelli’s position would have had a shot. 29 min: Solanke goes close Maddison, on the left edge of the area, floats a cross towards the far post, where Solanke does brilliantly to muscle Gabriel aside and loops a header back across goal. Raya scrambles to his right, fearing the worst, and the ball swerves just wide. That was a really good effort because there was no pace on the cross. 28 min “Here’s my question(s),” says Joe Pearson. “If Arsenal’s home kit had too much white in the jersey to be used, doesn’t the away kit have too much black in the shorts? Or is the jersey the only thing that matters? This is all quite silly.” 27 min Udogie is booked for a foul, I think on Saka. The pace is breathless and it’s hard to keep up. 24 min “Am I seeing things, did Romero not wilfully handle that Havertz header on the goal line?” says Alex Whitney. “Commentators didn’t even mention it, but from two replays looked the case to me.” It definitely hit his arm but I’ll be amazed if it was deliberate. 23 min Arsenal are starting to create chances. A corner is half cleared to Trossard, who whistles a shot from 20 yards that is blocked. Moments later, Havertz’s looping header is saved fairly comfortably by Vicario. 22 min Raya drops a high ball under pressure from Solanke, who is penalised. Interesting. I think it was a foul, albeit soft. Raya almost dropped the ball into his own net. “It was hardly Nat Lofthouse,” says Peter Drury on Sky. 20 min It’s a fascinating game, and the last few minutes will give Arsenal plenty of encouragement that their rope-a-dope tactics are going to pay off. 19 min: Chance for Martinelli! An even better chance for Arsenal. Martinelli gets away from Porro again, this time to run through on goal. Van de Ven comes across so he takes the shot early from about 15 yards. It’s a tame curling effort, way too close to Vicario. In hindsight – easy to say, I know – he should have tried to find Saka on the far side. 18 min: Chance for Havertz! Martinelli roasts Porro and stands up an excellent cross to the far post. Havertz powers a header back across goal that is clawed away superbly by Vicario, who had to change direction and dive to his right. He pushed the ball against the arm of Romero, who about a yard away. Arsenal appealed for a penalty but VAR quickly checkcompleted it. 17 min Trossard feeds a good pass into Timber in the area. He cuts away from a defender and cracks a low shot that is well blocked by Romero. 15 min Saliba is booked for delaying a restart. When a foul was giving to Spurs, he picked the ball up and ran a few yards with it. File under LOTL, although Arsenal’s coaching staff look entirely unimpressed. 15 min: Chance for Solanke! Spurs win the ball high up the field, with the ball ricocheting square to Solanke on the edge of the area. He takes too long to get the ball out of his feet and Saliba dispossesses him. Ideally that would have been a touch and hit. 14 min As Gary Neville observes on Sky Sports, Arsenal are taking their time whenever the ball goes dead, trying to draw some of the sting from the game. They have been less uncomfortable in the last five minutes or so. 12 min Passing accuracy so far: Spurs 92 per cent, Arsenal 67. Has Mikel Arteta taken Arsenal as far as he can? 11 min It’s not his best free-kick and Saliba (I think) clears. 10 min Son is fouled by White on the left wing. Maddison will take the free-kick… 8 min Now Kulusevski has a shot desperately blocked. Spurs are all over Arsenal like a cheap cliche. 7 min Kulusevski’s corner is half cleared and given back to him on the right. He curls a wicked inswinging cross that beats everyone at the near post, bounces awkwardly and is clawed away by Raya, diving to his right. He did really well because he couldn’t react until the ball had gone past everyone in the middle. 6 min Spurs are really dominating the ball. Although we know Arsenal can play exhilarating football, this already has a feeling of romance versus pragmatism. 5 min: Good save by Raya! Solanke combines nicely with Son on the left. Son’s cutback is met first time by Kulusevski, whose shot is pushed round the near post by Raya. Pretty good save and a lovely move. 3 min Spurs are starting to get on the ball, as is their wont. It looks Arsenal are playing with a box midfield, certainly without the ball: Partey and Jorginho, Havertz and Trossard. 2 min Saka’s corner is cleared. As you probably remember, Arsenal scored twice from set pieces on this ground last season. 1 min Peep peep! Arsenal kick off from left to right and we watch, and win a corner after 20 seconds. It’s kicking off! “I’ve been a Spurs fan for over fifty years,” writes Jim Denvir, “ever since Pat Jennings came to visit my primary school soon after I started there in the mid seventies. My dad didn’t like football and hated crowds but gamely took me to a few matches when I was a kid. Probably the most memorable was a 3-0 win over Ajax in the Uefa Cup which included a sumptuous goal from Ossie. ”I moved to America nearly 30 years ago. I’ve finally reached a point in my career where I travel frequently enough back to England and am fortunate enough to pay for membership, so I do now get to go to a couple of games each season. My wife was invited to present at a conference in Italy and we’d already decided to come to London and catch up with friends and family this weekend. This was all arranged before this season’s fixture list was announced but here we are. ”The atmosphere here is incredible. Yes, football has become commercialised and sanitised, and much of that is good though some of it is bad. But there is still nothing to beat this feeling of tribalism and the sense that anything could happen in the next 90 minutes. When ‘Oh when the Spurs’ broke out at the bar in the south stand an hour before kick off, I genuinely had goosebumps. Just minutes to kickoff now. COYS.” Here come the teams, with Arsenal wearing their black away kit. The atmosphere is spectacular. A reminder of the teams Tottenham Hotspur (4-1-2-3) Vicario; Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Udogie; Bentancur; Kulusevski, Maddison; Johnson, Solanke, Son. Subs: Forster, Dragusin, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Spence, Odobert, Sarr, Davies. Arsenal (possible 4-1-2-3) Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber; Jorginho; Partey, Trossard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli. Subs: Neto, Gabriel Jesus, Kiwior, Sterling, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri, Kacurri, Kabia, Heaven. Referee Jarred Gillett. From the archive No Declan Rice = no problem for Arsenal, at least when the ball is dead. “Mikel Arteta seemed blessed with the ability to use key players throughout last season, enabling them to get closer to old ‘two-full-first-teams’ in sky blue,” says Bill Hargreaves. “Today will be a test. I still can’t say Tottenham without putting an ‘ing’ in the middle as dear old Ossie used to.” This game does feel particularly hard to call, even more so with that ultra-attacking Spurs XI. But I’m paid the small bucks to stick my neck out, so I’m telling you now: the result will be between 5-0 and 0-5. Big Ange: not for turning This is a charming interview with Bukayo Saka. Some weeks are bigger than others. In the next eight days Arsenal will play away to Spurs, Atalanta and the Erling Haaland team. This is an excellent point from David Howell “The other thing, with this being only September, is that we don’t know yet whether this title race is a normal one, or one where lawyers and assorted other professional interpreters of accountancy Numberwang will forcibly remove Manchester City from the equation. “All the other teams are jostling for position in a peloton that may or may not have a sky blue breakaway to chase down. This is Schrödinger’s Table until that particular case is closed; there is indeed a huge day in the title race this week, but it’s not today. It’s tomorrow.” Jonathan Liew sticks his thermometer up North London I’m the only Spurs in here,” calls the landlady, a jolly woman of middle years called Tina. As you can imagine, running a Spurs pub on derby day is not a job for the meek. The Coach & Horses will be packed to overfilling, security hired to keep order, as well as to enforce the rule on no visiting fans. But what about the rest of the time? What if an Arsenal fan – known pejoratively in these parts as a “Gooner” – were to stray over the threshold? Would they simply be turfed out? Or would a more exemplary punishment be demanded? “Oh, that rule’s just for match days,” Tina explains. “We get Arsenal fans in here all the time. There’s one over there. She’s my daughter. The final score is Tottenham Hotspur 9-1 Arsenal. Sort of. Team news: Van de Ven and Solanke return, Trossard starts Great news for Spurs: Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke are fit to start. Big Ange has picked an extremely attacking team, with Rodrigo Bentancur playing Colin Calderwood in an Ossie Ardiles tribute XI. Brennan Johnson also comes back into the side. The four players who miss out are Radu Dragusin, Wilson Odobert, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr. Jorginho replaces the suspended Declan Rice and will captain Arsenal in the absence of Martin Odegaard. Gabriel Martinelli replaces him, which gives Mikel Arteta a few options. Trossard or Havertz could drop into midfield, or Arsenal could play with a box. Raheem Sterling is among the substitutes. David Hytner meets Pedro Porro Since I was small, I have had to fight for everything. You had to be tough in my house. Often there wasn’t any food. I know others have that situation, too, but that is how it was. That is why I have had to be tough. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, this spirit. It’s a winning spirit, as well. It can be positive within the game. It’s been part of me since I started. If you want to reach the absolute top level, you have to be strong mentally. Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and now Arsenal. Raheem Sterling has had a career less ordinary. Preamble The calendar never lies, and today it says 15 September. That’s right, September. Not May, April or even December. You wouldn’t know it from some of the previews of today’s North London derby, which have stopped just short of opining that world peace depends on Team X getting a result. All North London derbies matter, and they’re usually great fun fun for the neutral. And both teams do need a result for different reasons. But it’s still September and it’s probably more conducive to world sanity if we try to remember that. So, why it matters. Spurs need to improve their performances:points ratio, having taken only 10 from their last 10 league games, and Arsenal could be without their entire first-choice midfield for the first time in years. That’s not ideal when you are a) playing Tottenham and b) watching Erling Haaland gambol towards the horizon. If, say, Arsenal draw today and lose at the Etihad next Sunday, they will already be eight points behind Manchester City. Then again, if they win them both they’ll be a point above City and at least six clear of Spurs. And whatever happens, there will still be 32 league games remaining. It’s September, stupid. Kick off 2pm.