Spurs - on the bus. Strong suits
Arsenal wallops Spurs while Eze scored his fifth goal against North London rivals.
These three days following the Wolves draw were quite depressing for the Arsenal faithful. We were heading into a North London Derby only to host Chelsea at home afterwards—a direct replica of our title run-in during the 2023/24 season. Those fixtures were won 3-2 and 5-0 respectively, showcasing a truly dominant performance. This time around, I had doubts whether we could replicate such a high performance level, as our recent form has been anything but calm.
Arteta opted for the same back four and double pivot, selecting Eze, Trossard, Gyökeres, and Saka as his front four. Likely the strongest quartet we currently possess for such a massive, emotional fixture requiring the mix of control and physicality. The man with the most hunger was, surprisingly, Viktor Gyökeres. Only a few minutes into the match, he turned his marker in the penalty area—perhaps only the second or third time I have witnessed this in the Premier League overall—and nearly found the far corner. Shortly thereafter, he was on the end of a corner delivery, finding Saliba in the box, who unfortunately missed the target from a decent position.
It was not all one-way traffic, however. Gabriel fluffed a pass to Zubimendi during the build-up, gifting Spurs their first attack. These nervous moments from the Brazilian are beginning to creep back in, and I am becoming worried. He was notorious for such howlers early in his Arsenal career, but I believed that confident end to the 23/24 season had turned a page for Big Gabz. Yet, in the 23/24 quarter-final against Bayern he looked rather shaky, and in 24/25 we failed to challenge for the league while he missed key CL duels against PSG and Real Madrid.
I am not entirely confident in his psychological stability; Saliba appears a far more reliable candidate. Another unpleasant moment occurred when Timber misplaced a simple ball under pressure and received a booking right away while attempting an awkward recovery. He looks completely gassed, and this was the second consecutive match where he committed such silly errors. If only we had a solution for this issue... Just imagine for a moment if, except Timber, we had a right-back who was a starter for the side that achieved 89 points and second place in 23/24. Dreams, dreams... Benjamin White was missing for this clash, but nothing—save for Arteta’s own stubbornness—prevented him from being utilised in midweek.
Twenty minutes in, it was evident the game would be relatively open. Spurs did not deploy a deep block; instead, they often pressed us in a 3-5-2 shape, leaving spaces for our wingers to exploit. The 23/24 vintage with Havertz, peak Saka, and a functioning Ødegaard would have torn this defence to shreds. Currently, Ødegaard is shying away from physical contact, Saka is operating at 40% of his pre-injury efficiency, and Havertz is struggling with fitness for over a year. Trossard, the only relative constant in our equation, wasted his best first-half chance by sending the ball into the highest seated fans from just outside the box.
The Spurs high line was so aggressive that even Raya nearly found Saka 1-on-1 with the keeper via a 60-meter pass. The pre-injury Saka would have had this defence for breakfast, likely bagging a brace in the first half, but not this version of him. That said, he found some luck in one attack, skipping past a Spurs defender who got caught in his own feet. Saka entered the box unmarked, where several teammates made their runs. The latest arrival was Eberechi Eze, the target of Saka’s delivery. Eze cushioned the ball to control it and then smashed it home with a brilliant acrobatic strike.
Immediately, I felt that only Eze in our current squad possesses enough composure in front of goal to convert from that height. The rest of our attackers would likely have rushed the shot and tried to hit it “somehow.” Eze adjusted his body and feet perfectly to produce an unstoppable finish.
In general, despite being quiet at times, Eze was often the key to bypassing the Tottenham press. Tudor decided to man-mark Zubimendi, forcing him to receive the ball only with his back to play, stifling our build-up. Fortunately, we had Eze who, with his trademark silkiness on the ball, dropped deep and progressed the attack with one-touch football, often leaving the Spurs markers bamboozled. We were finally playing to Eze’s strong suits.
Eze appeared delighted after scoring, which suggests he isn’t in some sort of protest against the manager. It implies he simply doesn’t understand what is required of him when he is forced to replicate Odegaard functions. Either that, or he lacks faith in the slow build-up—the “horseshoe” passing and the constant search for risk-free options. To be fair, given our displays since the start of December, it is difficult to disagree with him.
As soon as Eze needed to execute a 20-meter pass to slice through the Spurs defence, our number 10 had no trouble whatsoever. He created numerous big chances for Saka—three or four by my count—and was generally the glue in our counter-attacks. One break found Saka in front of the box with two teammates in support and a couple of defenders blocking him specifically. Instead of playing the pass, Saka tried to go it alone, despite the Spurs defence clearly doubling up on him. (The picture is bad quality but you can get the gist).
Saka is entering that phase again where he wants to be the “main man,” the star the media and pundits obsess over. But he is simply not at that level currently—neither in his finishing nor his decision-making. It is baffling, as we are not in a desperate scrap for our first title in years, yet Saka is preoccupied with personal perception rather than team success.
But before that chance, just minutes after our opener, something calamitous occurred. Declan Rice surrendered possession in a dangerous area in front of the box, attempting to dribble past two Spurs players. Kolo Muani pounced, scoring his first goal for Spurs with their only touch inside our box in the first half.
Even you, Declan? You? The man who is a symbol of stability and grit? The player many view as the true captain of this Arsenal side? What hope do we have as fans if even you, our rock, crumble under the pressure? The only saving grace was that Declan immediately messaged his teammates to say all is well and the team would bounce back.
We had plenty of opportunities to retake the lead immediately—several counter-attacks that were poorly executed. Gyökeres, who started brightly, failed to control the ball twice when it was fizzed into his feet. The sort of control that players like Jiménez, Mateta, or Evanilson would pull off with ease. I found myself thinking again that the 23/24 Arsenal side would have made light work of these chances. Given such poor ball retention, it is understandable why Arteta is desperate to rush Havertz back into the starting XI.
Mighty second half
The second forty-five minutes continued the same pattern we witnessed in the first. Spurs pushed high up the pitch, attempting to disrupt our build-up, and we all know that this is a relatively comfortable environment for Arsenal to operate in.
While the attack was being built up from the right side, Spurs failed to track Eze’s run; Eberechi overloaded the defender marking Gyökeres, sacrificing himself in a challenge for the ball. This left Gyökeres unmarked, and the Swede did not disappoint. A rocket of a strike flew into the net, with Gyökeres once again playing to his strongest suit.
For all of Havertz’s link-up play and overall completeness as a footballer, I cannot imagine him producing such a strike. This was a proper number 9 doing clinical number 9 things. Having both a fully fit Havertz and Gyökeres in the squad really gives us the capacity to threaten opponents unleashing different profiles.
After taking the lead, the primary objective was not to mess it up within the next 10 minutes. Kolo Muani had, however, developed a taste for goals in the meantime. During a cross from the left, he shoved Gabriel in the back and slotted home his second. While it was a clear push and the goal was rightly chalked off, it was unconvincing defending from Gabriel. After watching the replay I think that he failed to position himself correctly to win the header, and although the shove was soft, he went down far too easily. It felt like he realised he might lose the duel and looked for a way out—returning to the point about him not handling the nerves too well.
Arteta finally realised that leaving Timber on might jeopardise the result and introduced Mosquera instead, who was convincing once again. We reverted to a counter-attacking game and Eze was easily the best player on the park. He unlocked the Spurs defence repeatedly, putting Saka 1-on-1. When Saka failed once again to beat Vicario, Eze was there in the box to finish the job himself.
An away brace following a home hat-trick—Eze’s punishment of Spurs is quite staggering. Even more encouraging than his performance were Arteta’s comments after the final whistle.
You could see that Eze wanted to prove something. He was upset even with me, because I didn’t play him the other day from the beginning and some of the decisions that I made. I have started to understand how we’re going to get the best out of him now.
Basically, Arteta admitted that he was using Eze wrong, he admitted to his own mistakes, which was very refreshing to see. If that is really true, I have a ray of belief that Eze can actually carry this team for 5 league games in the rest of the season and together with recovered Havertz that can pull our attack until the end of May. Because, let’s be honest, Saka is nowhere near that level right now, Odegaard is practically a sub player, Trossard was quiet again, Martinelli and Gyokeres are very dependent players and Madueke is always hot-an-cold.
Eze and Havertz are our two rays of hope; if Arteta plays to their strengths, we might have a chance of a strong finish. The best way to utilise Eze is to abandon the dogma of controlling every inch of the pitch and start playing vertical football—something Nørgaard is also quite adept at. When we play vertically, we produce our best football and can outscore most of the league, especially those yet to play us (excluding City). Another interesting tactical wrinkle was Trossard and Eze swapping positions. Eze popped up on the left in the second half to glide past the Spurs right-sided centre-back, while Trossard joined the attack through the middle.
Arteta threw in Odegaard and Martinelli instead of Eze and Trossard, while leaving Saka on the pitch, who had probably one of the worst second halves when it comes to chance conversion. And as against Wolves, Saka forced himself to come off after a painful collision with the opponent.
The new Spurs boss threw on his big attacking names to save the match, and it wasn’t entirely in vain. In the 83rd minute, after some chaos in the box, Raya had to produce a world-class save. And once again “we heard them crying at the Lane..” That sums up half our team perfectly. When heroism is required—a wonder save, a goal-saving tackle—Raya, Gabriel, and Rice are there to put their bodies on the line. But when we need composure and simple game management, like clearing a cross in injury time, mistakes start creeping in. Three seasons on from that emotional 22/23 campaign, we are still at our best in these high-stakes, emotional games.
In the injury time Odegaard, who was pretty silent in the allocated 20 minutes, found a Gyokeres run, who managed to keep the defender away and scored another true number 9 goal. It’s really refreshing to see such types of goals happening for Arsenal and it’s definitely going to be beneficial for the Swede’s confidence.
A brace in the North London Derby and Gyokeres once again proved that he is deadly efficient against the relegation teams 😀. We won both of our NLDs with the same 4:1 score and it can only be described as poetic. At least Thomas Frank did it away from home!
We had absolutely no room for error (especially after City’s narrow win against Newcastle) and we grabbed our chance to get back on track. We are not out of the woods, because most teams will deploy a much tighter defence and our worst games were when are met with a low block. However, we added another three points in the Premier League table and more importantly now we have a new hope.