North London is White.
With goal number 7 in 7 North London derbies Harry Kane received the Man of the match award as Tottenham proved that for now North London is white. Harry Kane scored his 101st premier league goal with a brilliant header to steer Spurs to a dominating 1-0 win over Arsenal and leave gunner fans utterly disappointed.
This win continues Spurs’ great run collecting 7 points from their last three games that were all played against top 6 opposition. The scoreboard may have read 1-0 and the Spurs fans and players won’t complain about the result. However, Arsenal should feel lucky that the scoreboard only read 1-0 as Tottenham were very wasteful, with Lamela (x2), Kane, Son and Eriksen all missing guilt edged chances and Petr Cech making some big saves. Lacazette will however feel it should have been 1-1 as he missed a golden opportunity late in the game.
Harry Kane might have won the man of the match award but in my opinion this award must have gone to Mousa Dembele dominating the midfield areas and barely putting a foot out of place. Regardless of how well Spurs played and how dominant they were many questions should be asked of their opponents.
Firstly, Arsene Wenger’s team set up very defensively despite Arsenal not keeping a clean sheet in any of their previous 8 premier league games he could not have possibly expected that they would keep a clean sheet by defending for 90 minutes. Furthermore, Arsenal fans might have been very excited about their new attacking arrivals, however, they have still not solved their major weakness which is the absence of a solid defensive midfield player to protect their back four.
Arsenal’s selection must also be questioned as Arsene Wenger seems reluctant to play two strikers even though he has two brilliant strikers in Aubameyang and Lacazette at his disposal. His failure to select a player like Saed Kolasinac. Another glaring problem was Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s failure to produce the final ball, which was one of his main problems at Manchester United especially in the big games. Mkhitaryan’s exceptional ability just seems to continually escape him during the big games and Arsenal fans will be hoping that this will not become a habit.
With Champions league returning to our screens this week Spurs will be looking to continue their brilliant run against Juventus, while Arsenal will be hoping to bounce back against Ostersund in the Europa League which is starting to look like their only possible path into next season's Champions League.
The North London Derby has quickly reminded all Arsenal fans of their current inconsistent run that for a brief moment seemed to disappear from their minds as they were excited by their new arrivals. However, the problems are still there and in my opinion the problems are with the man at the helm.
What do you think? What did you think of the game? Am I being too critical of Wenger?
Image Sources:
https://www.bestnaija.com/lmao-how-frightening-arsenal-front-four-t56620
http://www.nydailynews.com/newswires/sports/kane-seals-spurs-derby-win-4-aguero-goals-leader-city-article-1.3812253
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/tottenham-1-0-arsenal-harry-12002442