Arsenal 2 Tottenham 1: Does win help title hopes? Should there have been a corner?

On January 16, 2025By Littum

Arsenal beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 on Wednesday night to move within four points of the top of the Premier League.

The hosts dominated the early exchanges but Spurs scored with one of their first opportunities of the game. A deflected Son Heung-min strike went past goalkeeper David Raya to give the visitors the lead.

But Arsenal turned the game around within four minutes. First, Gabriel’s header from a corner hit Dominic Solanke before traveling into the net. Then Leandro Trossard drove forward and scored from range for Arsenal.

An end-to-end second half produced no more goals.

Athletics experts Art de Roché, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jay Harris and Anantaajith Raghuraman analyzed the game.

How important was this win to Arsenal’s title hopes?

Arsenal had missed opportunities to draw level with Liverpool in recent weeks – making this win in the north London derby all the more important. The league leaders still have a game in hand, but closing the gap to four points should give Arsenal encouragement in the second half of the season.

The weight of the game could be felt in the ground throughout the game. After two disappointing cup defeats, the stadium was the loudest it had been all season and drove the players on.

Encouraged by the noise from the home support, Kai Havertz set the tone with a touchline tackle. The fans weren’t silent either after Son put Spurs ahead, providing an urgency on the pitch that was key to the turnaround at the end of the first half.

Athletic’s simulated match predictions thought a 2-1 home win was the most likely outcome

From a footballing perspective, it helped Arsenal attack with much more purpose than in recent games. It was seen in their second goal, where Martin Odegaard and Trossard made their decisions to pass and shoot much earlier than they have done in previous games.

However, this result will only really matter if they back it up. Losing to Aston Villa at home was fateful last season, so meeting them at the weekend is an opportunity to set the record straight and start a run needed to catch Liverpool.

Art de Roche

Where does this loss leave Spurs?

An 11th Premier League defeat of the season for Tottenham leaves them 14 points off fourth place. Quite remarkable are the two points behind West Ham United, who have barely played well all season and have just changed managers.

This was by no means the worst Tottenham performance this season. They had some good moments on the break in the second half, took the lead but let the game slip away just before the break. Then they had plenty of openings in the second half, but were never sharp enough to take advantage. Pedro Porro even hit the post in extra time.

The problem for Spurs is that all teams have injuries and yet few teams in recent memory have underperformed as badly as Tottenham are at the moment. They don’t know how to find a way to win games they don’t dominate. And frankly, with a better finish from Arsenal, this would have been a more embarrassing score than it was.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Should Arsenal have been awarded a corner in the build-up to their first goal?

Tottenham survived an onslaught from Arsenal in the opening half hour to take the lead through Son, but their bubble burst in the 40th minute when Solanke scored an own goal from Declan Rice’s corner.

It was a well-worked move as Gabriel made a run towards the back post and his header bounced off Solanke past Antonin Kinsky, but Spurs will understandably be left frustrated as the corner should not have been awarded.

A through ball freed Trossard down the left wing and Porro, who had slipped awkwardly a few minutes before, did well to follow. Porro blocked Trossard’s left-footed cross and it appeared to hit the Arsenal winger’s right leg before going out of play. However, the officials awarded Arsenal a corner and less than a minute later all Tottenham’s hard work was undone.

Tottenham’s record for defending set pieces has improved, but it would have been irritating to close from a corner for the second time against Arsenal this season.

The ball hit Trossard on his way out (TNT Sports)

Jay Harris

How mistakes from both teams defined the first half

Matches like these are often welcomed with the understanding that the margins for error are small, and neither team helped themselves by conceding as a product of avoidable mistakes.

In the moments before Spurs’ opener, Arsenal committed plenty of men forward but did not track enough with equal energy, allowing goalkeeper Kinsky to find Pape Matar Sarr in acres of space. Sarr obliged by carrying the ball around three-quarters of the length of the pitch before winning a corner from Thomas Partey. When Tottenham played a short corner, Arsenal were slow to respond again from their initial clearance and failed to close down for Son, who scored with a tame effort via a deflection.

The hosts’ equalizer came in fortuitous circumstances, with the referee wrongly awarding Arsenal a corner as the ball deflected off Trossard’s leg from Porro’s tackle. But Spurs did themselves no favors from the corner. Kinsky completely misjudged a superb delivery from Declan Rice, while Radu Dragusin lost Gabriel who got to the far post and applied enough pressure to force a Solanke own goal.

Neither manager would have been happy with the goals conceded from mistakes in the first half (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Spurs will not see the third goal back either. Yves Bissouma was lazy with the ball in his own half, so Partey could win it and find Odegaard. With Spurs pushing men forward when in possession, Odegaard could easily set up Trossard, who finished the move, although some will rightly question whether Kinsky, who got a hand to the shot, could have kept it out.

Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou would have been far from satisfied.

Anantaajith Raghuraman

How did Sterling perform when he returned to Arsenal’s starting line-up?

After Gabriel Jesus joined Bukayo Saka and Ethan Nwaneri on the injured list, it was a big night for Raheem Sterling on the right wing.

This was his first league start since October, when he was substituted to replace William Saliba following his red card away to Bournemouth, and unfortunately it was summed up by an action in the opening minutes of the game.

Played in by Myles Lewis-Skelly, Sterling was in a good position to make a first-time finish but decided to take a touch and the chance was gone. He had a similar moment when he played in by Havertz inside the box in the second half, only to fumble his lines. The effort was there for the most part, but the confidence and clarity seemed to be lacking in the crucial moments.

Sterling after being played through in the opening minutes of the match (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

For example, the winger worked well to win the ball back in loose duels, but struggled to get the better of Djed Spence on the right. His runs impressed against Manchester United, but Spence’s frame and little support on the overlap made the task more difficult for Sterling.

It became more noticeable in the first half as fans in the West Stand urged him to take on his man at every opportunity, but the burst just wasn’t there.

Sterling had some bright moments, with backheels to Jurrien Timber inside the box and driving runs through the center of the pitch. This being his first league start in three months may make the inconsistency in his performance understandable. Going forward, however, more determination (and potentially support) may be needed when Arsenal attack through him.

Art de Roche

Kinsky’s struggles are a reminder of the need for patience

It has been a quick introduction to English football for Kinsky, but this was a reminder that perhaps people should be more patient with Tottenham’s new goalkeeper.

Kinsky was put under pressure throughout and struggled to cope. Nobody could question his confidence with the ball at his feet, but he had to run around in the first half when Havertz put down one of his kicks. It didn’t help that Archie Gray and Dragusin struggled to build up from the back, so they tended to pass the ball back to Kinsky every single time. Kinsky was under more pressure than he needed to be.

But then, Kinsky’s problems weren’t just with the ball at his feet. When Arsenal equalized it was partly because Kinsky was cornered and couldn’t get a hand on the ball.

Four minutes later came the defining moment of the game when Trossard drove a hard shot into the bottom corner and Kinsky got a hand on it but couldn’t keep the ball out. It was not how he would have imagined his first north London derby.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

What did Mikel Arteta say?

Arteta told BBC Sport: “We were excellent today. From the first minute we were really into it, really intense. We played with a real purpose to hurt them. We created an incredible atmosphere.

“We know how important the match is. It’s a gift we can make the supporters very happy with.

“The attitude we played with, not feeling sorry for ourselves, was phenomenal.”

What did Ange Postecoglou say?

Postecoglou said: “There’s no magic cure. You’ve got to get up tomorrow, work hard and go into Sunday and prepare to go into battle and turn our fortunes and our season around. There’s nothing magical that will change it There are always reasons why all these things happen.

“The reality is that our results and our form in the league has not been nearly good enough. That must change.”

What next for Arsenal?

Saturday 18 January: Aston Villa (H), Premier League, 5.30pm GMT, 12.30pm ET

What next for Tottenham?

Sunday 19 January: Everton (A), Premier League, at 14:00 GMT, at 9:00 a.m. ET