Arsenal looked set to pull off a decent win over Tottenham in Sunday’s north London derby, but the match caught fire in the second half.
Mikel Arteta’s men led 0-3 at the break, and they seemed to be in good control of the match. But in the second half, Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya suddenly showed up with a huge mistake.
Completely unpressured, he sent the ball straight into the chest of Cristian Romero, who took it down and reduced it for Tottenham.
– What a mistake! It is not possible to make mistakes like that. There are rapids of Raya. It is giving away a goal. What a clown game by Raya, exclaimed Viaplay’s expert Nils Johan Semb after Raya’s blunder.
The reduction ignited the match, and in the 86th minute Tottenham received a penalty. The penalty surely put Hueng-min Son in the goal, and then a few dramatic minutes awaited on the eve of the match.
However, Arsenal managed to hold on and thus took three very important points. Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson thinks Arsenal played a good game, but he is clear Raya’s blunder was highly unnecessary.
– A very nervous finish, all because of the goalkeeper. An ugly mistake and it created drama. There is no reason for that. The only reason why Spurs got back into the game was because of the goalkeeper, he says.
The win also means that Arsenal puts pressure on Manchester City in the Premier League title race.
The London club now tops the table with 80 points. The closest is Manchester City with 76 points, with two games less played.
Manchester City face Nottingham Forest at 5.30pm today.
VAR drama
Mikel Arteta’s men took the lead after 15 minutes when Pierre-Emile Højbjerg headed a corner into his own goal. A difficult start for the home team, who quickly tried to fight back.
First, Cristian Romero poked the ball into the post, before Micky van de Ven knocked the ball into the goal a few minutes later.
A corner was cleared to Pedro Porro, and he slammed home from long range. The ball first went into an Arsenal leg, before it went up in the air and fell down in the middle of the field.
Van de Ven was all alone there, and the Dutchman shot the ball into the goal. The question, however, was whether he was offside when Porro shot just ahead.
The goal had to be checked by VAR, and after the lines were drawn it was concluded that van de Ven was marginally offside. Thus the scoring was cancelled.
However, Daily Mail journalist Mike Keegan believed that the images were not good enough to conclude that it was offside. He’s tired of VAR.
– How can you call it offside – based on what the viewers have seen – I don’t understand. Throw this nonsense in the trash. Enough is enough, he wrote on X.
Kept scratching
A few minutes later, Arsenal scored again. A relentless counterattack ended with Bukayo Saka putting the ball in the goal.
The Tottenham players were furious after the score since they believed they should have had a free kick ahead of Arsenal’s counterattack. The Spurs players were not heard and in the 38th minute Arsenal scored again.
Once again it happened on a corner. Declan Rice hit the corner kick perfectly, and Kai Havertz headed the ball straight into the goal in the box.
The second half started with a lot of chances for both teams, with Arsenal looking to be in good control of the game.
In the 64th minute, however, things went wrong for the away team. Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya made a big mistake when he tried to lob the ball to Thomas Partey.
The ball instead went straight into Romero’s chest. He subdued the ball and placed it easily into the left corner.
Arsenal still looked to pull off the victory well, but in the 86th minute Tottenham were awarded a penalty. Rice tried to clear the ball, but he ended up kicking Davies straight down. After a VAR check, the referee pointed to the penalty mark.
The penalty knocked Hueng-min Son into the left corner, and Spurs suddenly had every opportunity to take points. The home team pressed for an equalizer in overtime, but it eventually ended with a 2-3 victory for Arsenal.