Arsenal 3-1 Spurs
Following somewhat tough starts to the season for both North London clubs, they met at the Emirates both hoping to take home 3 points.
For Arsenal, Xhaka came straight back into the side following his 3 game suspension, and the young trio of Emile Smith-Rowe, Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard started in behind Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. On Spurs' side, Nuno Espirito Santo made 3 changes, bringing in Tanganga, Davison Sanchez and Lucas Moura to the starting 11, hoping for a different result from the 3-0 loss to Chelsea a week earlier.
As the game kicked off, it was clear that Arsenal was far more up for the game than their opposition, and early pressure mounted, as Aubameyang forced an early save from Lloris. Just a few minutes later however, Arsenals pressure finally made an impact, as Bukayo Saka got past Reguilion down the line and cut it back for fellow Hale End graduate Emile Smith-Rowe to tuck away his first goal of the season. The Emirates errupted, but Arsenal were far from done. A few good moves lead to half chances for Arsenal, and just 15 minutes after the opener, Aubameyang and Smith-Rowe linked up well down the left, leading to Smith-Rowe cutting it back to the edge of the box, where Aubameyang tucked home perfectly with his left foot, leading to a Thierry Henry style knee slide celebration, and a dream start for the home side. 27 minutes in, and Spurs still hadn't woken up. Things got even worse for the travelling away fans however, as Harry Kane lost the ball cheaply near the Arsenal penalty area, allowing them to break once again in numbers. The ball was fed out to Saka on the right, and despite the fact that Kane managed to track back, his tackle only fell back into the path of Saka, who slotted away calmly past Lloris, to make it 3-0 in the just 35 minutes. One of the greatest halves for Arsenal in a long time.
As the half time whistle went, Spurs fans seemed to be leaving, and Arsenal fans was having the time of their lives. Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo didn't look pleased with his side at all, and made 2 changes coming out of the half, with Emerson Royal and Oliver Skipp coming on, hoping to somehow get back into the game. However, the first 15 minutes of the second half was slow, neither team looking like they wanted to score or concede. In the 60th minute Kane forced a save out of Ramsdale, who had been non-existent leading up to the chance, but did his job well. Just a couple minutes later Harry Kane had yet another great chance as Dier picked him out with a perfect 50 yard pass to leave him one on one, a chance you would almost guarantee Kane would score, however the attempted chip was put wide, something you very rarely see and it started to become clear it was not Spurs' day at all. The game was far from over however, and another Spurs chance saw Reguilon pick out Son in the box, and he managed to tuck it past Ramsdale to make it 3-1, with 12 minutes on the clock. Arsenal defended strong and saw the game out perfectly, with every tackle, pass and save being cheered by the home crowd. With a minute left, Moura found some space and hit a looping deflected shot that looked destined for the goal, yet somehow Arsenals new number 1 Aaron Ramsdale made a tremendous fingertip save onto the crossbar to keep the score at 3-1.
Overall, it was a truly remarkable performance from Mikel Arteta's side over their rivals. And now find themselves 9th place after 6 games, despite being rock bottom just 3 games ago. Spurs on the other hand have now suffered 3 defeats on the bounce, following the 3 wins at the beginning of the season that saw them top 3 games beforehand. Both teams sit around mid table and will certainly want to finish higher, but after Sunday's performance, one team can be positive and that is Arsenal and their young core.