Football Special Report: Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspurs- Review and Player Ratings (Part 1)
For the first time in seventeen years, Tottenham Hotspurs managed to win against their local rivals at their home. A sensational second half performance from the Spurs’, coming back from two goals, made history at Emirates, and Tottenham Hotspurs managed
to bag all three points against their fierce rivals Arsenal.
The exciting derby match seemed as good as over in the first half when Arsenal talismanic skipper, Cesc Fabregas played a superb long through pass to Samir Nasri to score the first goal of the match. Along with that, Cesc Fabregas, who was at his best last
night, started another move which also ended up in the opposition net thanks to Marouane Chamakh for the exceptional finish from a close range. First half clearly belonged to home-side and it seemed like that Gunners were going to win this derby.
But Tottenham showed their fighting spirit, which has been evident plenty of times over the last few weeks. An impressive finish from Gareth Bale in the starting minutes of the second half, followed up by the exceptionally well taken penalty from Rafael
van der Vaart and a late, late towering header from Younes Kaboul shocked the whole world with their sensational comeback.
A high tempo opening saw the Gunners immediately on the attack from the starting minutes with Cesc finding enough space to worm a ball through to Arshavin, but the Russian was quickly dispossessed by the former Arsenal player and skipper, William Gallas.
On the other end, Tottenham had an early corner, taken by Luka Modric, which was whipped in low into the box towards Pavlyuchenko who tried a flick with his heel that harmlessly bobbled towards Arsenal goalkeeper.
The home side were upping the ante and managed to gain the early foothold that their pressure somewhat deserved.
A deep, hanging cross was lofted into the Tottenham penalty area that their goalie flapped at and from the following passing exchange Cesc spotted his right winger on the last opposition defender. Samir Nasri was quick as a flash on to the long through ball
of Cesc Fabregas and with some drama at penalty area by Spurs’ keeper, Samir Nasri managed to put the ball behind the goal-line from an extremely tight angle to give the Gunners much needed lead.
With Cesc as always pulling the strings, the home side nearly adding a second soon afterwards but Arshavin was adjudged offside with replays suggesting otherwise. Spurs were struggling to impose themselves on the game with the Gunners second seeming inevitable
and half-way through the second half that’s exactly what happened.
With Tottenham slowly venturing up field, the home side saw their opportunity and jumped into a counter-attack. With just four touches of the ball Cesc played it wide on to his left winger, Arshavin, who out-gunned Houghton to fire in a low cross towards
the box, which found Chamakh and eventually net. Just before the half time, Arsenal was two goals up and was favourites to win this match.
With more than just a whiff of desperation about them Gareth Bale and Jermaine Jenas tried their luck from 30 yards, with the former’s shot testing Arsenal goalkeeper well but the latter’s flying high and wide.
Tottenham started to settle into the game as the game wore on, putting together a few good amounts of possession but it was the Gunners who were firmly in control and they could well have added a third before the break. First Cesc fed through Arshavin, but
the Russian failed to control the ball to allow William Gallas to clear then Clichy whipped a low cross in from the left, but the onrushing Chamakh failed to control.
To be continued in Part 2
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