Arsenal secured a thrilling 3-2 victory over their arch-rivals Tottenham in the North London derby, maintaining their lead at the top of the Premier League on Sunday.
In an effort to stay ahead of Manchester City in the title chase, Mikel Arteta’s team stunned the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with three goals before the break.
An own goal by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg gave Arsenal the lead, followed by strikes from Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, putting Arsenal firmly in command.
Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min scored after halftime, leading to a tense finale, but Arsenal held on tightly.
Arsenal remains four points ahead of second-placed City, who later on Sunday will play Nottingham Forest in the first of their two games in hand against the Gunners.
If City wins their remaining five matches, they will secure an unprecedented fourth consecutive English title.
Arsenal is exerting every effort to pressure Pep Guardiola’s team as they seek redemption for squandering an eight-point lead in the previous season’s title race.
Following the disappointment of a costly home loss to Aston Villa and an exit from the Champions League quarter-finals at the hands of Bayern Munich, the Gunners have made a remarkable comeback.
With City hot on their heels and little room for mistakes, Arteta urged his players to demonstrate their desire for victory, and they rose to meet his challenge.
The 5-0 thrashing of long-time rivals Chelsea on Tuesday was just a precursor to the feast Arsenal presented to 3,000 exultant fans in a section of the stadium.
Arsenal has twice claimed the league title at Tottenham’s former White Hart Lane ground, in 1971 and 2004.
While the Gunners didn’t secure any trophies on rival ground this time, their fifth victory in the last seven north London derbies keeps them in contention to claim the title for the first time in two decades.
For Tottenham, currently in fifth place and trailing seven points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa with two games in hand, the defeat was a severe setback, dimming their already slim chances of Champions League qualification.
During a corner kick, Saka sent the ball into the six-yard box, where Hojbjerg, in an attempt to clear the ball in front of Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu, inadvertently deflected it into his own goal.
Romero nearly equalized when Arsenal’s keeper David Raya misread James Maddison’s free kick, leading to a close-range header by the defender that, astonishingly, hit the post instead of the open net.
Mickey van de Ven believed he had leveled the score for Tottenham after hammering in a shot following Pedro Porro’s deflected attempt, but a VAR review deemed the center-back slightly offside.
Arteta’s squad reacted to the VAR decision as if they had scored, and in the 27th minute, they actually did.
Havertz delivered an exceptional long ball to Saka on the right wing. The winger charged at Ben Davies, then cut inside to dispatch a precise low drive from 12 yards, beating Guglielmo Vicario.
Arsenal displayed lethal precision in attack, with Havertz netting their third from a cleverly executed corner play in the 38th minute.
While Tottenham set up in a zonal defense, Havertz and a cluster of Arsenal players made late, unmarked runs into the box, allowing the German the space to head in Rice’s corner from close range.
However, Tottenham didn’t give up, and Romero narrowed the gap in the 64th minute, capitalizing on Raya’s glaringly poor pass to score from just outside the box.
Rice’s impetuous challenge on Davies led to a nail-biting finish for Arsenal, as Son converted the resulting penalty past Raya in the 87th minute.
In the other early Sunday game, Bournemouth secured a 3-0 victory over Brighton with goals from Marcos Senesi, Enes Unai, and Justin Kluivert.
