Arsenal Vs Spurs: This is Unai Emery’s victory

Arsenal fought ferociously in a 4-2 win over Spurs on Sunday, harassing and pummelling their rivals into submission. This was very much Unai Emery’s victory.

From the very first kick, this match had a different feel to all the others. Fiery. Ferocious. There was a fervour around the Emirates unlike any other match this season. Just the very weight in the air had changed. Something titanic was about to take place. And it sure did.

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Arsenal pummelled Tottenham Hotspur into submission. Substitutes fighting with goalscorers. Challenges flying in from every single angle. A stadium roaring, alive with its own drama. A pulsating match, toing and froing with every kick of the conflict-filled ball. A flash of red. Two points to the spot. This was a match of the highest order, of the greatest derby variety.

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And at the heart of it all was a fist-pumping, heart-pounding, arm-gesticulating, sideline-running, hair-raising Spaniard. This was Unai Emery’s stage and he was standing front and centre, arms aloft, taking in the praise and reciprocating it with another thrust of his arms. And his team mirrored his response, the fans mirrored his response, the stadium mirrored his response. Emery was in his element, and Arsenal responded.

For Emery, he watched on as his team played precisely how we would have wanted. Pressing incessantly, hounding their opponents, playing with fire and violence and control. 1-0. Nothing less than they deserved. There was a lapse. A momentary spillage of the passion. Spurs scored thanks to Eric Dier and Arsenal did not like it. Stephan Lichtsteiner, Sead Kolasinac, Shkodran Mustafi. Like firecrackers, they exploded in the face of their north London counterparts.

That allowed Emery to bid his crowning glory: a double substitution at half-time, a new formation that had not been seen before, and a two-striker system that had seemingly been banished into the days when Emery looked ever more like a slicked-back, finely-cut continental waiter. Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey came on. The game changed.

The ferocity of the first half remained, but it was allied with an element of control, funnelling Arsenal’s play into the most dangerous areas. Aubameyang scored a terrific second goal, arrowing a first time shot into the bottom corner. Lacazette followed it up into the opposite corner. And then Lucas Torreira, who was the bodily vision of Emery’s sideline ranting, ratting around in the middle of the park, polished off the victory. The players, in front of the fans, lost it.

But make no mistake, this was Emery’s win. This was his team playing how he wanted them to. It was him who united the whole club behind his passion and personality. It was him who enthused the Emirates crowd. It was him who demanded a fire within his players. It was him who adapted his tactics, tinkered with his hand, and pulled an ace — or a pair of them — out of his sleeve.

Emery has revolutionised this football club. He has changed the very fabric of the team and the feeling of the stands, and this was the pinnacle of it all. This was Emery’s victory.