Arsenal Vs Spurs: This is a new Arsenal

Arsenal hosted Spurs in the North London Derby on Sunday. They manhandled their greatest rivals with physicality and power. This is indeed a new team and Unai Emery is it’s master.

Harry Kane was never missing the penalty. As soon as Rob Holding hurtled to the ground, grazed the left ankle of Heung Min Son and conceded the penalty kick, Arsenal would be facing yet another first-half deficit. After starting the match so brilliantly, a four-minute period that included two stupid fouls, a weak goal conceded, two fist fights, and a penalty.

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It would have been easy for any team to capitulate. Throwing away a well-deserved, hard-earned lead in such foolish circumstances, so obviously and visibly losing heads in the heat of battle. An Arsene Wenger Arsenal would have folded.

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On the sidelines, as Shkodran Mustafi later got into it with the latest Spurs player, glance to the sidelines and you would have seen Unai Emery, usually so amplified and impassioned himself, put two hands in the air and show his palms to the pitch and just show everybody that they needed to calm down, control their tempers a little, and refocus on the matter at hand: the hour or so remaining in the match.

That is precisely what his players did. They regathered themselves during the remaining stages of the first half, and then, thanks to the dual introduction of Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey, came out revitalised in the second half, energized by the crowd, focused by their manager, and impassioned by a new rivalry spirit that had been absent.

The second-half performance was phenomenal. Riding out a rough first period, Emery watched as his players settled into a new formation never seen before under Emery, began to control the middle of the pitch, Lucas Torreira becoming especially effective in this area, and actively chose to challenge Spurs, physically, technically and tactically.

Like a boxer, nosed flared, blood dripping down his forehead, eyes bulging, Arsenal stood tall and asked Spurs what they were made of. They pushed their chest into Spurs’, thrust their arms into Spurs’ body and demanded a response. They never got one. Sead Kolasinac stood, flag in hand, claiming his territory. Spurs had fled.

And this image, one of the Gunners bullying an opponent into submission, is a rare one. This team does not behave like it did on Sunday. It does not cause fights from the substitutes warming up on the sideline. It does not square up to its opposite number. It does not play with fire and ferocity. It does not rip off its shirt when it scored, whirl it in the air and then slide into the corner in front of a raucous Emirates.

This is a new team. A new club. A new Arsenal. And it is all because of Unai Emery.