Arsenal: 4 tactical triumphs vs Tottenham

Waking up the day after the North London Derby is often a haze, whether you were celebrating victory or trying to block out defeat. On this occasion it was Arsenal glory in this special fixture, and it’s smiles all round.

To a man there were excellent displays across the pitch.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked like the striker who won the Golden Boot a couple of seasons ago and both centre-halves were commanding and progressive in equal measure.

The new signings have now fully integrated themselves if they hadn’t already, with Takehiro Tomiyasu a boss in defence and Aaron Ramsdale a safe pair of hands in net. Add to that the goals coming from the two Hale End stars who Arsenal are unbelievably lucky to have on their hands and it was a near perfect day.

4 tactical triumphs Mikel Arteta made vs Tottenham as Arsenal secured North London Derby bragging rights with 3-1 Premier League win

Credit goes to many. Not least the manager.

This was a colossal day for Mikel Arteta. A day of reckoning, one that had the potential to turn the Emirates Stadium into a den of despair or an arena of elation. Fortunately it was the latter.

With his full complement of players available he had to get everything right on the day; there was nowhere to hide; no excuses to be made for him. If he couldn’t get his team ready for this fixture and set them up in a manner to secure victory then the supporters still leaning on a fence over his  suitability to the role would have made their stand.

Just as he made clear errors in defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City, this time there was nothing but praise for the Spaniard for how he approached this game. Across the board Arsenal were the better side and four tactical decisions in particular helped the Gunners on their way to three precious Premier League points.

1. Keeping Saka Wider Out on the Right

Knowing Arsenal could overrun Spurs in midfield, as soon as the lines were broken with Martin Odegaard finding clever pockets of space it meant Saka could keep width out right and exploit the positional weaknesses of Sergio Reguilon, who was rarely in the right place.

With Takehiro Tomiyasu maintaining defensive structure as the right sided centre-back in the three-man build up, the lack of a regular overlap meant that Saka could pick up deeper zones where he could make diagonal movements towards Reguilon and Eric Dier.

Nuno Espirito Santo likes to play with a narrow 4-3-3 shape that (tries to) congests central areas, so in keeping Saka wide and rarely drifting any more infield than the half-spaces Arsenal could disrupt Spurs’ entire left flank.

Heung-min Son had no joy on Tomiyasu and Reguilon couldn’t adequately support him with Saka keeping him occupied, which in turn saw central areas open up for Odegaard to flourish. The Spaniard began doubting himself.

The Norwegian was never too far from Saka and the diagonal play through midfield opened up that gap for Saka on numerous occasions: he found that space for the first goal and the third goal came from a textbook situation.

As someone who is so dangerous coming infield, the decision to keep him wide worked a treat.

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