With Gabriel's goal, Arsenal, who are in danger of injury, extended their unbeaten run this season with an away win over Tottenham.
Devil's schedule + injury crisis
After the international break, Tottenham have a devilish schedule, with back-to-back games against Tottenham, Atalanta and Manchester City in seven days. If the results are not good, then Arsenal could even be eight points behind Manchester City after five rounds, meaning they will be out of title contention early.
Arteta, meanwhile, has faced a dilemma with the midfield available. During the international break, Odegaard and Calafiori were injured at the same time for the national team, and with the long-term absence of Merino and Rice suspended due to red cards, Arteta could only put together a makeshift combination in midfield.
Together with Tierney, Zinchenko and Tomiyasu, who were absent due to injury, Arsenal has a full seven players who cannot play. In order to make up the bench, Arteta had to bring in five youth team players.
According to media analysis, Thomas and Jorginho will play as a double midfielder, while Kai Havertz will drop back and be responsible for the tandem of the midfield. Whether to stay as a false centre-forward or drop back, Havertz said: 'We'll have to look at my position, we're missing two or three players, but we've got a strong squad and we have players who can play in different positions. We have to make some changes, but I don't want to talk about tactics. ”
Set-piece tactics
Van der Vaart believes this is the perfect chance for Tottenham to win the derby against a short-flung Arsenal side. However, Tottenham did not take advantage of such an opportunity and instead fell into hand-to-hand combat with the Arsenal players. In the first half alone, Tottenham players received five yellow cards.
It wasn't until the 62nd minute that Arsenal broke the deadlock with a corner kick and Gabriel headed home from the middle of the box.
Arsenal's goal from set-pieces was no surprise, first of all it was a conscious tactical arrangement, and since Jofer became set-piece coach, Arsenal have scored 42 goals from corners, the most in the top five leagues. Secondly, set-piece defence is already Tottenham's weakness. Last season, Tottenham were 18th in the set-piece goals conceded charts.
Neville commented, "The set-piece coach (Nicholas Jofer) must have gotten a goal bonus! They're smart, they haven't won the league yet, but they're playing like a team that knows how to win in key games. They are very patient. ”
Unbeaten away from home in 2024
With the win over Tottenham, Arsenal extended their unbeaten run on the road in the Premier League across the season to 11 games, with their last defeat coming 2-1 at Fulham on 31 December 2023. Arsenal, meanwhile, extended their cross-season Premier League winning streak to six games, setting a record for consecutive away wins since Mikel Arteta's tenure.
Arsenal also extended their unbeaten run in the Premier League across the season to 10 games, with their last defeat coming at Villa on 14 April. The Gunners also extended their unbeaten derby run with Arsenal unbeaten in five meetings with Tottenham since 1 October 2022.
On top of that, Arsenal won three consecutive away games against Tottenham in the Premier League for the first time.