Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane took a cue from Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo as he soared high to score a 49th-minute winner against Arsenal on Saturday in front of a record crowd at Wembley Stadium with the latest edition of the North London Derby ending in the favour of the Lilywhites by virtue of a 1-0 scoreline.
Not just did Spurs grab bragging rights and get some semblance of revenge for their 2-0 loss earlier in the season, but Saturday’s result effectively killed of the Gunners’ Premier League top-four hopes.
With a crowd of 82,222 watching, the early kick-off got off to a somewhat tedious start with neither side willing to risk too much in a game that had a lot riding on it.
The hosts were unchanged from the side that drew with Liverpool last week, but Arsenal had a number of key changes, with the Gunners switching to a 4-3-3 system as Aaron Ramsey failed to recover in time and Jack Wilshere replaced the Welshman.
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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was sent through by Wilshere early on, but the linesman raised the offside flag to deny the Gunners, who had won their last nine games at Wembley, a perfect start.
The best chance of the first-half, however, fell to Kane as Christian Eriksen sent in an inviting cross for the Premier League’s top scorer but the Englishman fluffed his lines as he sent the header wide of Petr Cech’s post.
Arsenal were defending resolutely and they continued to frustrate Spurs but all their good work was done almost as soon as the second-half kicked off.
Kane, touted as Ronaldo’s replacement at Real Madrid, took flight as he headed an excellent Ben Davies cross past Cech four minutes after the restart.
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Nacho Monreal was appealing for an alleged push on Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny by Kane but replays clearly suggested the Spurs hitman’s leap was just too much for the Arsenal defence to cope with.
Spurs took the initiative and started to dominate their rivals but Kane wasn’t at his prolific best and a number of gilt-edged chances went missing.
As the match progresssed, Arsene Wenger threw on Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette in a bid to salvage a point but Spurs were simply better in every area save perhaps finishing as they continued to look more likely to score.
Lacazette, however, did spurn two sitters in injury-time as Arsenal battered Spurs with everything they had but somehow the Lilyhwites rode their luck to clinch an invaluable win.
The ending was a bit fractious, despite the game being a relatively clean one with only three yellow cardsbeing issued. Jack Wilshere was incensed at the full-time whistle, having to be restrained by his teammates as the Gunners trudged off the field with eighth loss of the season.
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Spurs leapfrog Chelsea and Liverpool into third place and will look to build on Saturday’s win when they take travel to Turin to take on Juventus in a mouthwatering UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash on Tuesday before visiting Rochdale AFC for a FA Cup fight round clash on February 18.
Considering their recent form, it will be hard to deny Mauricio Pochettino’s men a top-four slot, with a Chelsea side in crisis looking likely to miss out but there’s plenty of football left in the season and the job is far from done yet.
Arsenal in theory are still in contention for the Champions League spots, but they could be eight points behind fourth place if Chelsea win their game in hand of Monday and the Gunners faithful will be despondent as yet another underwhelming season comes to a close.