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Arsenal v Tottenham: Premier League – live | Premier League


Key events

27 min: Martinelli and Jesus ping high-speed triangles down the inside left. Suddenly Jesus is in! But he hesitates before attempting to shoot from a tight angle, and the chance is gone. Arsenal are playing very well, and much of it is extremely easy on the eye.

25 min: Saka, White, Partey … they piece together exactly the same move that led to the goal. But this time Partey doesn’t shoot first time. He’s crowded out. There were 22 passes before the goal, by the way. Patience paid off, all right.

24 min: Richarlison turns neatly to find a bit of space in the centre circle, then wedges a clever pass down the inside-left channel for Son. For a second, it looks as though Son is in, but Ramsdale reads the danger and comes to the edge of his area to claim.

22 min: That was one hell of a strike. Plenty of oomph behind it, but so much precision and control as well. No more than Arsenal deserve, and bad news for Spurs, who have lost 16 and won only four of their Premier League matches against the Gunners in which they’ve conceded first.

GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Partey 20)

Arsenal’s patience pays off! A period of metronomic passing ends with a crash, as Saka dribbles down the right, pulls back for White, who rolls a pass infield for Partey, racing towards the right-hand edge of the D. Partey opens his body and steers a stunner into the top right. The Emirates erupts!

Thomas Partey strikes to give Arsenal the lead.
Thomas Partey strikes to give Arsenal the lead. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

19 min: Arsenal pass and probe, pass and probe. Some of the old patient possession Arsene used to love. And then …

17 min: Arsenal respond by taking a couple of shots from distance. First up a fairly harmless one from White; then a fizzing daisycutter from Xhaka that sails inches wide of the bottom-right corner. Some effort by Xhaka, who is all pals again with the home crowd. Plenty of appreciative applause.

15 min: Richarlison, plus a few others, looked offside there, at first glance anyway. But the flag stayed down, and it could well have been that White, slightly out of position, was playing everyone on. Had that gone in, VAR would have had to get the old rulers out.

13 min: The free kick is shovelled into the box diagonall from the right by Son. Richarlison steps ahead of Arsenal’s high line, and pokes the dropping ball towards the bottom left. Ramsdale parries brilliantly. Spurs finally bare their teeth.

12 min: Partey fouls an in-flight Richarlison, but the referee gives Spurs the advantage. Emerson romps down the right and slips infield for Kane, who draws a cheap one from Gabriel. A free kick. Spurs load the box.

10 min: Martinelli skips past a sliding Emerson and zips along the left touchline. He then draws Richarlison towards the corner flag, before dinking the ball back upfield, running around the Spurs striker and retrieving it. Glorious skill, but he’s then harshly penalised for running into Emerson, back on the scene. That was audacious.

8 min: Arsenal have enjoyed 77 percent of possession so far. That stat doesn’t surprise at all. Spurs are struggling to string anything together.

6 min: Jesus accidentally kicks Dier in the face. Dier had been stooping extremely low, so you can’t really blame the Arsenal striker for that. Dier’s OK to continue, and Kane hoicks the resulting free kick witlessly out for a goal kick. Spurs haven’t got started at all.

4 min: Saka sends a diagonal into the Spurs box from the right. Xhaka attempts a Giroud-style flick at the far post, his contortions sending the ball out for a goal kick. Spurs can’t get out at the minute.

3 min: Saka crosses long from the right. Martinelli chests down, on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box, and batters a shot off the base of the left-hand post! Out for what should be a goal kick … except a corner’s awarded. Martinelli sends it straight out of play.

2 min: Arsenal fly out of the blocks. Odegaard sets the home side on the attack with a cute nutmeg to find Jesus, who feeds Martinelli on the left. He wins a throw. The ball’s flung in long, and flicked on by Xhaka. Lenglet is forced to hack out for a corner. Lloris punches the set piece clear, but not in particularly convincing fashion.

Hugo Lloris in the thick of it as Arsenal start strongly.
Hugo Lloris in the thick of it as Arsenal start strongly. Photograph: David Klein/Reuters

Tottenham Hotspur get the ball rolling. A huge roar cannonballs around the stadium. The north London derby, right here!

The teams are out! Arsenal in red, Spurs in white, the Emirates bubbling away in fevered anticipation. “Arsenal fans’ prayers, candles and animal sacrifices have worked,” begins Charles Antaki. “Both Zinchenko and Partey are fit to play, also Ødegaard. Not to say that one or other, or indeed all of them, might not break down within the first five minutes, but it’s a start.” We’ll be off in a couple of shakes.

Antonio Conte speaks to BT. “In England there are many, many derbies. This is an important derby, but it has to become important for the table, and not only the rivalry. We need to fight for something important in the future. I have picked the formation that is the best start to this run of 13 games.”

Fancy a stroll down Memory Lane N5? A meander along Nostalgia Avenue N17? Let Rob and Simon take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of north London.

Some pre-match reading. Plenty of time before kick-off.

Tottenham’s recent record at Arsenal is not good. Just two wins in 37, the most recent coming in 2010 when they came from two down to snatch victory at the death. Relive that match if you like with some hot retro MBM action! Son Heung-min, back in form after that quickfire hat-trick against Leicester, and with a record of four goals in his last five Premier League matches against Arsenal, is in the mood to slake Tottenham’s 12-year thirst. “It’s tough to listen to this!” he tells BT Sport. “Even when I was away with the national team I was hearing 12 years! It’s tough to hear. Hopefully today will change the history. Everyone has to be ready and it’s going to be a big battle.”

Mikel Arteta talks to BT Sport. “It is the strongest team we believe gives us a chance to win the game. We have managed to recover the players and hope they are in the best possible condition to play. Tottenham are a really dangerous team, we know that. But you cannot allow players to play with the handbrake. We will go in there with full courage and go for it.”

Arsenal make two changes to the starting XI named for the 3-0 victory at Brentford. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Martin Odegaard are back from injury, so Kieran Tierney and Fabio Vieira drop to the bench. Thomas Partey has been passed fit to start.

Tottenham – who have won only two of their last 37 league matches on the patch of their arch-rivals – make three changes to the team that gubbed Leicester 6-2 a couple of weeks ago. Son Heung-min, Cristian Romero and Emerson Royal come in for Ryan Sessegnon and Davinson Sanchez, who drop to the bench, and Dejan Kulusevski, who twanged his hamstring while away with Sweden. Hugo Lloris is OK to play despite injury worries.

The teams

Arsenal: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Partey, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus.
Subs: Tierney, Nketiah, Holding, Tomiyasu, Vieira, Sambi Lokonga, Nelson, Alencar, Turner.

Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Romero, Dier, Lenglet, Emerson, Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Perisic, Richarlison, Son, Kane.
Subs: Doherty, Skipp, Sanchez, Gil Salvatierra, Sessegnon, Forster, Spence, Sarr, Bissouma.

Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).

Preamble

Does the north London derby need hyping up when the top of the Premier League table looks like this?

Nope! Kick off is at 12.30pm BST. It’s on!

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