Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham have earned their recognition far and wide due to their intense style of play and the pressing of their opponents. However, they were caught with a downed guard in the derby of North London, as Arsenal would have his eternal enemy with his own stones on his head at his very beginning.
The artillery players were well deserved in the 10th minute with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang`s penalty goal after they executed perfectly the plan of their manager Unai Emery not to give the spurs a shot. So it was not surprising that by the 20th minute Harry Kane had touched the ball only four times -less than half of any other footballer, including Bernd Leno - that`s how the relationship between the leader of the team and his teammates was torn. Arsenal refused to give them a centimeter of field.
Emery`s starting plan to place high-pressure and direct passes on the outside of Tottenham central defenders;especially the corridor between Serge Aurier and Juan Foyth doing a wonderful job. So the spurs were stifled and could not, through Moussa Sissoko and Eric Dier from the heart of the midfield, build a game predicted by fixed tips record through the opponents` press. There was a convincing victory, and Mesut Osil`s absence, officially due to spasm in his back, definitely helped the goal.
He also helped to constantly patch Emery by the touchline. The Arsenal fans are conquered by this approach by their manager.
The positions were changing one after another and the hosts seemed to be close to increasing their lead. Until the 28th minute the expected goals (xG) of gunmen according to the Understat chart. com were 1, 26 against just 0, 08 guests. That`s why it was astonishing how the Pochettino's team managed speedily and undeservedly to turn the score to 1:2 with the goals of Eric Dier and Kane. From here until the end of the half-time, the scorched Arsenal never managed to threaten the door of Hugo Loris, as the pressure dropped and Aubameyang remained isolated.
At the break, saw his team lose height and gave way to the center, Emery touched his system. Otherwise, the excellent Alex Iwobi, who led the pressuring of the actions and harassed Aurier, and the anonymous Henrikh Mkhitaryan were replaced by Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette. The latter formed an offensive tandem with Aubameyang and Ramsey behind them, with 1-3-4-3 going to 1-3-4-1-2.
At first, the Welsh position brought trouble to Dier and Sissoko. The reserve could be calm in the presence of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka behind him to act in the semi-space on both sides, and at the same time to attack with vertical ballless ball the space behind the defense. So did Aubameyang`s equalizing goal. Suddenly Dier and Sissoko were trapped, unable to squeeze for fear of freeing space behind their backs. And then Pochettino blinked first - Dier returned as the third central defender to Vertonghen and Foyth, bringing a new wind to the hosts` sails.
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