16th March2014 : Arsenal had the single goal when Tomas
Rosicky's fires a rocket after just 72 seconds and lifted Arsenal back into
the Premier League title race.
Some of the White Hart
Lane faithful were still taking their seats when Arsenal took the lead,
with Rosicky leaving Hugo Lloris grasping at thin air with a venomous
right-foot strike from the corner of the area which flew across the
goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
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Rosicky had picked up possession in his own half before
advancing into the space vacated by Danny Rose's forward foray before
playing a slightly fortuitous one-two with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and
then finding the top corner.
The Gunners were forced onto the back foot for long periods of
the north London derby, but the closest Spurs came to levelling was in
the second period when Wojciech Szczesny inexplicably failed to gather a
routine cross from the right and had Laurent Koscielny to thank for
denying Nacer Chadli a certain leveller.
Arsenal are now third, only behind Liverpool on goal difference
and just four points adrift of Chelsea and with a game in hand on the
leaders, while they now boast a nine-point cushion over their derby
rivals in fifth.
Arsenal were ahead inside two minutes of Arsene Wenger's 999th match in charge with a goal of the highest order.
Sherwood's side - whose collective character had been questioned
by the manager - soon regrouped and caused Arsenal a few problems with
probing balls into the penalty area.
Arsenal, though, retained possession well and it should have been
2-0 on 15 minutes when Oxlade-Chamberlain robbed Nabil Bentaleb on the
halfway line and sprinted clear.
The England man darted to the edge of the penalty area, but as
Lloris came off his line the Arsenal man screwed his attempted chip
horribly wide - with Lukas Podolski screaming for a square pass for what
would have been a tap-in.
That let-off gave a huge lift to the home side, who immediately
went on the offensive with a low cross from Andros Townsend on the right
flying through the six-yard box.
On 21 minutes, Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna slid into a
challenge with Danny Rose which - although he probably touched the ball
first - totally upended the Spurs defender. Sherwood was off the bench
demanding a red card but, after a stern talking-to, referee Mike Dean
produced only a yellow.
Spurs continued to play a very high defensive line, which was
breached again when Podolski raced clear down the left. His cut-back was
just behind Rosicky but Oxlade-Chamberlain connected with a strike that
was deflected out for a corner.
The home side should have been level at the start of the second half following two terrible handling errors from Szczesny.
First the Pole flapped at a cross on the edge of the
Arsenal penalty area, which Sagna hacked away as Chadli chased the loose
ball. Then, inexplicably, Szczesny failed to collect a high cross into
the box, which this time did fall for Chadli, but somehow Koscielny
blocked his goalbound shot at point-blank range.
With 20 minutes left, there was a double change for the home side when Paulinho and Gylfi Sigurdsson replaced Chadli and Sandro.
For Arsenal, Rosicky was taken off as defensive midfielder Mathieu Flamini came on.
Wenger was off his seat protesting for what he felt was a
penalty after Koscielny was sent tumbling by Jan Vertonghen, but the
referee was not interested.
Lloris then made a smart reaction save after Per Mertesacker lashed the ball goalwards from a deep free-kick.
Tempers boiled over in the closing minutes as Sherwood twice hurled the ball at Sagna when Arsenal had been awarded a throw-in.
Mikel Arteta played a good game as he eventually act as peacemaker in a
crowded technical area as his side played out the four minutes of
stoppage time.
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