A single headed goal from Harry Kane was enough to edge Tottenham the win over rivals Arsenal in Saturday’s North London Derby.
The first half was an exercise in defensive austerity, with both teams holding each other at bay for the most part.
However, that man Kane broke the deadlock less than five minutes after the restart, soaring above Laurent Koscielny to send Ben Davies’ deep cross back across Petr Cech…
Kane has now scored a total of seven goals in the seven North London derbies he’s featured in. Only one player has scored more in the same fixture, and that man is Emmanuel Adebayor (8).
Tottenham grew into the match in the second period, as Arsenal found themselves penned back for long periods by near-relentless attacking pressure.
It was Cech who kept the score at 1-0 with a sequence of smart saves, but the Gunners’ goalkeeper also came perilously close to undermining all of his hard work with some bafflingly awful passing under pressure.
Arsene Wenger’s expensively-assembled attacking line failed to muster much of note, managing just one shot on target throughout the entire game, with chances at a premium throughout.
Worryingly, the Aubameyang-Mkhitaryan-Ozil axis looked far less than the sum of its parts, in part due to Spurs’ excellent defensive structure.
Alexandre Lacazette entered the fray with 25 minutes left and looked entirely depleted of confidence from the moment he emerged on the touchline.
Indeed, the French striker had been completely anonymous right up until the point he fluffed two late opportunities, first by sending a far-post volley over the bar and secondly by bungling a one-on-one in stoppage time.
With that went Arsenal’s final chance of snatching an equaliser, as the final whistle sounded almost immediately thereafter.
That’s one goal in 13 appearances for Lacazette now.
Limp.