Arsenal vs Tottenham: The Debrief
Arsenal remind people what the pecking order is in North London
I had built up some nerves about this match in the week leading up to it. I knew that Arsenal were the better team but the classic “anything can happen in a derby” plus Arsenal not having a fully fit team allowed a bit of doubt to creep in for me.
With hindsight that all looks so silly but maybe that nervous energy made it all the sweeter as Arsenal played one of their best matches of the season. This also capped a wonderful weekend overall and looked like a special day for the players and the fans.
One of the great moments in a season that keep us hooked to this sport.
If you’re into listening to a bit more of a breakdown Adam and I did a podcast after the match yesterday.
Let’s get into this wonderful victory.
Arsenal vs Tottenham: The Graphics
Arsenal vs Tottenham: The Debrief
4 - Goals scored by Arsenal, all from open play (really ruining the Set Play FC name). This is the most open play goals for Arsenal since April 20th last season against Ipswich (red card aided). Before that it was the 7-1 win in the Champions League in March or in the Premier League it was the 5-1 win against Manchester City.
16 - The number of times that Arsenal have scored 4+ goals in the Premier League since 2023/24, that is tied for the most with Manchester City.
17 - Shots from Arsenal, that is the second match in a row hitting 17 and that 5th this season with 17 or more. Arsenal have now moved up to 2nd in the total shots taken table behind Liverpool by 6 total shots.
8 - Shots on target for Arsenal, this is tied for the most this season with the match against Athletic Madrid.
Hanging four goals on a rival, especially one that came in with a respectable goals allowed record goes a long way to shutting up some of the complaints that we as fans had. Especially, when they come from open play and that was one of the sticks that was used to beat Arsenal.
While this was a good performance and the ball went in the net which makes it so much fun, the positive here is that this isn’t some sort of outlier for what Arsenal have done this season. This is a good but not all that different than the average Arsenal attacking performance from Arsenal.
Arsenal in this match did the boa constrictor move on Tottenham, who seemed to invite that upon themselves in a silly tactical choice. Arsenal had one of their stronger days on field tilt (which is especially impressive given the score effects) and pushed basically all of the play into the Tottenham defensive third.
52% - The share of Tottenham’s touches that were in their defensive third (264 out of 506). They had 94 touches in their own box in this match which is double the number that they had in the final third (46).
This level of control and the pressing made this one of the most complete performances we have seen from Arsenal this season.
Arsenal gave up a goal here and that sort of puts a blemish on the overall defensive part of the game, but it really shouldn’t. We have become so used to seeing Arsenal do this that it doesn’t feel out of the ordinary anymore but even here this was a pretty special day for Arsenal looking at the defensive statistics.
It is also fun to look at this graphic, it is becoming the norm now that while Arsenal look great defensively, when teams come up against Arsenal, they have one of their worst days out trying to attack.
4 - Touches in the box for Tottenham, this is the fewest they have had since 2021 against Crystal Place.
46 - Touches in the final third in the whole match (just 11 in the first half), the fewest since May last season against Brighton, and Feb 2022 before that against Manchester City.
3 - Shots for Tottenham, this is the fewest they have had in well just a couple of weeks where they had 3 at home against Chelsea.
0.1 - The expected goals for Tottenham (rounding up here to the tenth spot), the lowest output again since that 2021 match against Crystal Palace.
This Arsenal team is damn good.
Eberechi Eze has a day to remember
6 - Shots (1st on Arsenal), 4 on target for 0.55 expected goals.
3 - Goals scored, Arsenal’s first ever NLD hat trick
25 - Pass Attempts (8th on Arsenal), 20 passes completed for 80.0% pass completion percentage with a 99.2% pass efficiency compared to expected passing
1 - Progressive Pass completed
1 - Key Pass for 0.34 xG assisted
3 - Dribbles Completed out of 3 attempted, plus 2 times fouled.
1 - Time dispossessed
3 - Progressive Carries including 2 carries into the box
26 - Passes Received
4 - Progressive Passes Received
7 - Touches in the box
10 - Deep Touches
1 - Tackle out of 2 attempted
2 - Interceptions
4 - Ball Recoveries
I have written quite a bit lately on the different way that Eze has gone about playing the more advanced midfielder role at Arsenal lately, this was another good example of it but in this match the difference shows the major upside that he can bring to a match. With Arsenal playing another match without a real striker, that puts the onus on the rest of the players to take on more responsibility to do striker type things and that is something that suites the strength of Eze much more than when he needs to do more ball progression from this position.
In this match, we saw each of Eze, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard, and Bukayo Saka take up positions that you would associate with a striker and that caused lots of problems for the Tottenham defense as they struggled to know when to stick and when to follow players.
Eze here (and Trossard) were often players that took up the most advanced positions. Looking at the average touch map, Eze’s were on average the furthest forward and the most central.
He took these positions and turned that into an impressive 6 shots. His shot volume was one of the pluses when Arsenal brought him in and it paid massive dividends today, especially with Tottenham coming in as one of the team’s weakest at blocking shots (just 25 this season, only Brighton have fewer and they are blocking just 17% of their shots faced so far).
This is the type of performance that just warms the soul, you could see how much it meant to him and that is something that you can’t help but feel good about. A day that he and all of us fans will long remember.
Rice is the secret sauce that makes Arsenal’s boa constrictor tactics work
65 - Pass Attempts (2nd on Arsenal), 49 passes completed for 75.4% pass completion percentage with a 100.4% pass efficiency compared to expected passing
6 - Final 3rd Entry Passes, led Arsenal
6 - Progressive Passes, led Arsenal
4 - Box Entry Passes completed, led Arsenal
3 - Key Passes for 0.58 xA, led Arsenal
1 - Shot, 1 on target for 0.34 expected goals. (he hit it too pure!)
3 - Progressive Carries
3 - Tackles with 1 time dribbled Past and 2 fouls committed
2 - Blocked Passes
6 - Ball Recoveries, 2nd on Arsenal
3 - Clearances
3 - Aerial Duel Won out of 3 contested
One of the takeaways that I had from looking at how Arsenal have changed since Odegaard has been out, is that Rice has been a player that has taken a major step forward. This was another match where I just came away so appreciative of having him in the midfield covering every blade of grass.
His adaption into a more double pivot role has unlocked him to be on the ball more and has put the silly idea that he can’t pass to rest. It hasn’t also stopped him from still flexing the ability to box crash that he has built playing a more advanced “8” role and offering attacking threat.
His partnership in midfield with Martin Zubimendi has just been fantastic and it really showed here with the two always seemingly in the right spot to be the first to any loose ball and launching Arsenal on another wave of attack.
Arsenal take advantage of rival’s dropped points
6 - Point gap to Chelsea, the gap to Chelsea in 2nd is larger than Chelsea’s gap to 11th place right now. Arsenal face them next with a chance to push the lead against them further, they are still one of the tougher teams to judge this season.
7 - Point gap to Manchester City, Manchester City lost for the 4th time already this season. Pep City teams have lost more than 4 times just 4 times, they have won the title in those season’s just once (6 losses in 2020/21 winning 86 points). This team still scares me because they have Pep and always can spend more money but this team still has flaws that the previous teams didn’t.
11 - Point gap to Liverpool. Yikes. Liverpool are 6 points worse this season than they were compared to the same fixtures last season, that is with a 12-goal difference swing to the negative (-3.6 on xG difference).
It was a big weekend for Arsenal.