ARSENAL continued their title charge with a convincing victory in the North London derby.
The Gunners arrived at Tottenham with the wind in their sails, and it certainly looked like it as the two sides went head to head.
Goals from Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard guided Mikel Arteta’s side to dominant display as they cruised to a first away win at Spurs since 2014.
Hugo Lloris’ blunder saw Saka’s shot turned into the net, before Odegaard rifled home a second.
Spurs produced a comeback in the second half, but were unable to breach the Arsenal backline, with Aaron Ramsdale making a number of fine saves to put them eight points clear of Manchester City.
Here’s how SunSport’s Tom Barclay rated the Gunners.
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Aaron Ramsdale – 8
Pitch perfect for a modern-day goalkeeper. Excellent saves to deny Son Heung-min early doors as well as Harry Kane either side of the break, while some of his laser-like passes were Ederson-esque.
Ben White – 7
Defensively very solid and good technical ability. His delivery at times was not fantastic going forward but then he is not really a full-back.
Gabriel – 7
Handled Harry Kane pretty well though the England forward did nip in front of him just before the break for a stooping header, which Ramsdale saved.
William Saliba – 7
His standards may have slipped slightly since Qatar but he was back to being rock-solid here, and showed impressive pace against the likes Dejan Kulusevski.
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Oleksandr Zinchenko – 7
Another graceful performance on the ball, what a signing he has been from Arsenal this year. Looks odds-on to win his fifth Premier League title in six seasons.
Thomas Partey – 9
Almost broke the post with a thunderous volley midway through the first half. He was Arsenal’s heartbeat as he has been all year and helped Mikel Arteta’s midfield dominate. Booed throughout.
Granit Xhaka – 7
Put in the hard graft with some important blocks. Told Antonio Conte and his assistant Cristian Stellini to pipe down after he had been fouled by Cristian Romero, who was lucky to escape a second yellow.
Bukayo Saka – 8
Conte played Ryan Sessegnon over Ivan Perisic, presumably to deal with Saka’s pace, but it did not work. Arsenal’s wideman caused a number of problems and had a bizarre assist as his cross went in off Hugo Lloris.
Martin Odegaard – 8
Sparkled again in that No10 role and added another excellent strike to his collection as his 25-yard blast made it 2-0. Showed physical toughness too.
Gabriel Martinelli – 7
A thorn in Spurs’s backline, his clever flick over the top set up Eddie Nketiah for an early chance. Showed how high his confidence is right now with an inventive backheeled volley.
Eddie Nketiah – 6
On another day he might have had two or three goals. Lloris denied him a couple of times from point blank-range but put in a committed and impactful performance.
Subs
Kieran Tierney (for Martinelli, 79) 6
Takehio Tomiyasu (for Zinchenko, 86) 6
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
