Tottenham Hotspur twice managed to pull level with us to gain a point from the game at Emirates Stadium in the opening north London derby of the season.
Adrian Clarke has reviewed the events and analyzed the statistics to determine how our opponents were able to hold us at bay and to identify certain aspects of the game that Mikel Arteta would have found impressive. Adrian’s findings include:
Early on, the visitors faced numerous difficulties due to Mikel Arteta’s team, especially anytime they chose to play out from the back. Spurs were willing to take chances with exquisite passing around their own penalty box in order to play through the thirds.
On the chalkboard on the left, you can see that we forced 15 turnovers in Tottenham’s half during the first third of this match, including three inside their 18-yard box. We may have been a little worn out by our impressive performances in Europe during the middle of the week, and since our opponents had eight days between games, we were less successful in this area for the balance of the game, adding an additional 18 possession recoveries, as seen on the right:
Gabriel Jesus (8) and Bukayo Saka (7) were our best pressers on the day, regaining the ball on 15 occasions between them. Had we been able to sustain the energy levels displayed in the opening 35 minutes, there could have been more opportunities for us to grab the all-important winner.
Spurs stifle our fluency
The ball was only in play for 52 minutes and 12 seconds of the 104 minutes and 21 seconds which were played at Emirates Stadium, equating to a lowly 50.4% share. Frustratingly, this was the second-lowest figure registered in the Premier League season across 59 matches.
What caused this? Ange Postecoglou’s side were super-aggressive in their approach, making 19 fouls, the second most of any team in a single match so far in 2023/24. Referee Robert Jones blew his whistle for 31 fouls in total, which is the joint-second highest in the current campaign.
This pattern, exacerbated by injury delays, broke up play on a regular basis – and this impacted the rhythm we could find as a team. This outstanding Arsenal side thrives on fluent, cohesive passing and because this match became very stop-start in nature, it was harder than usual to build momentum or sustained pressure.
Tottenham also made a concerted effort to keep hold of the ball for longer spells, limiting us to just 377 passes. By comparison, we made 532 passes in the 3-1 success at home to Manchester United. In essence, we did not enjoy enough time in possession of the ball, which obviously curbed our threat.
Captain curtailed
Our opponents did an impressive job of closing down space for our chief creators. Often finding themselves faced up by two or three white shirts, it wasn’t easy at all for us to consistently produce the flowing attacking moves that are now synonymous with our side.
They managed to cut off the supply to Eddie Nketiah, and none of our outfield players were able to find the striker with more than one successful pass, while Martin Odegaard, unlike against PSV Eindhoven in midweek, found time and space hard to come by.
Spurs showed outstanding industry in order to limit his influence, and our skipper was only able to find fellow attackers Jesus, Saka, Nketiah, Fabio Vieira, Kai Havertz, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe with an aggregate of nine passes.
Saka stands up again
Saka’s duel with Destiny Udogie made for an outstanding watch throughout the course of the afternoon. Our brilliant 22-year-old winger tormented the Italian left-back throughout the first period, running at him almost every time he took possession of the ball.
His teammates constantly looked to release our number 7, especially after his marker received a caution before halftime, and the bulk of his touches occurred inside the final third.
To his credit Udogie stuck to his task and made life more difficult for Saka after half-time, but by the final whistle, the Hale End graduate led our matchday rankings in a variety of different categories.