Tottenham Hotspur 0 Arsenal 1
Arsenal - Rosicky 2'
Man of the match - Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
English football correspondent
London // For Tim Sherwood, you imagine that the end is nigh – three defeats in a week have all but obliterated his hopes of remaining the Tottenham manager next season.
For Arsenal, this was a victory that not merely put down their North London rivals, but also breathed new life into a title challenge that seemed to be faltering.
They trail Premier League leaders Chelsea by four points, but they have a game in hand, and face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next Saturday.
Arsenal had ripped Spurs apart when they met at the Emirates in the FA Cup in January, but this game couldn’t have been more different.
Tottenham were on top for long periods and restricted Arsenal to just 41 per cent possession, the least they have managed in any game this season.
Spurs mustered 17 shots, but it says everything for the frenetic nature of their play that only two of them were on target.
In the end, the game was settled by Tomas Rosicky’s strike after 72 seconds had expired, a goal of stunning quality.
When his pass bounced back off the back of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s legs, he lashed it first time from the corner of the box and it flashed with terrific power into the top corner.
“It will go in my collection of great goals,” manager Arsene Wenger said. “He’s not a typical goalscorer and he surprised everybody. There was no time to realise what he was doing.”
Arsenal had further chances as Spurs started with a dangerously high line, with Oxlade-Chamberlain twice going close. But gradually, Spurs came into the game and soon came to dominate.
“Our early goal a little bit influenced too much the way we played,” Wenger said. “We missed a second goal and after that we wanted to protect the lead and sometimes we were under pressure.”
Three times in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, Nacer Chadli missed fine opportunities: denied by blocks from Bacary Sagna and Laurent Koscielny, and then he was unable to adjust his feet to make meaningful contact on Andros Townsend’s cross.
It would be easy to portray this as the suave Arsenal holding a frantic Spurs at arm’s length but, superbly as Per Mertesacker and Koscielny played, there was an element of riding their luck.
“We needed some special resilience to get away with it,” Wenger said. “The two centre-backs were exceptional.”
Sherwood was disappointed but philosophical.
“I’m a winner and I want to win,” he said. “I’d rather play bad and win the game, but anyone who has seen that game knows we didn’t deserve to lose.”
Sherwood reached such a pitch of fury after one Oxlade-Chamberlain break that he took off his trademark gilet, putting it down on his seat.
When he went to sit down a few seconds later, dander still very much up, he hurled it aside. For a few seconds it lay, symbolically limp at the end of the tunnel, until a Spurs functionary picked it up.
Tactics Tim become Tantrum Tim.
“I can’t say it won’t happen again,” he said. “I don’t even know why I was angry. It was probably something we’d worked on in training … and when it’s not applied, it winds me up. I suppose I show it more than most.” He has no desire to disguise his emotions, he said.
“I hate actors,” he said. “There are too many actors in this game. I just want to wear my heart on my sleeve.”
That’s as may be, and Sherwood remains as candid and engaging as any league manager, but the fact is that Spurs are now nine points behind Arsenal and seven behind City, both of whom have games in hand.
The top four has gone and, for all of Sherwood’s hints about changes he would make if allowed to stay on, the overwhelming sense is that he will be gone before the start of next season.
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