Premier League - Arsenal hit five in derby triumph
Arsenal staged a remarkable fightback to beat Tottenham 5-2 in a dramatic North London derby at the Emirates.
The Gunners found themselves two down inside 34 minutes with Louis Saha's fourth minute deflected strike followed by an Emmanuel Adebayor penalty.
But Bacary Sagna's 40th minute header reduced arrears and Robin van Persie brought the hosts level three minutes later.
Tomas Rosicky then gave Arsenal the lead, six minutes after the break, before a Theo Walcott brace sealed the points for Arsene Wenger's side.
Spurs' misery was compounded when Scott Parker was dismissed late on for a second bookable offence, ruling him out of next week's clash with Manchester United.
The victory took Arsenal back into fourth, seven points behind Harry Redknapp's side whose slim title hopes were dealt a potentially fatal blow as they now trail leaders Manchester City by 10 points.
After their FA Cup exit to Sunderland and Champions League capitulation in Milan in the last week, there was an air of discontent in the red half of North London going into the game and Saha's early goal did nothing to improve the mood of the home fans.
Tottenham broke at pace and Adebayor's pass exposed a large hole in the Arsenal defence although there was a touch of fortune in Saha's goal as his shot took a wicked deflection off Thomas Vermaelen and left Wojciech Szczesny wrong footed.
It was Saha's third goal in as many League matches for Tottenham but Arsenal responded positively with Van Persie spurning a great chance to equalise, poking wide with his weaker right foot from 10 yards, before creating a chance for himself that deflected off Younes Kaboul and went narrowly wide.
Rosicky's flicked header brought a superb one handed save from Brad Friedel before Tottenham extended their lead in controversial circumstances.
A great pass from Luka Modric sent Gareth Bale through on goal and the Welshman went over Szczesny's outstretched hand with referee Mike Dean awarding a penalty.
Replays indicated there was no contact as the flying winger went down and although a clear goalscoring opportunity, the Polish custodian avoided censure.
Adebayor though did not allow the baiting home fans to affect him, as he calmly slotted away the penalty in the left corner on his 28th birthday before the former Gunners striker turned his back to the Arsenal fans to be mobbed by his team-mates.
But few in the ground could anticipate what then followed.
After Van Persie hit the post, Mikel Arteta kept the ball alive and crossed to Sagna who planted a precise header past Friedel.
And the hosts were back on level terms thanks to a wonderful strike from the in-form Holland international. He picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, bought himself a yard of space and curled a delightful shot past Friedel with his potent left foot.
Redknapp made a double change at half-time, introducing Sandro and Rafael van der Vaart but the visitors were overran in the second-half by a rampant Arsenal.
Friedel had already made a great save from Benayoun before Rosicky scored his first Premier League in over two years to give Arsenal the lead.
The Czech fed Sagna, who had made a great overlapping run, and he continued his run before deftly flicking the cross over Friedel.
Walcott hit a drive narrowly past the far post before the often criticised winger bagged a brace to silence the sceptics, for this afternoon at least.
His first on 65 minutes came after a classic counter-attack with Van Persie holding off Kaboul and Ledley King before squaring to Walcott whose first touch was terrible but his second was delightful, dinking the ball over Friedel and into the net.
Just three minutes later, with his seemingly fragile confidence restored, he added his second and Arsenal's fifth in emphatic circumstances, driving home after a superb chip over the top by Alex Song.
Rosicky, who was superb in the second-half, almost made it six but curled his shot marginally past the far post as Spurs completely lost their shape and they lost a man when Parker was sent-off three minutes from time after a late tackle on Vermaelen.
The final whistle was met with rapturous applause from the home fans and, amidst the European and FA Cup disappointments, this was Arsenal's third consecutive League win and sees them move above Chelsea and into fourth.
Comment 341 - 360 of 360
Up gunners,the best team in england
Have you noticed when Redknapp is under pressure he gets a nervous tick and his head starts shaking?.......well yesterday i thought his head was going to fall off!!!...England manager my ar5e!
From delazzuro, on Mon 27 Feb 11:30AM
redknapp as with the tottenham team and fans went there thinking it was going to be a push over for them, when you first see redknapp at the start he had a smug look on his face, funny how things turn out aint it, redknapp nearly had a heart attack at half time when arsenal went in level, during the second half you could see the mental torment on redknapps face as he knew his team were done for, after all didnt most of the tottenham fans leave after arsenal scored the third goal, i dont even think there was any tottenham fans in the stadium 10 mins to the end, but redknapp just proved one thing, he cant handle the pressure when its against him.
ALFREDO worlds biggest retarded yidiot comment 337
oh and by the way yahoo. when i thumb down a comment i expect it to stay thumbed down not miraculously dissapear five minutes later. is paul parker in charge of the up and down thumbs as well....
for the last six months i have been taking loadsa sh'te for wearing my shirt down the pub etc...and you know what yesterday evening they were everywhere..f'@@@g w@@@@s who havent worn one for the whole frikking season lagered up chanting the odds at yidiots...if we lose next week the shirt wont come out of the drawer...i frikking hate part time glory hunters claiming to support this great club...if we lose we lose together and get up and try again..we dont ditch everyone and buy something different...YOU SEEM TO FORGET WE HAVE TRIED IT BEFORE...WILTORD REYES ARSHAVIN(BIG SHAME THAT) ... MONEY IS NOT THE ANSWER YOU SAD SO CALLED SUPPORTERS.
In Arsene We trust...always... not just when he beats the yidiots.
colin another idiot. we lack a crisp attacking midfielder like fabregas...no we dont he just happens to be injured..wilshere will be as good if not already then one day, and tell me fabregas was our central midfielder and nasri was there we still had van persie and we won fkal. so non true gooners say replace them both at huge cost..why they never won us ANYTHING you hear that. WITH FABREGAS AND NASRI WE WON FKAL.now shut up and support the team you have or plss off down the lane you all make me sick.
redknapp for england i dont think so they end up playing like the yids
Well done gunner I have admire your style of football, this is wonderful victory
Bad result for Spurs on the day, but good in the long run as Wenger and Walcott and Rosicky will now stay
Great comback for Arsenal but I still maintain that Wenger needs to buy some quality players to replace those lost to other clubs. We need a good playmaker like fabregas to be instumental in the middle of the park. That whole quick and crisp Arsenal attack that we became so familiar with seems to be lacking. Yes they say that Arsenal is managing their finances well, all well and good but Arsenal has a rich history and reputation to uphold. If this is the mentality of Wenger and the board members, then we can look at another 8 seasons of achieving nothing......
For the 1st 20 mins - half hour, it looked like the same old horrible Arsenal we had seen all too often this season.
You could have sailed a battleship through the centre of our defence; such was the chasm which kept appearing through our lack of shape; organization, and discipline.
Tottenham naturally were good enough to exploit this to the maximum; whilst we went forward like madmen.
Bale's diving, and the referee subsequently being conned into giving them a penalty strongly suggested that it wasn't gonna be our day.
The rest as they say is history! I remember when we were in the same position (0-2 down at home within the 1st half hour, etc...) against Middlesbough a few years back, and we came back soooooo unbelievable strongly it was scary.
I saw that same fighting spirit conviction that we are not gonna be beaten, and even go onto win yesterday afternoon.
I shudder to think what would have happened had we lost that match. Wenger's team selection had appeared somewhat strange, with him chosing Benayoun over both Oxlade Chamberlain, or Gervinho. I thought that this was a huge mistake: however, as things turned out it actually didn't really matter.
What really pleasantly surprised me was the commitment performance of Rosicki. For someone who had done nothing all season, he was amazing. Also the transformation in Walcott was mind blowing. Like Rosicki he was chasing; tracking, and tackling the Spurs players with real gusto & passion, and was unplayable in the 2nd half.
On this performance (in from of Stuart Pearce) Walcott has probably cemented his England position.
By the same token Wenger has probably kept himself in the job until at least the end of this season.
Have you noticed when Redknapp is under pressure he gets a nervous tick and his head starts shaking?.......well yesterday i thought his head was going to fall off!!!...England manager my ar5e!
Ye cannae beat a good blackie !!!
A fabulous display by the boys! Sweet revenge for that loss earlier in the campaign. Put six past AC Milan to show all sundry that we can lift ourselves from the worst downfall in the Champions League.
Excellent performance by Arsenal, showed that they can perform. Although Spurs never looked like winning. Spurs just can't beat the top clubsLeeds til I die.
Taken to school. Spurs were lucky to even have 2 on the scoresheet, 1 lucky deflection and one dive to win a pen.
Good to see cocky Spurs given a hiding by a bigger, better, more talented team, with more history of success and better fans. Small clubs often have a peak and this seasons has been just that for Spurs. They'll be back fighting for a place in the Europa League before long and when Harry leaves it will be mid table at best. Hahahaha
I didnt know liverpool played in this one, I thought they were at wembley winning a trophy.
Does anybody remember the fuss over Eduardo "diving" ? Why no fuss about Bile ?
As a united supporter i am happy to congratulate the arsenal for a terrific display of courage and determination to fight back from two down, ..now that was the kind of performance that we expect to see in the top flight, the best game of the day and unlike the fizzycup final, it didnt end up feeling like someones cousin was paid off to miss a penalty at any point..... well done the gunners..your deserve the accolades this morning.....
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