A fired-up Arsenal came from behind to earn a famous 4-2 victory in a pulsating north London derby against bitter rivals Tottenham.
The Gunners somehow found themselves 2-1 behind at half-time, after Eric Dier and Harry Kane cancelled out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s early penalty, but three second-half goals swung the derby in Arsenal’s favour.
Aubameyang kick-started the fightback with a wonderful second, before Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira sealed the memorable victory in front of a rocking Emirates Stadium.
It was a thrilling encounter from start to finish, as the Gunners raced out of the blocks and into the lead.
Aubameyang grabbed his first from the spot after a nonsensical handball from Jan Vertonghen, who endured a nightmare afternoon and saw red late on for a second bookable offence.
But Spurs quickly turned the game on its head as Dier nodded in at the near post, sparking handbags at dawn among both sets of players after he celebrated by hushing the Emirates crowd.
And four minutes later, Kane converted from the penalty spot after Heung-min Son was adjudged to have been fouled by Rob Holding.
Tottenham, however, were far from deserving of anything against a rampant Arsenal.
Emery made two changes at half-time as Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey replaced Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan and both played their part in turning the game around.
Hector Bellerin’s perfectly-weighted pass found Ramsey, who touched the ball into the path of Aubameyang and he arrowed his strike past a helpless Hugo Lloris for his ninth league goal of the season.
Then Juan Foyth dawdled in possession and was robbed by Ramsey – who found Lacazette and his effort was deflected past Lloris courtesy of a big deflection off Dier.
The points were secured when the exceptional Torreira tucked away his first goal for Arsenal after Aubameyang slipped him in with a fine pass, before Vertonghen saw red for following through on Lacazette.
The Gunners’ second-half blitz sees them leapfrog their north London neighbours into the top four on goal difference, as Spurs slip to fifth.
–
Source: talkSPORT