Zimpapers Logo

LONDON. — It was a day of milestones in North London yesterday. Tottenham 2-0 Arsenal. 

Not just the return of fans — just 2 000 of them so not so much a white wall as a neatly spaced white picket fence — but also Tottenham’s return to the top of the Premier League table, and also Harry Kane’s emergence as the leading goalscorer of all time in this derby fixture. 

This was his 11th goal in matches between Tottenham and Arsenal, overtaking Emmanuel Adebayor and Bobby Smith. It was also Kane’s tenth assist of the season, equalling the quickest time any player has reached double figures. The record had been held outright by Mesut Ozil in 2015-16. Whatever happened to him? 

As for Hueng-min Son he took his goal total to ten for the league season, equalling the combined total scored by, er, Arsenal. What was a gap, is now a gulf. 

Most worryingly for Arsenal supporters their team did not even play that badly. 

They had a huge amount of possession but did little with i bar two second-half headers from Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, one over, one saved by Hugo Lloris. Tottenham, by contrast, were magnificent on the counter-attack and had the game won by half-time. From there, they absorbed pressure, barely-threatening, barely interested in it, to be frank. It’s very Jose Mourinho, and incredibly effective.

The 2 000 did not seem to mind much either, as they sang their new manager’s name. He’s doing exactly what he was brought to do. 

It was hardly the most auspicious start for Arsenal, passing the ball into touch almost directly from kick-off. A week ago, it would not have felt as embarrassing, but now fans are back, and they notice clangers like that — particularly from the feet of hated rivals. You can imagine the noise that greeted this event.

And while Arsenal enjoyed the lion’s share of possession, played a confident high line and did their best to exude the aura of a team that was not intimidated, their vulnerability was obvious. Mikel Arteta has done his best to improve this defence, to make them robust and resilient, but Tottenham simply have superior forwards to Arsenal’s back line. On the counter, they were deadly; and so it proved. 

There were 13 minutes gone when Harry Kane and Hueng-min Son combined for the 30th time in the Premier League, a record that places them behind only Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard as a modern partnership. 

It was also the eighth time that Kane had made a goal for Son this season, placing him one behind Stan Collymore to Robbie Fowler for Liverpool and Mike Newell to Alan Shearer from Blackburn, both in 1995-96. That is the assist record, player to player, and Kane and Son have the rest of the season to equal it. 

So what did the pair do for this goal? The usual really. Kane pounced on a ball out from defence and played a lovely pass that sent Son away, Son left his man for dead then cut inside to strike the most fabulous shot, curling out of the reach of Bernd Leno, a quite brilliant goal.

Tottenham were getting plenty of trade down the left flank against Hector Bellerin, and another move that came via that route ended with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg trying one from range that Leno was equal to this time. — Mailonline.