Dominic Solanke – Fortunebets

Arsenal breathed fresh life into their Premier League title chase with a 2-1 comeback win against Tottenham in an electric north London derby.

Following consecutive home cup defeats to Newcastle and Manchester United, Arsenal fell behind at the Emirates after Son Heung-min’s 25th-minute opener for Spurs.

But they were back on level terms with 40 minutes gone when Gabriel’s header from a corner rebounded off Dominic Solanke before Leandro Trossard put them ahead on the stroke of half-time.

Arsenal saw out the second half to move back into second place and within four points of leaders Liverpool, who were held to a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.

For Tottenham, it marked a fourth defeat from their last five league matches to leave them 13th in the table, eight points clear of the relegation zone.

In a week where a first-leg Carabao Cup semi-final defeat to Newcastle was followed by a third-round FA Cup exit to Manchester United, this felt like a win-or-bust fixture for Arsenal’s season.

On the eve of the derby, manager Mikel Arteta demanded the greatest atmosphere the Emirates had ever seen, and the home supporters answered his call with a raucous welcome for their arch-rivals.

And the players delivered, too, with a high-tempo opening 20 minutes where the Gunners had Spurs firmly on the ropes.

Trossard and Thomas Partey both had shots blocked before Kai Havertz charged down Antonin Kinsky’s clearance only for the Spurs stopper to rescue his own blunder.

However, for all their possession, Arsenal failed to create a clear-cut opening, and midway through the first half, Gabriel was required to poke the ball off Solanke’s toes with the former Bournemouth man poised to pull the trigger.

From the ensuing corner, David Raya forked out a fine reaction save to deny Dejan Kulusevski but the warning signs were there, and, less than a minute later, the visitors were ahead.

Arsenal failed to clear their lines and Son, hovering on the edge of the penalty area, guided a side-footed volley – with the help of a deflection off William Saliba and through Partey’s legs – into the Arsenal net. Raya had no chance and Ange Postecoglou held his left arm aloft in celebration.

Arteta would have been desperate for a response before the interval and, crucially for the Spaniard, it arrived with five minutes of the first half left.

Kinsky had dealt with all of Arsenal’s previous six corners but, at the seventh time of asking, he couldn’t get near Declan Rice’s delivery. Gabriel got the better of Radu Dragusin at the back post to get his head on the cross, hitting Solanke’s stomach en route to the back of the net. Gabriel led the celebrations but it went down as a Solanke own goal.

Spurs were rightly furious because it should not have been a corner in the first place – Trossard’s cross clearly ricocheting back off the Belgian.

The Emirates crowd did not care and four minutes later Arsenal were ahead. Partey robbed Yves Bissouma on the half-way line, with Martin Odegaard switching the play to Trossard on Arsenal’s left. Trossard drove at the Spurs goal before unleashing his effort on target.

A diving Kinsky got his left glove to the ball but the Tottenham goalkeeper did not do enough and Trossard’s stinging strike flew in.

James Maddison was introduced by Postecoglou to perform a rescue act. Raheem Sterling might have provided daylight but for an air kick on the hour mark and Solanke then saw his shot blocked by Gabriel before Rice slammed his effort at Kinsky’s chest. It remained a breathless affair.

Arsenal were desperate to kill the game but Spurs remained in the contest and, when Gabriel thwarted an attack with 10 minutes left, he celebrated it like his equaliser, beating his chest and conducting the crowd to respond.

Odegaard should have put the game to bed with six minutes left but another opportunity passed by when he shot wide.

Five minutes of injury time were signalled and Pedro Porro’s shot nearly caught Raya off guard when it thudded off his post.

Whistles reverberated round the Emirates before referee Simon Hooper called time on a pulsating fixture that keeps Arsenal in the Premier League hunt.

Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to top the UEFA Europa League table as they fell to a 3-2 defeat to Galatasaray at RAMS Park.
Ange Postecoglou’s side were so often masters of their own downfall as Victor Osimhen, the on-loan Napoli striker, bagged a brace to add to Yunus Akgun’s stunning opener.

Teenager Will Lankshear notched his first senior goal but was then sent off for a second bookable offence, and Dominic Solanke made an instant impact off the substitutes’ bench with a delicate backheeled finish from Pedro Porro to halve the deficit and keep Spurs in touching distance.

However, the visitors kept crumbling under the intense pressure from the raucous home support, who whistled furiously in an attempt to tease out mistakes.

Errors continued to plague the inexperienced Spurs side – which had seven changes made to it after Sunday’s 4-1 victory over Aston Villa – as their insistence on playing out from the back had them punished twice, but it really should have been more.

Okan Buruk’s hosts were ahead inside just six minutes when former Leicester City loanee Akgun half-volleyed a beauty into the top corner after Archie Gray had nodded away a free-kick, and it seemed as though Spurs’ young starlets would falter under the intimidation and deafening noise around the stadium.

They responded brilliantly, however, with their first foray forwards resulting in an equaliser – scored by the teenager Lankshear – after great persistence from Son Heung-min down the left, before Gray picked up the pieces on the underlap.
The deputising left-back got his head up to find Brennan Johnson peeling away at the far post, and the Wales international had the awareness to pick out Lankshear with a ball across the face of goal, which the junior striker prodded into the back of the net.

Back-up goalkeeper Fraser Forster was in fine form to halt Osimhen on 25 minutes when he was slotted through by the rampaging Gabriel Sara, and the Nigerian thought he had the Turkish side’s second when he nodded past the English shot-stopper, only to be denied by the flag.
Osimhen, however, would get on the scoresheet just two minutes later, with more sloppiness from the visitors playing out, and Dries Mertens latched onto the loose ball, sliding in the loanee to poke it past the onrushing Forster to re-establish Gala’s lead.

Forster was on hand to thwart Osimhen once more as Radu Dragusin was again caught dawdling on the ball, and just one minute later, Osmihen doubled his tally for the evening, with Spurs’ concentration waning as the attack reached its second phase. Mertens picked the ball up down the right, bending in an inviting ball that Osimhen buried.

Postecoglou was forced into action at half-time, hauling off Son and Johnson for Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur, but the changes had no impact on the game’s momentum as the pendulum swung even further in Gala’s favour, the hosts piling on the pressure.

Mauro Icardi latched onto another loose ball in Spurs’ final third but lashed over before a penalty-box melee ensued as Mertens fired a shot at Bentancur. From the resulting corner, Akgun stung the palms of Forster with a vicious effort from range, before Osimhen missed a golden opportunity for his hat-trick as he directed a header high and wide from a delicious Mertens delivery.

The Turkish side could have been made to rue their profligacy as Solanke emerged off the bench to snatch what would turn out to be just a consolation for Tottenham, who were down to 10 after Lankshear was sent off for two yellows: first elbowing Kaan Ayhan, and then mistiming a challenge on Gabriel Sara tight to the touchline.

Icardi had the ball in the visiting net on 76 minutes after he linked up nicely with substitute Hakim Ziyech to slice through the wide-open Spurs defence, but the former Inter Milan forward, who was stretchered off later in the encounter, was flagged for offside.

The north London outfit slip down to fifth in the league table with the defeat, and they will need to dust themselves down quickly with tricky tests against Roma and Rangers coming thick and fast.
Galatasaray, meanwhile, top the tree on 10 points – at least temporarily – and they travel to AZ Alkmaar next.