萨卡谈我们对热刺的“过山车”胜利

布卡约·萨卡很高兴我们成功保住了宝贵的三分，并在德比日对阵托特纳姆热刺队的比赛中获得了吹嘘的权利。我们的前锋在毁灭性的上半场取得了进球，我们在中场休息时以 3-0 领先，在VAR推翻了扳平比分后不久，布卡约的进球让主队彻底扭转了对我们有利的局面。中场休息后，热刺在比赛还剩五分钟时奋力反击，将比分扳为3-2，但我们坚持住了让我们的英超冠军希望保持在正轨上，并确保客场球迷能够庆祝自 1988 年以来首次在客场联赛中连续战胜我们的邻国。赛后，萨卡说道：“我很高兴。最后 20 分钟我们付出的一切都是值得的，我们很高兴带着三分离开这里。“这就像过山车一样，但我很高兴。 [在被判无效的进球之后]我走到替补席上，他们告诉我这是越位，所以我很平静，我并不真正担心检查。之后我们取得了一个又一个进球，我们以 3-0 领先，我们很轻松地进入了半场休息。“所有后卫都值得称赞，他们整个赛季都表现出色。我们都看到了这一点，他们得到了他们的信任，他们今天再次证明了这一点，他们是如此的坚强。“当气氛对你不利并且热刺不断施加压力时，他们非常冷静。大卫（Raya）也犯了一个错误，但他之后很平静，所以值得称赞的是他。我为孩子们感到骄傲。”这场比赛也是布卡约个人的胜利，他打进了本赛季的第 15 个英超联赛进球，创下了职业生涯新高，并成为自此以来第一位为我们打进这一进球的英国人1996/97赛季的伊恩·赖特。他现在也是自2019/20赛季亚历山大·拉卡泽特以来第一个在主客场对阵托特纳姆热刺的比赛中进球的枪手，这让这位黑尔恩德大学的毕业生感到高兴，他现在希望我们的胜利状态能够延续到决赛三场比赛，他的目标是拿到英超奖杯。“作为阿森纳球员，在主客场进球真是太好了，我们喜欢这场比赛，在这里进球真是太好了 - 我很兴奋，”他补充道。 “这是一种巨大的解脱，一股巨大的幸福感，走到球迷面前并像这样庆祝，这肯定是令人愉快的。“我们还有三场比赛，所以我们需要继续获胜。接下来是主场对阵伯恩茅斯，我们将尽我们所能，专注于我们的比赛，赢得比赛，看看我们会怎样。”

North London derby wins are always cherished, but our first back-to-back successes at Tottenham since 1988 will certainly live long in the memory.Adrian Clarke has cast his expert eye over our 3-2 win against Tottenham Hotspur to find out why we were successful this time around, as we continued our push for the Premier League title.Havertz the heroKai Havertz equalled Alexis Sanchez’s record of providing a goal and an assist in four different Premier League matches in a campaign, a landmark set by the Chilean in 2016/17, but remarkably, our on-song No. 29 has achieved that feat across his last 13 appearances alone.His inch-perfect cross-field pass to release Bukayo Saka for our second goal on the counter-attack was sublime in its execution, and the winger's fabulous finish completed a perfect breakaway.Aside from scoring our third goal with a header from Declan Rice’s corner (his only attempt of the game) the German’s all-round performance was top-class.Always an outlet for David Raya and the defenders to hit with a longer pass that missed out Tottenham’s press, Havertz worked hard to show for the ball throughout. His hold-up play was excellent, helping us gain territory at key moments.As shown on this chalkboard (below) our centre forward contributed four vital clearances from inside his own six-yard box (shown by the triangles), as well as linking play in three distinct parts of the pitch. Dropping back to help us play out from the back when needed, he also stretched Spurs by showing for the ball on both wings, holding onto the ball until teammates could get up to support him.Defending our boxOur well-disciplined 4-4-2 shape out of possession was hard for the hosts to break down, so they resorted to whipping hopeful crosses into the box from wide areas. It was the highest number of crosses we have faced during the entire campaign, with the bulk from open play arriving from Spurs’ right-hand side. Raya is confident at coming out to collect hanging balls, and he did so flawlessly on numerous occasions.Our defensive players also showed incredible resilience. Forced into making 19 headed clearances (our most of the season, by four) the likes of Ben White (6), William Saliba (4), Gabriel (4), Havertz (4) and Rice (3) held firm.The game state from 65 minutes onwards, after Cristian Romero was gifted a goal out of nowhere, saw the Gunners withstand a lot of territorial pressure, yet under that duress we stood tall, repelling a series of dangerous balls sent into our box.Arsenal clearances v SpursSet-piece masteryTwo wonderful corner kick deliveries from Saka and Rice provided crucial goals, and it is worth breaking down the routine we produced for Havertz’s matchwinner, from an accurate Rice inswinger.As we so often do, we stationed most of our attackers at the far post, with Havertz and Gabriel man-marked. Escaping their close attention would be key, and the way they managed it was simple, but also smart in the extreme.Here is the initial setup with Havertz and Dejan Kulusevski circled in yellow, and Gabriel circled in green:The Brazilian triggered the runs by darting through a gap closer to the goalline, taking his marker with him. Havertz simultaneously arcs his run around the outside as the pair cross over, and this causes Kulusevski to collide with Tottenham’s own zonal markers in the process:Our striker gets a two-yard advantage, looping his run around the stationary zonal defenders to head home unopposed. Meanwhile, Kulusevski was left stranded (circled) a long way from the player he was supposed to mark:It was another fabulous routine that means we have now scored 16 goals from corners this season. Not since Tony Pulis’ West Bromwich Albion in 2016 has a Premier League team found the back of the net with as many.Saka shinesSaka delivered another memorable performance against our north London rivals, scoring a great goal and being heavily involved throughout. It felt as if we tactically targeted his duel with Ben Davies as an avenue where we would enjoy success, and this proved to be the case as he constantly ran at the Welshman. It is not often you see a winger receive the most touches of the ball, but that was the case here.As you can see clearly on this attacking thirds chalkboard, we focused most of our attacking attention on getting Saka into 1v1s against Tottenham’s stand-in left-back:Recovering our composureWe found ourselves 3-0 up without ever settling into a rhythm on the ball, only having a 28.5 per cent share of possession during the first half.Mikel Arteta’s message at the break was clear. He wanted his players to manage the game by asserting better control of possession, keeping the ball patiently and making the home side chase it. This plan worked brilliantly for 20 minutes as we toyed with Tottenham, completing over 90 per cent of our passes, and keeping the distribution short and sharp:Raya’s loose pass to Romero for Spurs’ first goal changed the dynamic, with Ange Postecoglou’s side hugely reinvigorated from that point onwards. Forced onto the back foot, and with a busy recent schedule also sapping energy levels, we found it harder to counter with the sort of speed that was required.This position made for a nervy spell, exacerbated by Son Heung-Min’s late penalty, but satisfyingly the team showed great courage, resolve and togetherness to see the job through and record a fabulous, but hard-earned, three-point haul.