One more Arsenal star could miss their trip to Atalanta in the Champions League alongside Riccardo Calafiori and Martin Odegaard, with all three seen as potential injury doubts for Thursday’s clash.
Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal as Arteta seals North London Derby win
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta took all the north London bragging rights on Sunday, as his side battled with a weakened team to overcome Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Star defender Gabriel Magalhaes scored the only goal of the game on 64 minutes with his header from a corner, taking advantage of Tottenham’s set piece weakness right now to guide the ball past Guglielmo Vicario from close range.
Spurs had the majority of the possession and threatened more times on their home turf, but Arteta’s men did well to shut up shop and come away with all three points in what was an encouraging defensive display.
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Spurs vs Arsenal (last 7 meetings) |
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|---|---|
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Date |
Result |
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15th Sept 2024 |
1-0 Arsenal win |
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28th April 2024 |
3-2 Arsenal win |
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24th Sept 2023 |
2-2 draw |
|
15th Jan 2023 |
2-0 Arsenal win |
|
1st Oct 2022 |
3-1 Arsenal win |
|
12th May 2022 |
3-0 Spurs win |
|
26th Sept 2021 |
3-1 Arsenal defeat |
Arsenal came into the game without Odegaard, Calafiori, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino, who were all absent for the encounter, though the Premier League title hopefuls still found a way past Ange Postecoglou’s hosts to nick all three points and get back to winning ways.
Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last five derbies, and have won their last three away at Tottenham – which is the Gunners’ best run in the fixture for 35 years.
“I’m super happy, obviously,” said Arteta on Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Spurs.
“We know what it means to our club, to our people to win a London derby, and we have the power to try to make them very happy. So hopefully we have achieved that and that makes it very special. On the performance we had moments in the game, some really good ones, some others that we have to suffer. We suffered because we have to adapt a little bit the plan because of the players that we had available.
“I loved it because since the day that we started to get by, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play the game and that’s a big compliment to everybody at the club to behave in a certain way.”
With their looming trips to Atalanta and fierce rivals Man City, supporters will be hoping the likes of Calafiori and Odegaard can make a return, with an update now coming out of London Colney.
Oleksandr Zinchenko a doubt for Arsenal vs Atalanta
As per Standard Sport, left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, who also missed their North London Derby win at Tottenham with a calf injury, has question marks over his availability on Thursday – alongside both Odegaard and Calafiori.
It apparently remains to be seen whether the £150,000-per-week defender can play against Atalanta, with Zinchenko an injury doubt for Arsenal as a result.
Club captain Odegaard and summer signing Calafiori are fitness concerns alongside the Ukraine international, but some good news for Arteta is that Arsenal are confident Bukayo Saka will return for Atalanta, after the Englishman was forced off during their victory over Spurs.