Arsenal came from one goal down to beat local rivals Tottenham Hotspur 5-2 in a hotly contested North London derby.
Tottenham made the better start to the game and controlled the possession in the early stages. The good work of André Villas-Boas’s team paid off after 10 minutes when Jermain Defoe spun away from Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker to latch onto Jan Vertonghen’s chipped pass, and the striker’s effort was saved by Wojciech Szczesny before Emmanuel Adebayor tapped the ball in.
The game changed on 17 minutes though. Arsenal’s Spanish star Santi Cazorla beat Adebayor to the ball in the middle of the park, but the Togo striker’s reckless slide tackle caught Cazorla and referee Howard Webb had no option to send the striker off.
From then on Arsenal were rampant. Firstly Mertesacker headed in his first Arsenal goal from Walcott’s cross, then fellow German Lucas Podolski struck to put Arsenal in the lead and then just before half-time Cazorla went down the left and crossed the ball for Oliver Giroud to slide the ball home.
Arsenal were 3-1 up at half-time and early in the second half it could have been more before Cazorla got the goal he deserved on 60 minutes to make it 4-1.
Gareth Bale scored a fine solo goal on 71 minutes as Tottenham threatened a comeback, but Arsenal stayed strong and Theo Walcott made sure the game was over in the dying moments by converting a fifth goal for the Gunners after sub Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had put him through.
Brazil midfielder Sandro played the whole game for Spurs but struggled in centre once the away side had gone down to 10 men. For Arsenal, Andre Santos came on as a late second half sub for Lucas Podolski and helped to protect the lead.
