Arsenal v Tottenham: Premier League – live! | Football

54 mins: There will be no penalty. It was a decent chance for Arsenal, after Aubameyang was picked out by Odegaard’s excellent cross.

53 mins: A big shout for a penalty, after Sanchez is first to Aubameyang’s header, leaving Partey on the floor.

52 mins: Another break from Arsenal, but this time Tomiyasu’s cross is deflected behind for a corner.

48 mins: Nothing much has happened since the restart, which is probably good news for the visitors. “Attributing Kane’s lackluster performance to a phantom injury is clutching at straws,” says Ted Graves. “He’s stuck back on his middling team and his motivation is dwindling. Couple that with the fact that even his attempts to pick it up are at the moment resulting in stuff like nicking the ball off Saka and then sliding it right back into his path.” Also, Siddhant Lazar points out that Antonio is now a fully-fledged Jamaica international, so he isn’t in competition with Kane either.

Spurs are making a half-timely double substitution. Emerson Royal and Skipp are coming on, Tanganga and Dele Alli are not.

“Kane looks… not very good,” says Joseph Harvey. “Perhaps he’s carrying an injury? Regardless, calling him up for England over Antonio would be a travesty.” Particularly as Kane now appears to be a midfielder so isn’t in competition with Antonio.

45+1 mins: Ndombele and Reguilon exchange passes, freeing the midfielder to run towards the Arsenal area. This might well be the best few seconds Spurs have mustered this half, and the referee is so astonished by it he immediately blows his whistle for half-time, to Reguilon’s evident disgust.

44 mins: Spurs pass the ball across the backline, just inside their half. Ahead of them, the front three are on the edge of the penalty area. Ndombele goes up to join them. The two full-backs push up on the flanks. They thus have six players in a line on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, three players passing among themselves in their own half, and really no way of getting the ball from one group to the other.

42 mins: The cameras linger on poor Nuno Espirito Santo, who looks troubled. If it helps, Spurs have looked brighter these last few minutes.

38 mins: Spurs win a corner, and Kane heads it wide from 15 yards.

36 mins: This will be the first league game of the season in which Spurs will trail at half time. They are generally a better first-half team than second-half team, which isn’t encouraging.

Arsenal break again. Saka runs down the right, cuts infield and tries to pass across to Aubameyang. But Kane has sprinted back in an attempt to make amends for his mistake and he slides in, cuts out the pass and deflects it back into the path of Saka, who sidefoots across Lloris and in!

34 mins: Oh, Harry. Ndombele passes infield to Kane, lurking in his now-customary position 45 yards from goal, but he can’t decide what to do with it and in the end is so confused he falls over. Arsenal take possession …

30 mins: Hojbjerg did in fact get in front of Xhaka to reach the Ramsdale pass first, but he was more interested in attempting to win a cheap free-kick than in keeping possession, and when the referee ignored his fall his team was in trouble.

29 mins: Ramsdale’s poor pass was instrumental there. Immediately four Spurs players sprung forward, hoping to profit from a high turnover, but when there was no turnover they were all out of position and all it took was one good forward pass and one first-time flick to fillet Tottenham like a hapless haddock.

… and 20 seconds later the ball is in the net! Tierney passes upfield to Aubameyang, who turns it round the corner for Smith Rowe, who flies down the left before pulling back to Aubameyang, whose first time shot bounces in at the far corner!

27 mins: Ramsdale tries to play Xhaka into trouble, but he holds off his man well, turns and keeps the ball …

24 mins: Harry Kane has his first shot of the day, which leaves his boot about 35 yards from goal and never gets significantly closer. Goal kick.

23 mins: Son’s shot from an acute angle is turned round the post, and from the corner Tanganga completely miscues a header from wide of the near post. Goal kick.

22 mins: It ends with Moura passing to Son, just outside the area, whose backheel flick to Alli was very nearly wonderful, but it’s not quite firm enough and the Englishman is tackled before he can convert it into a shot.

20 mins: Spurs have a little spell of possession. They still have the ball as I type, and are wondering what to do with it.

17 mins: Aubameyang refuses to attempt a defence-splitting return pass to Odegaard and has a punt himself, the ball flying just over the bar.

16 mins: Save! Another encouraging home attack ends with Saka and Odegaard exchanging passes before the former tees up Partey, whose 20-yarder is pushed round the post by Lloris.

15 mins: Spurs try to do a thing. There’s an absolutely lovely pass from Ndombele to Reguilon on the left, and his cross leads to considerable panic in the home backline, but no chance.

And Arsenal cap an impressive opening with a goal! Saka gets into the area on the right and rather scuffs a square pass, into a good area rather than aimed at any individual I think, but Smith Rowe ghosts at pace from the left into the centre of the area and times his arrival perfectly to run onto the ball and turn it in from 10 yards.

11 mins: Arsenal have had 64% of possession so far, and Spurs have accomplished very little.

7 mins: Save! Arsenal break, and Tierney’s low cross is sent goalwards by Aubameyang. It would probably have hit the post rather than gone in but Lloris stopped it, and then the linesman lifted his flag again.

6 mins: Dele Alli flicks on to Son, who for a moment looks set to scamper clear but checks back and is allowed to shoot wide before the linesman lifts his flag.

4 mins: Tottenham have spent the last minute attempting to play the ball out of defence without, despite having both a goal kick and a free kick, even once getting it more than 25 yards from their goalline.

3 mins: A predictably frantic opening couple of minutes end with a centre-circle handball.

Before kick-off, a period of applause for the late Jimmy Greaves.

Out come the players! Pantomime boos as Spurs are first out of the tunnel, cheers when Arsenal follow.

Some Arsenal-related news from earlier today, courtesy of Reuters: Samir Nasri, who scored six goals and created another five in 12 games against Tottenham, has retired:

Former France midfielder Samir Nasri announced on Sunday that he was officially retiring from professional football after a career that started in 2004. Nasri, 34, served an 18-month doping suspension from 2018, an episode that he said changed his way of seeing football. “It was just an injection of vitamins because I was sick,” the former Marseilles, Arsenal and Manchester City player, whose career effectively ended last year after a short stint at Anderlecht, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. He scored five goals for France and picked up 41 caps between 2007 and 2013.

Mikel Arteta has a chat with Geoff Shreeves:

You have to manage the emotional part of the game. You have to show the right passion, as well as using the brain. Be cool, be clear when the game requires. It’s just a game that both teams come into with honesty, with their own idea, and then the ball starts to roll and anything can happen. I don’t think what happened in the past matters.

Nuno Espirito Santo is asked by Sky’s Geoff Shreeves how important he thinks tactics will be. What kind of question is this? How would anyone who has ever seen football think it worth asking? And of all people, worth asking a coach? This is one of the most puzzling moments of my football-watching career. For what it’s worth, Nuno thinks “tactics is always important” and also that “it would be absurd for me to share my gameplan with you”. Then he’s asked how important mentality will be (“It’s important”) and the interview ends, before Shreeves can ask him how important kicking the ball is.

Arsenal fans greeting the Tottenham team coach with the traditional friendly welcome hand gestures here.

Here’s PA Media’s reaction to the team sheets:

Granit Xhaka returned from suspension and came straight back into the Arsenal starting line-up for the north London derby against Tottenham. The Switzerland captain was sent off in Arsenal’s 5-0 defeat at Manchester City before the international break but was recalled as the only change from the side that won at Burnley last weekend.

Tottenham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo made three alterations from the 3-0 loss to Chelsea last week, with two coming in defence. Japhet Tanganga returned at right-back with Davison Sanchez restored at centre-back and Lucas Moura replacing Giovani Lo Celso.

Today’s starting line-ups look like this:

Arsenal: Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney, Thomas, Smith-Rowe, Odegaard, Xhaka, Saka, Aubameyang. Subs: Leno, Lacazette, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Cedric, Pepe, Tavares, Sambi Lokonga, Martinelli.
Tottenham Hotspur: Lloris, Tanganga, Sanchez, Dier, Reguilon, Ndombele, Hojbjerg, Alli, Lucas Moura, Kane, Son. Subs: Romero, Gil Salvatierra, Emerson, Rodon, Lo Celso, Gollini, Skipp, Davies, Scarlett.
Referee: Craig Pawson.

Well then. Successive 1-0 wins over Norwich and Burnley have cleared some of the stench of crisis away from Arsenal – although they are the only team this season to have scored only once against Norwich, and really beating them only 1-0 at home is not far off a sacking offence in itself – but defeat in the north London derby would do nothing for Mikel Arteta’s waning popularity. Tottenham’s season has had precisely the opposite trajectory – it started with a run of 1-0 wins and then went downhill – but having lost their last two league matches 3-0 to Crystal Palace and Chelsea a third reverse on the spin and in this of all fixtures would completely kill off whatever momentum they had gathered back in August. This would be a fascinating game even if it wasn’t a North London derby, which happily it is. I’m not entirely sure this will be a good match, but I’m pretty certain it will be an interesting one. Welcome!