Gabriel heads winner as Arsenal punish derby rivals Tottenham

Gabriel Magalhaes headed Arsenal to a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday as the depleted Gunners overcame the absence of key midfielders Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard to continue their north London derby dominance. Mikel Arteta's side were without skipper Odegaard because of an ankle injury suffered on international duty with Norway, while Rice was suspended for his red card against Brighton. Losing two influential players raised Spurs' hopes of upsetting their bitter rivals. But the Premier League title contenders dug deep with an assured display, taking advantage of Tottenham's latest array of weak finishing as Gabriel bagged the winner in the second half. The Brazilian defender's first goal since February made it three wins from four league games for unbeaten Arsenal as they chase a first title since 2004 after two successive runners-up finishes. Gabriel told Sky Sports: "I am so happy, it is a big derby and we are so happy to win here. Let’s enjoy it now. It means a lot to score the winner, I had difficult times in the game but then we scored from a corner." Arsenal captain Jorginho added: “We had to work really hard as you saw, we knew it was going to be a difficult game. On these days you have to work hard and we know we can count on each other as teammates. "At the end it paid off and we are so happy that we won. We had key players missing but we are a total team, the whole squad. We know that whoever comes on will be ready to help the team. We are really proud of the team." Arsenal have now won three visits to Tottenham in a row, losing just once, in May 2022, in their last eight meetings with their neighbours. The second-placed Gunners are two points behind leaders Manchester City as they turn their attention to their Champions League opener at Atalanta on Thursday before travelling to face Pep Guardiola's side next weekend. Failing to turn dominant spells into goals has been a familiar story for Tottenham this season and striker Dominic Solanke is yet to get off the mark following his big-money move from Bournemouth. Tottenham's second successive defeat leaves them with only one win from four games with the club's fans starting to become restless. Turning to Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli to replace Rice and Odegaard, Arteta had urged his team to show the "resilience, depth and hunger" before kick off. Arsenal had to call on all those qualities during a bright start from Tottenham, with David Raya making a fine save at his near post after Son Heung-min's pass picked out Dejan Kulusevski for an instinctive strike. William Saliba had to make a crucial tackle to deny the unmarked Solanke, who took too long to shoot. Tottenham's waste gave Arsenal encouragement and Kai Havertz rose for a close-range header that forced a save from Guglielmo Vicario, who was also equal to Martinelli's strike moments later. By the time Kulusevski crudely fouled Jorginho on the stroke of half-time, seven players had been booked, including five from Tottenham. Micky van de Ven's glancing header tested Raya soon after the interval, but Tottenham were hit with a sucker punch in the 64th minute. With 23 goals from set-pieces since the start of last season, Arsenal have become specialists, while Vicario was flapping at crosses all afternoon. Saka's corner picked out Gabriel, who got away with a push on Cristian Romero before powering his header past Vicario from close range. "The way we defended was top drawer," said Arteta. "We want to play a different game but they put a structure that is extremely difficult to match up so we decided not to do that. "We just work on heading the ball, having the right delivery and winning the ball. It is about the right timing. Over the season the team has to go over hurdles so I am delighted." Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou added: "We lost concentration [for the goal]. We've got some big guys in there who really attack the ball and we just switched off for a second. "I think I've said my piece. For the most part we controlled the game today, had good territory and possession but we didn't make the most of it and we got punished."

Gabriel heads winner as Arsenal punish derby rivals Tottenham

Gunners overcome absence of key midfielders to extend dominance over north London neighbours