North London is Red as Arsenal thrash Tottenham with a 5-0 win.

The North London Derby proved to be a success, with 56,784 fans gathering inside the Emirates Stadium to watch Arsenal take on Tottenham Hotspur, where Arsenal were hoping to win their streak of home game wins against the Lilywhites. 

Arsenal were the better side of the game, dominating possession for the entire game, and having 27 shots in total, as opposed to Tottenham’s 6. Throughout the first half, Tottenham seemed to struggle to keep the ball, and lost the ball on many occasions. 

The first two goals came in the first half, the first being an own goal from Clare Hunt, but the effort came from Alsssia Russo, with Mariona Caldentey scoring the second. Two became three in the second half, with Frida Maanum getting the ball in the back of the net in the 51st minute. Alessia Russo managed to get a goal to make it four, and a banger of a goal from defender Emily Fox saw the Gunners win 5-0, extending their unbeaten streak. 

The game saw an Emirates debut for new signing Jenna Nighswonger, as well as the re-debut of Chloe Kelly, which brought an uproar of applause from the fans. 

Spurs had a good few chances, one of which being a cross from Martha Thomas which was headed by Olivia Holdt, but it went over the crossbar, the team struggling to break their deadlock. 

After the game, Tottenham’s manager Robert Vilahamn said, “Extremely tough to lose in big numbers to Arsenal, of course. I think we just need to know we’re on a journey and, right now, we can’t compete with them, but there’s some really good potential in this squad. If you look at it, in the first 10 minutes, we looked quite good and then we had a spell for the rest of the first half which is not good. We tried to get back into the game in the second half, but they had some very clinical finishes. When Martha and Drew came on, we got back in the game, we played with more control and tried to create a few chances but, then again, they had a really strong attack at the end and scored a few more goals, so it’s a really tough loss.”

The win sees Arsenal stay in third place in the league, just 3 points behind Manchester United, with Tottenham sitting in 6th, one point behind Brighton. 

Lineups:

Arsenal: Van Domselaar, Fox, Williamson (C), Catley (Codina 76), Mariona (Nighswonger 86), McCabe, Maanum (Blackstenius 60), Wälti, Foord (Kelly 61), Russo, Cooney-Cross (Little 76)

Subs not used: Zinsberger, Ilestedt, Reid, Mead. 

Tottenham: Kop, Neville (Morris 73), Hunt, Bartrip, Nilden, Vinberg (Holdt 82), Oroz, Naz (Grant 82), Csiki (Spence 59), Raso (Thomas 60), England. 

Subs not used: Spencer, Rybrink, Ahtinen, Buhler