Ian Wright has admitted that he was nervous during the North London Derby given how well Tottenham were playing and remarked that he could sense the same nervous energy among the crowd at the Emirates.
Arsenal have had no issues beating Spurs at home over the last few years and even though the Lilywhites had made an impressive start to the campaign, Gunners supporters were seemingly expecting a straight-forward win on Sunday.
In fact, Paul Merson even predicted that Ange Postecoglou’s men would end up being battered 5-1 if they took to take the game to the home side (Sportskeeda).
However, that is exactly what Tottenham did, showing no fear and sticking to their game plan of playing out from the back even when they gave the ball away in dangerous situations on a couple of occasions.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Senegalese midfielder #29 Pape Matar Sarr (L) vies with Arsenal’s German midfielder #29 Kai Havertz (C) during the English Premier League football match between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates Stadium in London on September 24, 2023. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or ‘live’ services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images)
Tottenham made the Arsenal crowd nervous
Wright admitted that Spurs made Arsenal look very vulnerable at the back every time they played through their press.
The Gunners legend said on Wrighty’s House podcast: “I think that the way that Spurs answered back so swiftly when they scored and showing what they can do once they break that first press of ours, we look very, very vulnerable. Spurs made us look vulnerable, I felt quite nervous and you could feel it in the crowd.
“The finish [for the first goal] is excellent. But again, when we’re dealing with someone like James Maddison. I thought that he was pretty quiet, I thought Declan [Rice] was kind of patrolling him, he didn’t have the influence on the game in the way he was doing it until Declan went off.
“You see the space open up for him even more, but I just thought that he was someone that I thought, ‘Oh my god, we need to do something about Maddison’, even though he was involved in both goals. I just felt that he was somebody that you’re just always quite afraid of.”
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A lot of Arsenal fans were extremely arrogant before the game, suggesting that not a single Tottenham player would get into their eleven and that they would win quite comfortably.
So, it was great to see the likes of Maddison, Bissouma, Son and Udogie demonstrating on Sunday that they were better than their Arsenal counterparts.
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