Arsenal of years gone by would have cracked, but Mikel Arteta’s side served notice to Man City that they will fight them all the way and won’t lose their nerve after 3-2 Spurs win, writes OLIVER HOLT

A minute or so after the final whistle, after Mikel Arteta had leapt into the air on the touchline and being enveloped in the embrace of his assistants, Arsenal‘s players raced over to the corner of the steepling Tottenham Hotspur Stadium where they had stood throughout the game in the midst of the enemy.

The Arsenal supporters were delirious. They were lost in their joy. Declan Rice handed his shirt to a fan, Bukayo Saka saluted the supporters. 

The Arsenal fans turned and taunted their Spurs counterparts in the section beside them. Their exultations were unconfined.

They shall think themselves accursed, those Arsenal fans who were not here on this St Totteringham’s Day. Because, let’s face it, St Totteringham’s Day was the very least of it on Sunday afternoon. 

This result was about so much more than ensuring they finished above their north London rivals this season.

This 3-2 win at rivals Tottenham extended Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table to four points

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta applauds the travelling supporters after the win over Tottenham

Son Heung-min set up a grandstand finale when he converted a late penalty for 2-3

Spurs players looked dejected but it was a case of too little too late for them 

On one level, it was about avoiding the humiliation of blowing a 3-0 half-time lead, which Arsenal almost contrived to do. Imagine that. 

They would never, ever have lived that down if they had allowed Spurs to snatch a point and ruin their title hopes all at the same time.

But this 3-2 win was about far more than that. It was about taking a giant step forwards toward winning their first Premier League title for 20 years by winning on the Tottenham High Road and going four points clear, temporarily at least, of Manchester City at the top of the table.

City remain the favourites, of course, because they tend not to lose at this stage of the season and if they win their next five games, they will win the league. 

But Arsenal served notice here that they will make them fight all the way for that title and that they will not lose their nerve in the process.

This win was another riposte to those who were claiming a few weeks ago that Arsenal were choking. 

They responded to those claims by beating Chelsea 5-0 on Tuesday night and then accelerating into a 3-0 lead before the interval at Tottenham, where many expected Spurs might upset them.

Instead, Arteta’s side outclassed their local rivals for much of the game. They exposed Spurs’ defensive limitations and played some magnificent counter-attacking football of their own. Kai Havertz, once again, was superb.

Hojbjerg nodded beyond his own goalkeeper under pressure from Takehiro Tomiyasu

Arsenal celebrate their opening goal after Tottenham’s Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg handed a gift 

Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard celebrate after Arsenal were gifted the early advantage

And even when David Raya handed Spurs a lifeline with an absurdly ambitious attempt to play out from the back, Arsenal clung on. 

In other years, such as 2022, perhaps, when Spurs swept them aside here, Arsenal would have cracked under the pressure. This time, they clung on. The title race looks as if it is going down to the wire.

‘This is where we have to stand up and make it happen,’ Arteta had said before the game and that is what his team did. 

Arsenal had not won back-to-back away league games against Spurs in 36 years and now they chose the right moment to put that righ

Arsenal took the lead after a quarter of an hour. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who had been preferred to Yves Bissouma in midfield, got just the wrong side of Takehiro Tomiyasu at a corner and when the Spurs midfielder stretched to reach the ball curled in by Saka, he inadvertently nodded it high past Guglielmo Vicario into the net.

Saka cupped his ear to the Spurs fans behind the goal, which was met with exactly the kind of reception one might expect but Arsenal’s players then went into an earnest huddle before the game restarted. The message seemed to be that now was the time to concentrate and not let the lead slip.

Saka drives the ball home beyond two Spurs defenders having sprinted towards the target

Saka celebrates putting Arsenal two goals to the good shortly after Spurs saw one disallowed

It didn’t work. Spurs threw themselves at Arsenal. Romero glanced a header narrowly wide. Then he crashed another header from a James Maddison free kick against the outside of the post. Then Micky van de Ven swept the ball past Raya, only for the effort to be ruled out by VAR for offside.

Spurs committed so much forward, it was their undoing. They appealed for two penalties within a matter of seconds when Dejan Kulusevski stumbled in the box and Maddison was tackled by Declan Rice but Michael Oliver correctly waved them both away.

As Spurs lost their concentration and continued their protests, the ball was cleared to Havertz, just inside the Arsenal half. He took his time to control it and then lifted a brilliant cross-field pass to Saka on the right.

Saka ran at the retreating Ben Davies, cut inside on to his left foot as everyone, including Davies, surely knew he would and then curled his shot past Vicario. It was a supremely composed finish, a finish that provided more confirmation Saka is back to his best.

Eight minutes before half time, Arsenal were three up. Leandro Trossard swung a corner over from the Arsenal left and Havertz rose high and unmarked between Van de Ven and Romero and nodded the ball past Vicario from a couple of yards out. It was awful defending by Spurs.

The final confirmation that it was not going to be Spurs’ day came a minute before the interval when Pedro Porro floated a superb ball over the top of the Arsenal defence for Heung-Min Son to run through on goal.

If there is anyone in the Spurs side you would place your faith in to drag them back into the game, it is Son. 

Micky van de Ven thought he’d restored parity for Spurs at 1-1, only to be denied by an offside

VAR replays showed the defender had just strayed into an offside position before scoring

The VAR decision brought wild Spurs celebrations to a hasty halt and energised Arsenal

But this time, as he confronted Raya 12 yards out, Son leaned back and lifted his shot high, high over the bar. The Arsenal fans behind that goal roared with relief and derision.

Arsenal nearly made it four seven minutes after the interval when Trossard fed Havertz on the overlap and Havertz lifted a delicate chip to the back post for Saka. 

Saka connected with it sweetly and his left-foot volley hurtled towards goal until Vicario, falling backwards on the line, deflected the ball over the bar with his right foot.

Arsenal had begun to coast towards victory but 20 minutes into the half, they presented Spurs with a way back into the game. 

Kai Havertz made it three to Arsenal in the 38th minute to put the title chasers in command 

Havertz headed home, capitalising on some loose Tottenham marking, to make it 3-0

Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya celebrates one of his team’s three first-half strikes

Spurs punted an aimless ball forward that hit Gabriel on the back of the leg as he was backtracking and he played it back to Raya, who had plenty of time to consider his options.

Perhaps he had too much time. As Romero began to close him down, Raya attempted a bizarre chipped pass into midfield with his left foot. It would have been an absurd gamble if your best outfield player had tried it.

Instead of clearing Romero, the Spurs centre half leapt into the air and controlled it comfortably on his chest. Raya retreated but Romero let the ball bounce and then calmly rolled it past the Arsenal keeper and into the net.

Cristian Romero capitalised on an error by Raya to offer Tottenham renewed hope at 3-1 down

Raya pass out from the back went straight to Romero, who finished with aplomb 

Now, suddenly, it was no longer a stroll for Arteta’s side. Now it was a test of character. 

Arsenal withstood it comfortably until five minutes before the end of normal time when Rice swung his boot to try to clear a ball that was dropping out of the air and connected with Davies’s leg instead.

The referee waved play on initially but a VAR check showed it was a penalty. Son took it with a stuttering run-up and dispatched it emphatically high to Raya’s right. The stadium roared. The Arsenal corner went quiet.

Spurs pressed for the equaliser but Arsenal did not give them any more gifts. They hung on. They stayed in the race. This time, they are in it to win it.