North London derby lives up to the hype!

Arsenal started with a whimper but finished with a bang, storming back to beat Tottenham 5-2 after having been down by two goals early in a thrilling North London derby.

The Gunners looked dead and buried after Louis Saha and Emmanuel Adebayor gave Spurs a 2-0 lead inside 35 minutes, but Bacary Sagna gave the hosts a glimmer of home when he headed home in the 40th minute, before Robin van Persie equalised two minutes from halftime with a brilliant strike.

Buoyed by their strong end to the opening period, the Gunners came out for the second half firing on all cylinders, and Tomas Rosicky put them in front six minutes after the break, before Theo Walcott grabbed a well-taken brace to cap an excellent night for Arsenal.

Here, we takes a look at the defining moments of the match.

Woeful Gunners defending hands Spurs the lead

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger received a boost ahead of kickoff when both Laurent Koscielny and Kieran Gibbs were declared fit. However, it almost didn’t seem to matter as Tottenham took a fourth-minute lead courtesy of some terrible defending.

When Adebayor picked up the ball just inside the Arsenal half, there looked to be no apparent danger yet with one simple pass, he sent Saha racing through on goal. The Frenchman didn’t get the cleanest of strikes away but, Thomas Vermaelen deflected the ball over Wojciech Szczesny and into the back of the net.

Just when the Gunners were showing signs of scoring an equaliser, Modric split the Arsenal defence with a through ball, sending Gareth Bale to run clean through on goal. Gibbs was always struggling to keep up with Bale’s blistering pace, and the Welshman did not need a second invitation to go down in the box after Wojcieh Szczesny got the faintest of touches. Up stepped Adebayor, who put Tottenham two up with a clinical strike from the spot.

A vital intervention from an unlikely source

2-0 down and looking bereft of ideas up front, it looked as though Arsenal were going to crash to another defeat against their bitter rivals.

Yet moments after Van Persie had struck the post, Sagna stepped forward to give the hosts a glimmer of hope when he made his way into the box and met Mikel Arteta‘s cross at full speed, powering a header beyond the reach of Brad Friedel.

Following an injury-interrupted campaign, it has been good to see Sagna back in action – but even the most ardent of Arsenal fans would not have expected the Frenchman to be the one to get the Gunners back on track.

Not a bad time to score your second league goal for the club.

A tactical mistake from Redknapp

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is the odds-on favourite to take over the vacant England job, and regardless of what happens from now till the end of the season, he has proven enough during his time at White Hart Lane to suggest he deserves a shot at managing the national team.

However, he made an extremely poor halftime substitution on Sunday when he brought the defensive-minded Sandro on for Saha, a decision which led to his side’s insipid second-half display.

One of the main reasons why the Arsenal defenders were defending in sixes and sevens in the first half was because they had to contend with the dual threat of Adebayor and Saha. While the latter did not get too many shooting chances, his strength and movement meant Arsenal could not afford to commit too many men forward. Adebayor too looked to be thriving, having a target man to thread his passes through to.

After Saha was removed, Adebayor was forced to toil up front on his own, and with no supply coming from his midfielders, the Togolese striker had a poor second half .

A game of two halves for two players

At the interval, Bale looked to be heading for man-of-the-match honours, after he tore Arsenal apart with his pace and penetration. On the other end of the spectrum, Alex Song was having a game to forget. He failed to shackle Spurs’ more creative midfielders, and lost a number of battles with Scott Parker.

45 minutes later, the tables had turned. Following the introduction of Rafael van der Vaart, Bale was switched to the right flank, where he failed to beat Gibbs consistently. In contrast, Song began to impose himself in the middle of the park, snapping at Luka Modric’s heels and putting his side on the front foot by releasing his team-mates with quick passes.

And to cap a fine second-half display, the Cameroonian then played the best pass of the game – a 45-yard pass straight into the path of Walcott, who went on to slot past Friedel for Arsenal’s fifth.

Oft-maligned Arsenal duo answer critics

In the past, the fans have been guilty of criticising Walcott, and they still feel he is far from a finished article.

His final delivery is still inconsistent, and he does not impose himself on matches often enough. However, when it mattered the most on Sunday, he delivered the goods, twice beating Friedel with two clinical finishes. His first came when he ran onto Van Persie’s square-ball to apply the finishing touches to a brilliant counter-attack, before adding a second after being played through by Song.

Another Gunner who has come under criticism during his time at the Emirates has been Rosicky but, following the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri last summer, he has upped his game and is now one of the first names on Wenger’s starting XI.

He may have grabbed the goal that put Arsenal ahead on Sunday when he poked the ball home from close range after a neat one-two with Sagna but, it was his overall contribution that stood out.

He kept possession well for the Gunners, rarely misplacing a pass, and was also not afraid to take the Spurs defence head-on. Many have lamented how Arteta and Aaron Ramsey have both failed to fill the void left by Fabregas and Nasri but, perhaps the answer lies within Rosicky, considering that he doesn’t get injured.