By Korede James
Arsenal put behind them their recent poor results as they came from behind to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 in the North London derby on Wednesday night.
Son Heung-min gave Spurs the lead against the run of play, but two goals in four minutes from Gabriel Magalhaes and Leandro Trossard secured the English Premier League win for Arsenal.
The Gunners, on 43 points in the league table, have now cut Liverpool’s lead to four points, with the Reds having a game in hand.
Mikel Arteta’s men went into the derby needing to bounce back from back-to-back home defeats to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg and Manchester United in the FA Cup.
Trossard had Arsenal’s first real chance on 15 minutes but could not get a clean strike off Declan Rice’s cutback.
Seven minutes later Gabriel made a timely clearance to deny Dominic Solanke, and Dejan Kulusevski almost scored from the corner but was denied by David Raya from range.
Spurs then took the lead on 25 minutes through Son whose shot on the edge of the box took a slight deflection before ending in the back of the net.
Arsenal hit back in the 40th minute as Gabriel’s header from Declan Rice’s corner took a slight deflection off Solanke before nestling inside the net.
Just four minutes after the equaliser Arsenal went 2-1 ahead with Trossard’s left foot strike from range.
Arsenal almost scored from another corner on 53 minutes but Kai Havertz could not direct his header towards goal.
Havertz had a chance to extend Arsenal’s lead on 56 minutes but directed his header straight at the keeper despite being unmarked inside the box.
Spurs almost snatched the equaliser in stoppage time only for the ball to come off the post.
In other Premier League results on Wednesday night, Newcastle United thrashed Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 to move up to fourth place, while David Moyes marked his return to Everton with a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa at Goodison Park.
Also, Leicester City, still without the injured Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, continued their dismal run if form with a 2-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace, the Foxes’ sixth league loss in a row under Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Premier League results:
Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Everton 0-1 Aston Villa
Leicester 0-2 Crystal Palace
Newcastle United 3-0 Wolves
