Tottenham lose North London derby 1-0

Son Heung-min’s Tottenham Hotspur lost the first North London derby of the 2024-25 season 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday, extending their winless streak in the Premier League’s fiercest rivalry to five games.

Tottenham's Son Heung-minreacts during a Premier League match against Arsenal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

Son Heung-min’s Tottenham Hotspur lost the first North London derby of the 2024-25 season 1-0 to Arsenal on Sunday, extending their winless streak in the Premier League’s fiercest rivalry to five games.

It was a fiery outing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, but a surprisingly slow-paced one. The two teams started on equal, if ineffective, footing, Spurs creating as many chances as the visitors in the opening going.

Things started to get sloppier for the home side as the game went on, with the wheels really coming off in the 35th minute when Jurrien Timber and Guglielmo Vicario were both handed yellow cards for nearly coming to blows after a foul on Pedro Porro.

Things remained sloppy through the break — Spurs took five yellow cards in the first half alone — and while Ange Postecoglou was able to calm his squad down at half time, it was Mikel Arteta’s team that remained in control.

Arsenal broke through in the 64th minute when Gabriel Magalhaes turned corner into the goal, the Gunners capitalizing on yet another well-executed set piece for the 1-0 win.

The result leaves Tottenham in 13th place on the Premier League table with just four points over the opening four games. It’s a rough start to Postecoglou’s second season at Spurs, and the manager seemed to struggle to find positives in his postmatch press conference this week.

“We had some good opportunities, but we created so many more, we just wasted some of our good play,” Postecoglou said. “Similar to our other games where we haven't really had that conviction in the front third to take advantage of, whether it's us winning the ball back or getting into that front third and nothing coming of it. You keep opposition teams in the game when you do that.”

Tottenham will be back in action on Wednesday as they take on Coventry in the third round of the Carabao Cup. It kicks off a busy run for the North London club, with Carabao Cup and Europa League games scheduled mid-week for the next three weeks.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]