Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky was the hero for Arsenal at White Hart Lane this afternoon as his superb strike gave his side a vital victory that kept up the pace on league leaders Chelsea. A minute into the match Tomas Rosicky received the ball from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and unleashed a forceful drive into the top corner of the net that proved to be the decisive goal in the end and sealed Arsenal's first victory at White Hart Lane in five years. Arsenal got off to the perfect start thanks to a thunderous strike from Tomas Rosicky. The Czech midfielder played a one-two with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain before unleashing a fantastic shot that left Hugo Lloris with absolutely no chance in the Tottenham goal. Shortly afterwards Oxlade-Chamberlain found himself one-on-one with Lloris and he tried a smart finish, failing to execute the manoeuvre and wasting a golden opportunity for the Gunners to double their advantage. Emmanuel Adebayor got on the end of Kyle Naughton's cross but couldn't direct the ball towards goal, before Lukas Podolski struck a forceful shot into the side netting. Both sides were getting chances but failing to test the goalkeepers. Before the interval Spurs appealed for a penalty when Danny Rose fell to ground after a shoulder-to-shoulder challenge with Bacary Sagna but referee Mike Dean was having none of it. Tottenham had two glorious chances early in the second-half thanks to errors from Wojciech Szczesny but Bacary Sagna was on-hand to deal with the initial pressure before Laurent Koscielny blocked Nacer Chadli's effort on the goal line. Adebayor had another chance to level the scoreline when he got on the end of Chadli's superb cross in but he couldn't find the target under pressure from Koscielny. Arsenal's substitutions suggested they were aiming to grind out a result as they introduced defensive players in the form of Mathieu Flamini and Nacho Monreal, in place of Lukas Podolski and goalscorer Tomas Rosicky. Per Mertesaker came close to doubling Arsenal's advantage as he forced a low save from Lloris, as Spurs had one last throw of the dice by introducing Roberto Soldado to the frame. Meanwhile Arsenal continued their defensive changes by bringing on Thomas Vermaelen in place of Oxlade-Chamberlain. Late-on in the match Adebayor struck a shot from distance which Szczesny easily collected with a diving catch as Tottenham threw everything forward in search of an equaliser. Arsenal move above Manchester City into third place and sit just four points behind Chelsea, who they tackle at Stamford Bridge next weekend. Tottenham, meanwhile, are now seven points off a Champions League place and they've played more games than their rivals.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
