LONDON (Reuters) -Harry Kane struck twice as Tottenham Hotspur saved their Premier League prime 4 hopes very a lot alive with a 3-0 demolition of Arsenal in a rambunctious north London derby on Thursday.
Victory for Arsenal on the house of their arch-rivals would have secured their first top-four end since 2016 and a Champions League place, however they suffered a dismal night time.
Kane opened the scoring from the penalty spot within the twenty second earlier than Arsenal had Rob Holding despatched off for a second yellow card 10 minutes later, each for clumsy fouls on Son Heung-min.
Kane’s diving header made it 2-0 within the thirty seventh minute to ship Tottenham’s followers into delirium.
The quantity went up one other notch instantly after halftime when Son fired a shot previous Aaron Ramsdale for his twenty first league objective of the season to kill off any hope of an Arsenal fightback.
Tottenham may even have gained by extra but regardless of the celebrations from the house followers they continue to be fifth and Arsenal are nonetheless within the driving seat within the battle for fourth place.
But the hole between them is now just one level with each side having two video games remaining and Tottenham additionally boast a far superior objective distinction.
“We nonetheless have two video games to go and we have now put the strain on them. We have to concentrate on ourselves. We play early on Sunday so we’d like to get a consequence and see what occurs,” Kane, who prolonged his report objective tally within the north London derby to 13 in 17 video games, informed Sky Sports.
“We can solely management our video games. We did our job tonight. We will not get forward of ourselves.
“Tonight was particular however our final objective is to get fourth place and we nonetheless have work to do.”
Arsenal face Newcastle United away and Everton at house whereas Tottenham host Burnley and end at relegated Norwich City.
With a lot using on the derby and the ambiance electrical, the opening exchanges had been unsurprisingly frenetic with neither aspect ready to settle into any form of rhythm.
But that every one modified when Dejan Kulusevski directed a cross in direction of Son and he fell underneath problem from Cedric Soares and referee Paul Tierney pointed to the spot.
There was solely going to be one winner as Kane stepped up to plant his spot kick low into the nook.
Arsenal, who had gained their final 4 video games, had been rattled and Kane was denied a second by determined blocks from Takehiro Tomiyasu and Soares.
Holding, who had already been booked for wrestling Son, then cynically blocked off the South Korean to earn a crimson card that left supervisor Mikel Arteta shaking his head in disbelief.
Things quickly acquired even worse for Arsenal as Son’s nook was met by Rodrigo Bentancur whose header was diverted in by a diving Kane on the far submit.
Eddie Nketiah practically gave Arsenal a lifeline earlier than halftime when his curled effort pressured Hugo Lloris to tip over.
But Arsenal couldn’t address Son and Kane. The second half had barely begun when Kane tried to wriggle by way of and the ball broke for Son to calmly discover the nook.
Ramsdale made an excellent save to maintain out Emerson Royal’s header and Son missed an open objective earlier than being substituted to a rapturous ovation from the Tottenham followers.
Martin Odegaard pressured Lloris right into a wonderful save late on however by that point many of the Arsenal followers had seen sufficient and had been on their approach house.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, enhancing by Pritha Sarkar)
