Tottenham Hotspur grabbed bragging rights in the North London derby as they secured a 2-0 win against Arsenal in their Premier League encounter on Sunday evening, writes MARSHALL GOUTS.

Arsene Wenger made three changes to the side that defeated Leicester City 1-0, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Olivier Giroud returning in place of Hector Bellerin, Francis Coquelin and Theo Walcott.

Mauricio Pochettino made two changes from the side that defeated Crystal Palace 1-0, as Kieran Trippier and Heung-Min Son replaced Kyle Walker and Moussa Dembele in the starting line-up.

The home side got off to a bright start and had a shot saved within the first minute of the clash, after Harry Kane showed his skill to beat a defender before unleashing a left-footed effort.

Arsenal saw much less of the ball than Tottenham in the opening minutes of the game, due to their new-found 3-5-2 formation, which saw the Gunners looking to utilise the counter-attack.

Tottenham should have gone ahead in the 22nd minute, but they missed two sitters within the space of two minutes through respective efforts from Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.

The visitors started to carve out the Tottenham defence towards the end of the first-half, and came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock when Kieran Gibbs beat the offside trap to get on to the end of Alexis Sanchez’s lobbed ball, but the defender proceeded to blast his effort over the bar.

Both sides emerged with more of an attacking intent in the second half, and Spurs came agonisingly close to opening the scoring in the 48th minute when a swift counter-attacking move saw the ball fall to Victor Wanyama, but his effort from outside of the box was tipped away by Petr Cech in the 48th minute.

Tottenham finally found the opener in the 56th minute after Alli reacted quickest to Eriksen’s rebounded effort to make it 1-0.

Things went from bad to worse for Arsenal barely a minute later as they conceded a penalty, after Gabriel was adjudged to have brought down Harry Kane in the area. The England international stepped up to convert the resultant penalty to double his side’s advantage.

Cech brilliantly denied Kane his brace in the 76th minute, before saving the effort from the resultant corner to save his side’s blushes.

Wenger’s side were presented with chances to score, but they failed to convert any of them as Tottenham secured maximum points in their final North London derby at White Hart Lane.

Photo: EPA/Andy Rain