Pape Matar Sarr‘s superb 45-yard strike gave Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win over Arsenal in the first north London derby ever played outside the United Kingdom.
Thursday’s meeting at the Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong drew a record 49,975 crowd — although the $3.9 billion arena only opened in March — and they were treated to competitive contest not without controversy.
Arsenal appeared angry that Sarr’s goal was allowed to stand due to what they believed was a foul by Richarlison in the build-up but after dominating the second half, they were unable to find a response, despite the late introduction of new €73 million signing Viktor Gyökeres for the final 13 minutes.
The result means the Gunners sign off their preseason tour of Asia with a defeat while Spurs boss Thomas Frank has a notable victory to help begin his tenure as Ange Postecoglou’s successor.
Arsenal started on the front foot with William Saliba flashing a fourth-minute header wide as Spurs struggled to deal with an early corner.
Set-pieces quickly became a theme of the game with coach Andreas Georgson — who replaced his Arsenal counterpart Nicolas Jover at Brentford — now working under Thomas Frank again at Tottenham.
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya found himself being blocked off at corners and Arsenal struggled to cope. Spurs hit the woodwork three times in the first half.
A 10th-minute Pedro Porro delivery hit the post before Wilson Odobert’s low drive deflected off Ben White and onto the upright. From the resulting corner, Spurs hit the post again and Richarlison was unable to turn the ball home from close range.
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Tottenham took the lead just before the interval. Raya played out from the back to Myles Lewis-Skelly and under pressure from Richarlison, the England defender lost the ball to Sarr, who lofted an excellent driven finish over Raya and into the net from long range.
Arsenal were furious in response, believing Richarlison had committed a foul with both Lewis-Skelly and Martin Ødegaard remonstrating with the fourth official as the teams left for half-time.
Neither team made any changes at the break and Kai Havertz linked up well with Gabriel Martinelli shortly before the hour mark as Arsenal went in search of an equaliser but the Brazilian could only fire his shot off target.
The substitutions began just after the hour mark with Kevin Danso, Mathys Tel and Brennan Johnson all introduced for Spurs before Leandro Trossard and Martín Zubimendi came on for Arsenal.
However, the crowd were made to wait for the two men they arguably wanted to see the most — Gyokeres and Tottenham legend Son Heung-Min — until a raft of further changes came in the 77th-minute.
Arsenal suffered an injury scare shortly afterwards as Trossard was forced off with an injury but despite penning Spurs back for long periods, they ran out of ideas to break them down and Tottenham held on.
Arsenal fly back to London on Friday while Spurs travel to South Korea to face Newcastle United.
