Arsenal vs Tottenham: Five things we learned as Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs saunter into Carabao Cup semi-finals

Arsenal 0-2 Tottenham: Spurs made amends for their defeat at the Emirates just over a fortnight ago to advance to the Carabao Cup semi-finals

Tottenham defeated Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates to advance to the Carabao Cup quarter-final.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side took an early lead after 20 minutes when Dele Alli pounced on Paulo Gazzaniga’s upfield punt to set Son Heung-Min free on goal, who slotted past Petr Cech on his weaker foot.

Arsenal came close to an equaliser a number of times towards the end of the first half but couldn’t find the breakthrough.

After reverting to a familiar five-at-the-back formation Arsenal’s pressured Spurs in the second half but succumbed to defeat after Dele Alli's wonderful flicked finish put Spurs out of touch.

Here's five things we learned from the game:

Paulo Gazzaniga has another giddy evening

A slick salesman would find it problematic to convince fans that Paulo Gazzaniga was making only his seventh appearance in a Spurs shirt at the Emirates. His heroics in the third round of this competition, saving two penalties as Tottenham edged past Watford, had already see him hailed as a hero by Mauricio Pochettino.

But here the 26-year-old goalkeeper completed a positional equivalent of a first-half hat-trick, beginning with a superb instinctive save to deny Henrikh Mkhitaryan just ten minutes into the match. Little later was the lanky Argentinian skewering a Johnny Wilkinson-esque punt which bobbled into the path of Dele Alli who set up Son-Heung Min to scores Spurs' opener. And as the opening stanza crept into stoppage time, Gazzaniga left acrobatically to deny Aaron Ramsey's volley which had seemed predestined to find the top corner.

Why stop there? The lolloping keeper turned prolific playmaker than launched another long-drive, this time directly into the path of Dele Alli, who set Spurs adrift of Arsenal.

Son Heung-min scored Spurs opener at the Emirates (Getty)

Son Heung-min remains an irresistible force of incision

The manner in which Son Heung-min forgoes the tassels of trickery only serves to make the South Korean more of an attractive player. A brute force of incision, smiling all the way as he cuts through Arsenal's defence, again today he was at his most irresistible. With the Gunners' back-four plagued by injury, Son added extra wrinkles to Arsenal's quickly aging left-back Nacho Monreal, skipping beyond him on numerous occasions, and forcing Emery to revert to a back-five formation.

By then though, Son's smile had already transformed into a euphoric grin, after pouncing on Dele Alli's through-ball, stuttered his stride and slotted home with his ostensibly weaker left-foot to give Spurs their opener.

Misfiring Mkhitaryan

There have been brief moments during Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s stuttering career at Arsenal that he has threatened to take flight, before deflating with the sombre sigh of a deflating balloon. As Arsenal’s 22-game undefeated run came to an end against Southampton last weekend, the Armenian scored twice in a standout individual performance.

And here, he appeared to start in the same ilk, dotting in the spaces around Danny Rose. But after playing a subtle one-two with Aaron Ramsey, Mkhitaryan wasted one of the clearest runs on goal he could ever face with a goalkeeper between the two posts. From only ten yards out, with any corner of the goal to aim at, he spammed it into Paulo Gazzaniga's flailing body and from thereon he seemed to descend into that same familiar unconfident jerk, panicking when in space, thrashing through-balls which weren't on, and being hounded out of possession in close quarters. By the time he was withdrawn at half-time by Emery, it was if anything a relief.

Ozil is being publicly pushed out by Unai Emery

Perhaps this was the greatest indicator of Mesut Ozil being confined to a bygone era at Arsenal under Unai Emery. This time there were no squirming excuses over mysterious illnesses or debilitating back spasms. Without any inquisition, Emery stated that the reason for Ozil’s absence was purely for “tactical reasons”. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Joe Willock found a spot on the bench.

Emery’s change of tact, an ill-will to even shroud the reason for Ozil’s absence, was to make his message public. The 30-year-old is no more superior than any other member of the new manager’s squad, in fact he is more disposable, and Emery is quite happy to instate his imprint on the club without him.

Ozil made his return against Qarabag in the Europa League on Thursday (Reuters)

Mauricio Pochettino shows no signs of distraction

Has there ever been a more subdued build-up to a north London derby than this? What should normally have been a hysteria bounded build-up was instead entirely overshadowed by Jose Mourinho’s sacking. At Pochettino's pre-match press conference on Tuesday, questions swirled into an inferno of speculation after the Argentinian stopped short of dismissing the possibility that he may be interested in the role, instead saying that “anything can happen in football.”

You wouldn't have known such a here thing, especially considered how his Tottenham side were bullied off the pitch in the Premier League fixture between the pair just over two weeks ago. From the opening whistle his Spurs side had stormed out of the starting gates, not spooked by any such distractions, and so it stayed throughout the match. Business as usual.