Henry the hypnotic puts Spurs in trance

Arsenal 3 Tottenham Hotspur

In north London, they call neighbourhood envy "keeping up with the Gunners". For the moment, Tottenham will have to remain reluctant admirers of the posh folk up the road who yesterday not only repositioned themselves at the summit of the Premiership, but established that last month's reverses at Everton and Blackburn were no more than a temporary aberration. "I think we're back to our best," declared Arsène Wenger emphatically.

There was little community spirit about this bi-annual convention. Victory for Arsenal came at the cost, one suspects, of some bruising this morning, with Patrick Vieira coming off worst. The Arsenal captain was the recipient of a challenge from Simon Davies which resulted in the Tottenham midfielder being dismissed in the first half, having already been cautioned. Vieira then received lengthy treatment after the substitute Gus Poyet caught him early in the second half of a contest punctuated by untidy tackles and the inevitable squabbling this kind of fixture produces.

Davies' departure meant that, as a measure of Tottenham's apparent renaissance under Glenn Hoddle and Arsenal's capacity to retain their threat as potent championship challengers, it all became something of an irrelevance. Once the Welshman had departed, and with him the ability to expose the Gunners down the right flank, it was just a question of how long his team could withstand constant probing without conceding further goals.

By the time of his dismissal, Thierry Henry had already scored after a remarkable individual run from his own half. After the break, further goals from Freddie Ljungberg and Sylvain Wiltord allowed Arsenal to play out the game with the swagger.

It was Henry's first league goal for six games and the manner of his celebration, cantering virtually all the way back down the pitch, suggested that he greeted it with similar relief to the Highbury faithful. "There hasn't been a dip in his performances, only in his goal-scoring record," said Wenger. "Strikers subconsciously put pressure on themselves when they're not scoring, but it didn't bother me. He was still creating goals, as he did for Sylvain's against Newcastle last week."

The Arsenal manager added: "It was a super, cracking goal, to take the ball from nearly the edge of his own box and finish at the other end. You must have a special power to do that."

When Henry scored, Spurs were still in contention and Hoddle might rightly contend that the confrontation would have had a different complexion entirely if it had not been for the sending off. It was approaching midway through the half when Davies was cautioned for an apparently late challenge on Ashley Cole. Six minutes later, the talented young Welsh international made Vieira wince with a strong but scarcely malicious challenge and he was dismissed by the referee, Mike Riley, for a second yellow.

Hoddle maintained that there was no contact between the players in the first incident and the second was a 50-50. The Spurs manager planned to ask Riley to review the decisions. "It was a mistake," he insisted. "The boy's done nothing wrong and he's [the referee] got to change his mind. There were full- blooded tackles coming in, but if we're going to caution people for challenges like that we may as well chuck the game in. That decision hurt us big time."

With David Seaman injured, the Arsenal manager had kept faith with the Swedish goalkeeper Rami Shaaban. Robert Pires started on the bench. He must have been somewhat surprised by those on the opposite one. There was no starting place for Poyet, Darren Anderton or Chris Perry, who were all substitutes. The latter was replaced by Ledley King, making his first appearance of the season after a hip injury.

Sol Campbell's crime in turning traitor still attracted some scorn from the travelling faithful when his name was read out, but it was virtually drowned out by a rapturous reception from the home spectators. In the event it was his successor Dean Richards who saw considerably more of the action as Gilberto Silva stung Kasey Keller's hands and Wiltord had the ball in the visitors' net, but was flagged offside. Then Ljungberg and Henry were denied by Keller and King respectively.

Ironically it was Spurs who had actually mounted a dangerous-looking assault in the 13th minute when Henry seized possession as the move broke down. He strode forward, eluded Matthew Etherington, went past Stephen Carr and finally drifted round King before beating Keller with a splendid low shot.

Davies impressed for Spurs with a strong run down the right, but Robbie Keane failed to get a clean header to his cross. Then came the sending off. Spurs reorganised, switching from a back four to a three with Keane dropping back as an auxiliary midfielder. They held out until half-time although a wickedly struck free-kick from Henry flashed just beyond Keller's far post. In the meantime Pires had replaced Dennis Bergkamp, suffering from "an inflammation of the rib cage" and the Frenchman soon fashioned an opening for Henry, who netted from close range. That effort, too, was disallowed for offside.

Spurs had changed formations again at the break, reverting once again to a back four in an attempt to resist the red tide, but to no avail. Ten minutes into the second half, Ljungberg dispossessed Jamie Redknapp, played the ball to Henry who cleverly set up an easy chance for the Swede to put Arsenal out of their misery. Spurs did threaten occasionally, but their best chance fell to Richards whose finish was weak.

Arsenal might have added more with Pires and Wiltord going close before the latter confirmed their domination with a third. Pires was the creator, setting up Henry and, although the striker was denied by Keller, the ball ran conveniently back to Pires who gave Wiltord the chance to drive the ball high into the net.

By now Hoddle had brought on Anderton and Steffen Iversen but apart from a vicious free-kick from the one-time England player, parried by Shaaban, the difference was superficial. So, normal service resumes: Arsenal back on top; Tottenham green as Goddesses.

Arsenal 3 Tottenham Hotspur 0
Henry 13, Ljungberg 55, Wiltord 71

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 38,152