Dele Alli and Son prove too much for Arsenal’s makeshift defence

Dele Alli proved to be the genius at the centre of the North London Derby tonight, providing an assist and scoring a delicious second to give Spurs a 2-0 win over Arsenal at The Emirates.

A place in the Carabao Cup semi-finals was at stake, and Tottenham wanted to avenge the 4-2 defeat at the hands of their local rivals earlier this month.

They would have to do so without Harry Kane starting, the England striker suffered from a cold and had to settle for a place on the bench. Ben Davies came in to play centre half, leaving Juan Foyth on the bench in a questionable decision by Mauricio Pochettino.

Unai Emery had to deal with several missing players. Sokratis returned but he lost Hector Bellerin to injury in the defeat to Southampton, whilst Shdokran Mustafi, Sead Kolasinac and Rob Holding were all still missing from the back line.

The first chance of quality fell to Henrik Mkhitaryan, who scored twice at the weekend, but his poor attempt at a finish was well saved by Paulo Gazzaniga in the Spurs goal.

The first half saw Spurs hit long balls up to Heung-Min Son and Lucas Moura who were the furthest players forward, which seemed at odds with the choice to play Harry Winks in the centre.

Matthias Guendouzi made it difficult for Winks and Moussa Sissoko to control the ball in the midfield, the young Frenchman battled away, breaking up play whenever possible with the help of Lucas Torreira.

Spurs made the breakthrough on 20 minutes, a short passage of end to end play was broken when Gazzaniga played a quick ball up to Moura, who battled in the air, resulting in Dele Alli having the time, and vision, to put Son through on goal. The Korean international made no mistake, finishing low into the corner past Petr Cech.

Tottenham were presented with another glorious opportunity soon after, a strong challenge by Moura on the edge of the box, Spurs broke away but Sissoko failed to find an ounce of composure, ballooning an effort over the bar.

Arsenal probed for an equaliser before half time, Ramsey had an effort tipped onto the post and Sokratis fired a header wide, but Arsenal found themselves 1-0 down going into the break.

Arsenal began the second half on top, Alex Iwobi grew into the game and became the main attacking outlet for Arsenal, the Nigerian wingers testing the Tottenham defence on occasions.

The managers then introduced more firepower to the mix, Arsenal opting for Alexandre Lacazette whilst Pochettino sent on Harry Kane.

It took just a minute for the latter to have the desired impact, lofting a ball over the defence for Dele Alli to latch onto, he delicately caressed the ball with the outside of his foot over the despairing Petr Cech to put Spurs 2-0 up.

The Arsenal substitute almost found an immediate response himself, striking the outside of the post, although VAR would have ruled it out in review for offside.

Frustrations grew amongst Arsenal fans, one launching a plastic bottle at Dele Alli, who calmly responded, signalling the 2-0 lead Spurs held to the area of fans above him.

The latter parts of the half petered out as both sides eased their way towards full time. The intensity dropped and the final ball lacked any real quality. Tottenham did everything they could to slow the game down.

The final whistle blew and the away support erupted with joy. Tottenham progress to the semi finals, where they will meet one of Manchester City, Chelsea or Burton Albion. Arsenal suffer back to back defeats and will look to get back to winning ways this weekend against strugglers Burnley.