Fourteen minutes into the north London derby on Sunday, Destiny Udogie flew into a tackle on Bukayo Saka.
It was a genuine attempt to win the ball, but it was late and an obvious yellow card.
For the next 75 minutes, Udogie had to face arguably the in-form winger in the Premier League in the knowledge that another foul could be the end of his match. After Tottenham team-mate Emerson Royal’s daft dismissal in this same fixture last season, it seemed history might be about to repeat itself.
Instead, against the odds, Udogie was still on the pitch at the final whistle. Not only does that mean Udogie avoided a second booking, it tells us head coach Ange Postecoglou didn’t summon Ben Davies from the bench and take the young Italian out of the line of fire.
Considering his early struggles, how did Udogie and Spurs do it?
First, Tottenham approached the task of stopping Saka as a team. Even before Udogie’s early booking, Brennan Johnson knew that Saka was a serious threat and when the Arsenal danger man received possession, he often got back into positions to prevent him from cutting inside.
He can’t permanently be in that position, however, so Johnson’s job wasn’t to drop back on top of Saka, nor was it to be primarily concerned with Ben White.
Instead, Johnson was always checking over his shoulder and positioning himself to cut off diagonal balls out to Saka. Here’s one early example — Oleksandr Zinchenko should be capable of lifting this pass over Johnson, but he misplays it and the young Welshman intercepts.
Arsenal centre-back William Saliba also had problems — again, there’s no reason he can’t play this ball past Johnson — but he somehow miscues it into touch.
And here, Saliba does what Zinchenko did earlier. Seemingly caught in two minds about whether to play the ball out to White or Saka, he hits it straight to Johnson and Tottenham can relieve the pressure.
This is a very basic thing, but it repeatedly prevented Saka from dribbling at Udogie.
When Johnson wasn’t on hand to help out, Yves Bissouma was effective at moving across from his holding midfield position to close down. This left Martin Odegaard free, but centre-back Micky van de Ven knew the Norwegian then became his man.
Here, both Johnson and Bissouma move across to discourage Saka from dribbling at Udogie.
However, the complication — and the opening goal — came when White became involved in an attacking sense.
He only overlapped three times all game but, just like in the corresponding fixture last season when his sudden bursts on the outside effectively won the game for Arsenal, his run proved crucial here. With White going on the outside of Saka, Johnson diligently sprints back with him…
… but the problem is that White’s run distracts Udogie, too. At this point, the Italian is perfectly placed to stop Saka from coming inside, in a position roughly in line with the far post…
… but Saka uses White’s overlapping run to check inside into space. Johnson has gone too far with White and Udogie has also taken two steps backwards. White has occupied two opponents and Saka’s shot deflects in off Cristian Romero.
At this point, it felt like Arsenal were in charge and would win the game down that flank, but Udogie showed great discipline throughout the rest of the afternoon.
Here, he outmuscles Declan Rice to win possession.
On the stroke of half-time, there was an interesting incident because it was almost identical to that earlier booking. Udogie seems to be steaming into the challenge…
… but he stops a couple of yards short. Saka, putting his body in the way and anticipating contact and getting his opponent in trouble again, almost forgets about the need to control the ball, taking a heavy touch.
From there, Udogie initially manages to get his body in front of the ball…
… before Saka fights back; Udogie again resists making a challenge…
… and eventually gets a toe to the ball, winning possession for his team.
This is something Udogie continued to do excellently.
Saka kept trying to stand him up in the hope of luring him into a tackle before speeding away…
… but Udogie stayed on his feet and concentrated on nicking the ball from him.
Equally important was the fact that, in keeping with Spurs’ proactive, attack-minded nature overall, Udogie continued to push forward.
Look at him here, pressing goalkeeper David Raya. He’s almost in the Arsenal six-yard box.
Later, with Spurs building an attack, Udogie is almost positioned like a second striker (highlighted by the white dot in the next screengrab), with Saka (red dot) now being forced to tuck in and defend.
Arsenal, meanwhile, probably didn’t attack Udogie enough.
Here’s Zinchenko in possession, looking up and seeing Saka flying forward into space to his right, with Udogie (white dot) a little too narrow. But look at Odegaard, who is in the inside-right position on the halfway line. He’s gesturing for Zinchenko — and the team — to calm down, to slow the tempo. Zinchenko instead turns inside.
Four seconds later, he’s still working out which pass to play. In these situations, perhaps Arsenal could have been snappier.
Johnson continues trying to help out Udogie, although on this occasion he sprints back with White and seems to pull his hamstring…
… but the impressive Bissouma is, as ever, on hand to move across and support his left-back…
… and knows to hold his position on the inside, forcing Saka to pass to the raiding White. His ball is overhit though and runs out for a goal kick.
But the greatest praise should be reversed for Udogie, who eventually did commit a second foul on Saka — an awkward challenge having stumbled when battling with Odegaard in the 89th minute.
By that point, the game had calmed down and that individual duel was a distant memory — the crowd almost forgot to appeal for a second yellow.
At the time of Udogie’s first foul on Saka, if you’d been told there would be a further six bookings in the match and seven substitutions, you’d have got long odds on none of either involving the Tottenham left-back.
But after his early wobbles, this was an excellent recovery from a talented young player, which justified Postecoglou’s show of faith in sticking with him.
