A mental block and that formation
This was a Tottenham Hotspur team that contained a World Cup winner, a Champions League winner and a number of Champions League finalists, a Copa America winner, title winners in various leagues and players who had taken to the field in a European Championship final at Wembley just over a year ago.
Yet put them out on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, or even Stamford Bridge, and that goes out the window. Give them the Etihad or even Anfield pitch and they often won't wilt in the face of pressure but there's something about heading across London to those two grounds that makes any past experience and success dissolve.
There's a mental block for these games. One seems to be forming for the Gunners when they travel across north London and for Spurs when they step out at the Emirates Stadium the errors emerge from even the most experienced players. Tottenham have won just one of their past 30 matches at Arsenal, losing 18 of those games and without a win now in 12.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on Emerson Royal, red card, VAR and Tottenham's defeat at Arsenal
The formation did not help them, other than giving them the ability to sweep forward with numbers on a few occasions during the first half with a bright spell after Harry Kane's penalty - his 14th goal in 18 North London Derbies.
However, on the whole Arsenal were able to dominate possession and pin Spurs back in their own half and once again Tottenham's football failed to sparkle.
Switching to the 3-5-2 that Tottenham finished their win against Leicester with would have provided Antonio Conte's men with more strength through the middle at the Emirates Stadium and allowed him to have a Plan B from the bench in Richarlison.
However, any possibility of switching to that system became more difficult in the week as football.london understands Yves Bissouma was one of the group of players Conte said had returned from international duty with "physical problems".
The 26-year-old had only played 15 minutes of Mali's second match of the international break when the rain poured down and forced the game against Zambia to be abandoned. Despite that brief playing time, Bissouma returned with a small problem and was a doubt at one stage in the days before the game.
While he would eventually be fit enough for a place on the bench and came on late in the game at the Emirates Stadium, it meant Conte would not have been able to prepare properly for such a formation switch - if he had wanted to - unless he selected Oliver Skipp.
However, the 22-year-old had only just played his first competitive minutes in nine months for England U21s and to throw him into the starting line-up in such a North London Derby would have been a tough call.
Ultimately any formation is going to be undermined by mistakes. Aside from poor passing, Spurs were sloppy at the back.
For Arsenal's first goal, the midfield stood off Thomas Partey and allowed to him fire his shot from distance. For the second goal, it's unclear why the most experienced player on the pitch in Hugo Lloris felt it was a good idea to push Bukayo Saka's shot forward into the six-yard box and then fall over Cristian Romero's pass back with Gabriel Jesus lurking.
Lloris had made a few good saves beforehand in the game, carrying on from some top recent performances, but he spoilt it with that absent-minded moment and his distribution with his feet was also poor.
Then the third goal saw Gabriel Martinelli exploit the space left by Emerson's red card and Conte's lack of immediate substitution, with Eric Dier following the Brazilian's run rather than the ball, which was sitting at the feet of Granit Xhaka, who duly placed it in the bottom right corner.
"I spoke with the players and said to try and move on quickly because sometimes you have a strange game," said Conte afterwards. "I think today was a game that after the first half we felt the possibility to win the game because we had the chances that we should exploit much better.
"In the second half to concede the goal quickly and then the red card, the game changed totally. Now I think we have to move on and know we have to take the positivity of this game. Also we have to try and improve the situation that cost us defeat. We have to prepare for the next game, in only three days we have to play against Frankfurt and this has to be a big push."
Attacking woes and injuries
Without Dejan Kulusevski, Conte went with the familiar 3-4-3 and the in-form Richarlison. However, that formation requires the creative talents of Kulusevski. The Swede missed the game after feeling a tightness in his hamstring following his 90 minutes for his country in midweek.
The 22-year-old can create something out of nothing for his team-mates. He told football.london in pre-season that his favoured role is as a number 10 and he brings that playmaking ability to his wide play, constantly looking to create for those around him.
Without him, a front three of Son Heung-min, Kane and Richarlison lack the missing link. Son and Richarlison play a direct game rather than a creative one. Them both playing normally forces Kane deeper to become a creator, but his instructions against Arsenal seemed to be to stay further up the pitch as a focal point.
That may have partly been fitness-related with Conte wanting less kilometres in the bank for Kane as it's difficult to see when he's going to get rested in the early games of this current run.
With Kane further up the turf, the need to make through passes fell to Son and Richarlison and both struggled to regularly find the target man with them, often overhitting their efforts. Both did deliver one key pass apiece but the South Korean's pass success rate was 71.4% and the Brazilian's lower at 70.6%. In contrast, Kane's was 84.6%.
"If I have to complain, it's especially for the first half. In the first half we felt the possibility to win the game," said Conte. "We had a lot of chances and to exploit much better the situation.
"Every time we played we overcome the pressure and we had a lot of space and many times we made a mistake in the last pass. For this reason the game was in balance after the first half.
"Then the second half, we started and we conceded the second goal and we can do much better, but in every situation. When you concede a goal you can always do better, in the first goal as well and the third goal. After a few minutes the red card killed the game totally."
Conte will hope that Kulusevski is back soon, but he is concerned about Lucas Moura's injury. The 30-year-old has not featured for Spurs since August, having suffered inflammation in his tendon, leaving Conte without the experienced attacker in the Premier League and Champions League. Lucas has had good and bad days with the pain, but was on the way back and had trained most of this week after seeming to have recovered during the international break.
However, in training ahead of the North London Derby, football.london understands that Lucas suffered a setback on the pitches at Spurs' Hotspur Way training complex. The Brazilian has since been unable to train and Conte is concerned over when he might be available for selection again, particularly during this frantic run of 13 matches in 43 days ahead of the winter World Cup, a run of games that began with Saturday's 3-1 defeat at Arsenal.
"You know very well that now we have to play every three days. We have to move on and we have to hope we don't have any more injuries. Today [Dejan] Kulusevski was out, Moura I'm really worried because he's really far to recover," Conte said in his post-match interview with SpursPlay.
"When you have injuries up front then you are in a bit of trouble. It's important also to recover Ben Davies and fingers crossed not have other situations because for this reason I always say you need a big squad to fight and to go and win something. You can see this when you start to play every two to three days.
"If the squad is really strong, it's deep to face all these competitions. I repeat, we do our best and we will continue to do this and now we have to move on quickly and on Tuesday it's an important game for us.
"We are playing in the Champions League. In the last season with two games to go we overcame Arsenal and Arsenal is playing the Europa League and we are playing Champions League. We have to take also the positives from this game and understand that we need to work and try to improve."
That Emerson moment and Conte's rage
Before that red card moment, Emerson Royal had delivered a trademark performance. He had defended well on the whole, including a couple of good moments of anticipation in the Spurs box.
Going forward he had struggled whenever the ball came his way, other than one dangerous first half ball hit across the six-yard box. Nobody was in that space but that was more their fault than his. However, a corner was as usual the best case scenario when he attacked down the right.
It was reported this week that Emerson and his management team, coordinated by his father Emerson Zulu, have spent £800,000 on trying to help his game, including a hyperbaric chamber to aid his post-game recovery and working with a neuroscientist to help cope with the psychological pressures of being an elite athlete.
A personal scouting report of Achraf Hakimi was commissioned by his father so Emerson could study the attacking game of a player who had shone under Conte as a wing-back.
While it's testament to Emerson's desire to improve that he has invested so much time and money, the attacking improvements have not arrived as of yet. His opening day assist, a short pass back for Kulusevski to curl home against Southampton, remains his only one of the season.
His moment of madness at the Emirates Stadium came in the opposition half on Saturday with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg shepherding Martinelli back down the touchline when suddenly, out of nowhere, Emerson sprinted in and clattered his compatriot, just above his left ankle, with his studs.
Hojbjerg wheeled around to Emerson with his arms outstretched, asking why he had come in and launched into such a needless challenge. That was nothing though compared to Conte who was furious in his technical area with the foul given away when the Arsenal player was heading back towards Richarlison and a crowded portion of the pitch.
Little did they realise that the referee Anthony Taylor was going to brandish his red card for the tackle. The challenge in truth deserved something between a yellow and a red - an orange if you will - but VAR clearly had no issue with the referee's decision because Emerson headed straight off down the tunnel.
His absence left a gaping hole down his flank for the next few minutes as Conte seemed to take an age to make any changes, first looking to bring Ryan Sessegnon on and then later changing his mind to bring four substitutes on.
In the mean time, five minutes went by between Emerson's red card and Xhaka scoring Arsenal's third. It took another four minutes for the changes to be made.
Conte seemed to indicate that he and his coaches could not work out a way to adjust the starting system into a 10-man side.
"It was difficult after the red card, especially because in the starting XI we played with the three strikers in Sonny, Kane and Richarlison and also Perisic that is a wing-back but an offensive one," he said.
"When you remain with the 10 men and you stay 2-1 down, it's not simple because you have to cut strikers and try to find again the best balance with 10 men and then try to have counter-attacks and set pieces, to reach a draw.
"In this period they scored a third goal and before to make substitutions it was really, really difficult. I think that the red card killed the game."
Conte then wheeled out that old classic of a manager saying he's not going to comment about a referee's decision only to pretty much spend the rest of the press conference doing that indirectly or directly.
"Honestly, I always have said in the past that I don't like to comment on refereeing decisions. I comment on the VAR decision because I think without the monitor and the video it is really really difficult to get the best decision," he said.
"About the referee decision I think that I don't want to comment. There are images and I think everybody can think what is the best decision but I don't want to comment on this. Maybe if I have to repeat some yellow card in the first half that maybe the referee can use much more than the yellow card in the first half for somebody."
He added: "Honestly, I don't know what happens later, but in England I have to be honest, it is very difficult because there isn't the same line. Sometimes you see a situation that could be a red card instead is a yellow card or no yellow card, sometimes you see a situation that is a yellow card and you see a red card.
"They have to work a lot about this. In Italy, they go on Thursday and stay together for three days to work together, to look at the video and try and improve. I don't know if they do that in this country but it would be a good idea because the level is so high and we need the level of the referee and VAR the same. The Premier League is a really high level and for this reason every part of this situation has to be top."
football.london asked Conte about Emerson's decision to make the challenge in the first place.
"Honestly, for sure the player is frustrated because he knows what happened, he knows the difficulty we had after the red card," said Conte. "It can happen. Emerson is a young player, he is only 23, I think he has to try and exploit this situation to be better and in the next situation avoid totally the tackle. Honestly, the player was really surprised, not only him, but all of the players."
What next for Conte and his team selections
The fallout from this match is that Conte will be forced to try other options in the right wing-back spot for at least three matches in the Premier League.
Those angry Tottenham fans desperate for an immediate change might be disappointed because Emerson will be available for the Champions League match at Frankfurt. Conte could decide to select the Brazilian one more time rather than use another player who then might not be able to play again so quickly at Brighton.
Conte's pecking order of options for the right wing-back slot appears to be Ivan Perisic, Matt Doherty, any winger who can fill in there at a push and then if everyone else is injured and Fraser Forster won't go there perhaps that young Djed Spence chap will have to play.
It feels like Conte trusts Ryan Sessegnon - the same age as Spence - more than any of his back-up options on the right and that means shifting Perisic, who is right-footed but is comfortable with either foot, over to that other flank. However, he can't keep playing the 33-year-old Croatian in every match only in different positions.
If his three-game ban stands Emerson will miss the games at Brighton, Everton at home and Manchester United away, but will be available for both Champions League matches against Frankfurt. It is only the Everton and United double header that does not have a European game in between.
Could Conte relent and use Spence in the home game and the more experienced Doherty or Perisic at Old Trafford?
The Spence situation is a frustrating one for the fans. Conte is right that he's inexperienced in top flight football, but his performances in the FA Cup last season against Leicester, Arsenal and Liverpool showed a player more than comfortable in that company.
With Conte being so honest about Bissouma struggling to adapt to his demands, could it be that he is seeing similar from Spence in training? He does after all trust Sessegnon and Oliver Skipp - both the same age and Spence's England U21 team-mates.
A Conte wing-back brings with it one of the most demanding job descriptions in the game, taking on a lot of instructions allied with the need to be a full-back in one moment and a winger and auxiliary striker in the next, constantly on the move up and down the pitch.
Spence is an exciting wing-back. His performance against Italy for England's U21s last week provided a timely reminder of his pace, skill and physicality with his height and he's a solid defender to boot.
Whatever Conte's reservations about Spence's inexperience, he could do a lot worse than at the least giving the 22-year-old minutes here and there in the games ahead to hasten his adaptation. He might just like what he sees, even though it will only increase the fans' clamour for him to start.
Spence is not the only youngster stuck in limbo at Tottenham for Bryan Gil was the sole attacker on Tottenham's bench on Saturday although he might as well have been a cardboard cut-out.
Conte has already made his opinion clear on the 21-year-old Spaniard's unsuitability for the Premier League, which makes the decision to keep him this season and not action his loan to Valencia in the summer all the more bizarre.
Gil is a talent, regardless of his physicality at this age, but he will not develop without football. It's difficult to understand why even a cheap temporary option was not found to fill his space on the bench for this season.
Even Adama Traore, not exactly the greatest advert for end product, could have suited the job in creating some chaos from the bench for opposition defenders.
The 26-year-old is a bit-part player for Wolves in the final year of his contract and his fee would surely not have been much. Spurs' managing director of football Fabio Paratici is a fan of Traore, having offered big money for him while at Juventus.
Spurs were looking for late winger additions in the window and the new change in the homegrown rule to include players who developed in the Welsh system led them to Leeds' Dan James.
Conte was understood to be open to the move for the 24-year-old and football.london understands the Spurs head coach had even asked some of his players for further opinions on the former Manchester United winger.
In the end the deal never progressed and James went to Fulham on a season-long loan with more regular football on offer than he likely would have got at Tottenham. Gil was left to warm that seat on the bench instead at least until he can try again to escape for minutes in January.
In the end, while Spurs have failed to click so far this season, it's important to remember that Saturday's defeat was their first in the Premier League this campaign.
That they still amassed the points during this period and will remain in third place after this weekend will provide a strong foundation for when they do find their rhythm, while most other teams will lose more than one game when they are off-key.
This run of games before the World Cup will bring out the emotions in Conte. He clearly doesn't trust his full squad so does not rotate much, yet in the same breath keeps mentioning how the big teams have big squads to take on every competition.
He will have to change up his team selections during this flood of matches and if the incoming players do "drop the level", as he calls it, then Conte is going to make a lot of noise about it to show he should have been given more during the transfer window. It's certainly going to be an interesting couple of months ahead for Tottenham Hotspur.
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