Long after the final whistle had blown on a chilly night, the Arsenal supporters located in one corner of Tottenham’s south stand could be heard singing loudly and lustily. Some went overboard, getting into scuffles with stewards and ripping up hoardings, but many caused no harm and were simply delighted to have got one over the enemy. In the process, they also saw the birth of a new club hero.

Well, new-ish, given the man who ultimately decided this north London derby is a 31-year-old midfielder who up until Wednesday night appeared to have well and truly run out of steam in his second spell at Arsenal.

Mathieu Flamini was finished, so out of contention that he was occasionally training on his own at the club’s London Colney base. But he kept working, kept believing, and in the fixture which matters like no other for Arsenal, made a return that will echo through their history.

Arsenal’s Mathieu Flamini rediscovers scoring flair to down Tottenham Read more

Yes it was only the Capital One Cup, but this was still Tottenham at the Lane and by scoring two goals, one of them a volley that took the breath away, Flamini ensured his status as a player some Arsenal supporters will tell their children about, especially those who were here to witness his feat in the flesh, with one of them also getting hold of the goalscorer’s shirt after he threw it into the jubilant away end at full-time.

It was a grand gesture from a man who, by his own admission, came into this contest with a point to prove. Having given Arsenal much needed bite and experience upon his return from Milan in August 2013, Flamini found himself increasingly pushed towards the fringes. Once crucial to Arsène Wenger’s plans, particularly during his first period at the club, from 2004-2008, the Frenchman had not played a single minute of football prior to this contest. His return here came as a surprise, as did his ultimate contribution.

“You don’t expect Mathieu Flamini to score two goals,” Wenger said. “He has worked hard and I have seen in training that he has been focused, so I decided to play him.

“I said to Mathieu at the start of the season that it would be difficult for him [to play regularly] but he wanted to stay and I’m happy he did because he’s a fighter and a winner.” Those qualities were certainly evident here as Flamini combined his usual ruggedness with an out-of-nowhere display of potency and panache.

Lined up alongside another veteran midfielder in Mikel Arteta, Flamini looked to cover as much ground as his legs would allow him, closing down space and make life as uncomfortable as possible for those in white and blue, no one more so than Danny Rose, who was on the end of an eye-watering tackle from Arsenal’s No20 on 37 minutes. Rose’s rosebuds came under severe danger and Flamini was rightly booked for his troubles.

But either side of that tackle came the moments that Flamini’s performance here will be truly remembered for.

His first goal came on 26 minutes, a close-range shot after Michel Vorm had failed to keep hold of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s long-range effort. It was a straightforward finish but also Flamini’s reward for having run into the area when many other players, defensive midfielders especially, would have stayed back.

Flamini appeared freed by Arteta’s presence, aware he could join Arsenal’s attack and not leave them wholly outnumbered in the centre of the pitch.

And when he did so again on 78 minutes, magic happened.

Arsenal were being made to retreat by a Spurs team buoyed by Calum Chambers’ 56th-minute own goal. The last thing that looked on was a winner for the visitors, but then Alexis Sánchez’s pass was spooned into the air by Federico Fazio, the ball dropped back to earth and Flamini, lurking by the edge of the Spurs area, was on hand to hit it first-time and flush past Vorm’s grasp. Cue shock and awe among the majority in attendance.

Whether this display will be enough for Flamini to keep his place in Arsenal’s team for their Premier League visit to Leicester on Saturday is unknown. At times on Wednesday night, and particularly as Spurs cranked up the pressure during the second half, he looked unable to keep up with the pace of the contest. But his battling qualities shone through, and for sure his chances of playing for a second successive match have been raised by the knee injury Francis Coquelin sustained in last Saturday’s defeat at Chelsea.



But even if he is left out and pushed back into the shadows once more, Flamini can always look back at this match as the moment he rose from the dead and etched his name in Gunners folklore. A derby hero of the most unlikely kind, and a point well and truly proven.

