Soccer: Gunners fire back at Spurs' early lead to 3-goal pasting

Arsenal staged a magnificent fightback to thrash Tottenham 5-2 in the north London derby yesterday as Manchester United scrambled a last-gasp 2-1 win over Norwich.

Arsenal appeared to be hurtling towards a disastrous home defeat after an early Louis Saha strike and an Emmanuel Adebayor penalty fired Spurs into a 2-0 lead at the Emirates.

But two goals in three minutes from Bacary Sagna and captain Robin van Persie made it 2-2 before Arsenal cut loose in the second half with Tomas Rosicky and a double to Theo Walcott to finish a remarkable transformation.

At Carrow Rd, Ryan Giggs - playing in his 900th game for United - struck in the 90th minute to clinch a victory which saw them narrow Manchester City's lead to two points.

Elsewhere, Stoke recovered from their mid-week Europa League exit to sink Swansea with a 2-0 victory at the Britannia Stadium.

Arsenal's win eased the pressure on beleaguered manager Arsene Wenger, the team still reeling from a heavy Champions League defeat to AC Milan and an FA Cup exit at Sunderland.

The victory also denied Tottenham their first season double over Arsenal for 19 years, and moved Arsenal back into the Champions League qualification places ahead of Chelsea.

Tottenham claimed early bragging rights, but the game was transformed in three remarkable minutes shortly before half-time which saw Arsenal claw their way back to 2-2.

Sagna pulled the first goal back with a well-directed looping header from Mikel Arteta's cross on 40 minutes. Three minutes later captain van Persie equalised with a sublime individual effort, curling beyond Brad Friedel for 2-2.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp stiffened his midfield at half-time, replacing Saha with Sandro and introducing Rafael van der Vaart in place of Niko Kranjcar. But Rosicky still made it 3-2 on 51 minutes.

Arsenal maintained the onslaught and Walcott made it 4-2 on the counter-attack in the 65th minute, then bagged his second on 68 minutes.

Tottenham's misery was complete when Scott Parker was sent off for a second yellow card.

- AAP