Toby: "We showed passion, character, that we really want it"

Toby Alderweireld already knew what it was like to score in a north London derby – now he knows what it’s like to score the winner!

The Belgium defender is well aware what this fixture means after five years and now 198 appearances for us in all competitions. That first derby goal came in his first season, 2015/16, when his first four goals for us in the Premier League were against City, Arsenal, West Ham and United - what a quartet!

He’s now arguably topped the lot by glancing home Heung-Min Son’s corner nine minutes from time to secure a valuable 2-1 win as we chase European qualification. Sonny earlier levelled Alexandre Lacazette’s opener in the first half.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Toby. “It was a great corner from Sonny, and I was lucky to head the ball well. Unfortunately, there are no fans to celebrate with, but I’m very pleased.

“I thought we started very well, then we had to show character. We know there is some negativity about us everywhere but today we showed we have character, passion, that we really want it.

“People don’t see how much passion we bring every day to the training pitch to try to improve. Today, it was a very good goal from them, but we showed character to come back quickly and get the three points, massively important for us.”

We remain hot on the heels of Wolves and Sheffield United in sixth and seventh, with three matches remaining this season - Newcastle away on Wednesday (6pm), Leicester in our final home game on Sunday (19 July, 4pm) and the season finale at Palace on Sunday 26 July (4pm).

Toby added: “Defensively, we are improving a lot, so that’s important. Then you have criticism about not having a shot on goal at Bournemouth, but today we had nine, and we hit the woodwork.

“We need momentum, some luck to come our way as well and the only thing we can do is work hard. I put my heart into it, everyone works so hard and if you have a game like today, it’s so positive.”