That’s all from me. I’ll be back later for West Ham v Newcastle. In the meantime, Barry Glendenning has the Clockwatch. Bye for now!
Harry Kane’s penalty and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s penalty miss ensured the spoils were shared in the north London derby
Updated
Sat 2 Mar 2019 09.48 EST
First published on Sat 2 Mar 2019 06.30 ESTKey events
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Key events
Unai Emery talks:
You prepare one match, thinking the best performance. After can happen different situations, issues on 90 minutes. The balance is we are I think fine in our way, today being competitive, adapting our performance against them. For us I think it’s good. Not the result because we can win. But because we can be stronger after that match, in our mentality for the next matches.
One month ago I said to everybody my opinion: VAR is coming to help the referees. It’s very difficult for the referees. To analyse with the TV is very easy. VAR I think will help them, and maybe today’s match would be different. But I understand it’s difficult for referees. But I like the manner of the referee today.
Here’s David Hytner’s match report from Wembley:
On the finest of margins can matches, and even seasons, turn. Tottenham were labouring against their bitter rivals, seemingly out of ideas against an Arsenal team that led through Aaron Ramsey and had executed Unai Emery’s gameplan to the letter.
Spurs were staring at a third consecutive Premier League defeat and the last time that happened was in 2012. The implications were grave. Mauricio Pochettino had conceded that the title was out of reach for his team after the losses at Burnley and Chelsea but another reverse would have imperilled their top-four hopes while simultaneously encouraging Arsenal. Then Christian Eriksen floated in a 73rd-minute free-kick and everything changed.
Much more here:
Harry Kane has a chat:
We came out in the second half fighting and deserved to get back into the game. Good tackles, good aggression, good pressing, and it looked like we were going to go on and get the second.
We’d had two disappointing results. It was a perfect game to get back and show the fans we’re ready to fight for the rest of the season. It’s a point, obviously we wanted three, but it stops the losing streak. We had to come out fighting and show what we were made of, and thankfully we did.
How did Vertonghen catch up with Aubameyang so quickly? Well, massive encroachment might have helped:
Vertonghen several yards inside the box when Auba takes the pen to get there for the second shot clearance. pic.twitter.com/vbfmsCMVRZ
— Ian Baldwin (@balders93) March 2, 2019
Vertonghen’s clearance from Aubameyang in the aftermath of Arsenal’s missed penalty was the moment of the match. Arsenal deserved to win that, I thought, but their manager’s gutsy team selection and the excellent motivation and organisation displayed by the players he chose will perhaps get forgotten because two wrong penalty decisions and a wrong red card decision will steal the headlines.
Final score: Tottenham 1-1 Arsenal
90+7 mins: And that’s it! Goals! Controversy! Penalties! Red cards! A long period in the middle without great drama or quality! It had the lot!
Torreira gets sent off!
94+5 mins: Torreira wins the ball just outside the area, but connects with Rose’s shin in his follow-through. It looked to me like an excellent challenge without nay malice but with an unfortunate collision at the end of it, but there are studs and legs involved, and the referee thinks it’s red-card-worthy!
90+3 mins: Aubameyang is played in down the right again, but Sanchez clears his attempted pass inside to Ozil.
90+3 mins: It was Vertonghen who got his foot to the ball after the penalty to deny Aubameyang a tap-in. Remarkable defending.
90+2 mins: There will be five minutes of stoppage time. Now Spurs have a free kick, 15 yards outside the area.
It's saved! And then another miss in the aftermath!
90+1 mins: Aubameyang’s penalty is rubbish, and easily saved by Lloris. He pushes it wide, and it’s sent back into the middle where Aubameyang seems certain to turn it in from a yard, only for Vertonghen to somehow conjure a clearance!
Arsenal have a penalty!
90 mins: Mkhitaryan turns into space on the halfway line and waits an age before playing in Aubameyang, who runs down the right side of the area where he is certainly touched by Davinson Sanchez but just as certainly didn’t need to go down. He did go down, though, and the referee points to the spot again!
88 mins: Vertonghen’s fine cross from the left is well cleared by Koscielny.
87 mins: Arsenal are slowing the game down now, happy with their point. Sokratis goes down under Kane’s challenge, and takes forever to get up.
84 mins: Koscielny loses a header to Llorente wins a header and gets caught in the face by a trailing arm. Llorente is slightly harshly booked.
84 mins: “Is it relevant that Kane was offside given that he was fouled before he could touch the ball?” wonders John Johnson. He’s offside as soon as he becomes active, which he does when he starts winning penalties.
83 mins: Tottenham have not drawn a league game for 11 months, since this game at Brighton. This is history in the making.
79 mins: Son, who has been isolated and quiet today, goes off and Llorente comes on.
77 mins: The linesman might have been unsighted, because there were about four other offside Tottenham players blocking his view of Kane standing offside.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-1 Arsenal (Kane, 74 mins)
That is undeserved on so many levels, but Tottenham are back in this game! Leno goes to his right, the ball goes to his left, and Kane is on the scoresheet again!
Tottenham have a penalty!
Big decision, this! Spurs have a free kick 50 yards out; Eriksen lifts it into the area where the fact that Kane is offside goes unspotted; Mustafi barges him in the back and the referee points to the spot!
72 mins: Mkhitaryan plays a pass into the path of Aubameyang and for an instant he looks set to hare down on goal, but Sissoko pops up to steal the ball away. Arsenal bring Özil on, replacing Ramsey.
71 mins: Özil is doing up his laces and preparing to come on.
@Simon_Burnton Couldn’t let it go.. No of players in the top 100, minutes played: Wolves 9, CrystalP&Chelsea 8, Liverpool&Watford 7, Leicester 6, ManC&Everton&Brighton&Bournemouth 5, WestH&ManU&Huddersfield&Cardiff&Burnley 4, Spurs&Fulham 3, Southhampton&Arsenal 2
— Sam (@Jebuco) March 2, 2019
68 mins: Chance for Spurs! But if falls to Rose! Lamela spots Rose free beyond the far post and crosses, Mkhitaryan misjudges his attempted header and misses it completely, but Rose’s poor chest control sends the ball bouncing towardsLeno, and in trying to get it back Rose flies into the keeper two-footed, with all his studs showing, and hits him in the chest. Rose is booked.
65 mins: Spurs are using the long ball a lot less in this half. This is helping them look less disjointed, but they are still failing to really stretch Arsenal’s defence. Lamela gives up on doing so, and shoots wide from 30 yards.
63 mins: Lamela wins the day’s second caution, for sliding in to collect the ball ignoring the fact that Xhaka was between him and it.
62 mins: Rose fouls Mkhitaryan on Arsenal’s right flank, and the free kick dips at the far post and just over the line before it’s headed back across goal.
59 mins: Tottenham take off Wanyama, who has been pretty hopeless, and bring on Lamela.
58 mins: Mkhitaryan wins the days first booking, for bringing down Kane.
56 mins: Arsenal make their second substitution. Lacazette, who attempted just five passes in the first half and has not been at his best, is replaced by Aubameyang.
55 mins: And a chance for Spurs! A free-kick from deep is lifted into the box, flicks off Mustafi’s head and lands with Alderweireld, just beyond the right-hand post, who volleys into the side netting!
53 mins: What a chance for Lacazette! Mkhitaryan passes to him in the area but though it briefly looks promising he can’t turn. Instead he goes back to Iwobi, and on to Monreal, whose pull-back finds Lacazette, now in space, but his first-time shot flies wide!
50 mins: Excellent work by Kane in the middle to keep the ball, and a fine pass to Trippier at the end of it, but his cross is terribly poor. Abysmal, really. Arsenal have a throw-in on the other flank.
48 mins: Trippier grabs Ramsey’s arm and won’t let go. Ramsey eventually goes to ground, presumably in an attempt to bring the referee’s attention to the offence, Trippier, by virtue of being attached to him, goes down too, and the referee gives Spurs a free kick.
46 mins: They’re off!
I tell a lie: Torreira has replaced Guendouzi for Arsenal.
The players are coming back out, with no obvious changes to either side.
“As well as looking fatigued Spurs also look to have lost some confidence in themselves in the last three games since Kane came back,” suggests Mike Nagle. “Could it be that rushing Kane back had a negative impact insofar as the team are waiting for Kane to produce his magic?” Possibly, but he doesn’t look particularly sub-par today. This game is being lost in midfield, mainly because Spurs don’t seem to have one.
“I don’t think having only 2 or 3 in the top 100 is that unusual,” says Hubert O’Hearn about the players with the most league minutes. “A perfectly even distribution among 20 teams would only indicate 5. None would be a M*A*S*H unit, 8 or more bottom table. For curiosity’s sake, who does have the most?”
Well, that would take a long time to work out. Looking at the other top six sides, Chelsea have seven players in the top 50, Manchester City have five of the top 100, Liverpool have seven of the top 100 and Manchester United have four.
Half time: Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal
45+2 mins: And that’s the last action of the half! Arsenal’s apparently underpowered team is defending superbly against a prosaic Tottenham side, and has grabbed a goal of their own on the break.
Half-time reading:
45+1 mins: Son’s ludicrous long-range left-footer flies high, and Pochettino storms off towards the changing room.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, of which there will me a rather meagre single minute.
44 mins: Fantastic double save from Leno! Kane curls a fabulous cross into the area for Eriksen, who really should have scored. Instead he hits Leno’s leg but the ball rebounds to Sissoko, whose drive towards an apparently empty net is thwarted by the grounded Leno throwing out his left hand!
