Spurs were responsible for both goals as Arsenal miss their chance to go top of the league. Craig Burley gives player ratings for both Arsenal and Spurs after a contentious North London Derby.
LONDON -- It was a north London derby that neither side could win and as highly entertaining as this 1-1 at the Emirates was, it merely created more debate as to whether either of these sides can actually win the league. In that tense, it was a strange game in that sense, one that merely maintained the status quo.
At 1-0 up, Arsenal both blew the chance to beat an ailing Tottenham Hotspur and the chance to stay joint top of the league. The fact they could have sent their closest rivals into something of a crisis only deepens the sense of missed opportunity since a home win would have inflicted Spurs' first league defeat of the season.
Mauricio Pochettino's side are instead still unbeaten after a tough game, and that is why it doesn't feel like it matters as much that they have now gone seven without a win in all competitions. It does make it 19 draws since the start of 2015-16, however, more than anyone in the Premier League from that time. That trait is undeniably why they did not win the title last season, and Pochettino was fairly asked after this game whether they are "ruthless" enough. Once the returning Harry Kane had made it 1-1 from the penalty spot, both the English star and Christian Eriksen squandered chances to make it 2-1.
The Spurs boss understandably tried to reframe it. "But you know, all teams have good and bad moments over the course of the season. If you have bad moments, as we have had this month, and you are still unbeaten... all I can do is smile. I'm happy."
That mood is precisely why it feels the biggest take-home from this game is about Arsenal rather than Spurs. Arsene Wenger even came right out and said as much. After Pochettino had declared his satisfaction with the afternoon, the Arsenal manager admitted his frustration. He acknowledged it was two points dropped and that is hard to dispute.
At half-time, Arsenal had their great rivals right where they wanted them. They had overcome Spurs' surprise tactical adjustment to a three-man defence, and were repeatedly exposing Kevin Wimmer at the centre of that backline. The Austrian was repeatedly struggling with the rapid breaks of Alexis Sanchez.
"In the first half, we always looked like we could score every time we crossed the half-way line," Wenger said."
When their goal eventually came, there was a lot of argument over the fact that Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny had crossed Spurs' defensive line to go offside. The linesman kept his flag down, though, and Wimmer could only slump the ground as the panic he felt with every Arsenal attack culminated in a misjudged header that went into his own goal.
At that point, it looked very good for Arsenal and very bad for Spurs. It was also difficult to know where Pochettino would go next. He had already tried a big tactical trump card from the start of the game in switching to three at the back, and they didn't exactly have many attacking options from the bench. So he just dug in and leaned on the mentality he has instilled in this team.
Arsenal and Spurs gave as good as they got but the 1-1 draw left both sides feeling slightly dissatisfied.
"We tried to give confidence and trust in the way we were playing at half-time," Pochettino said. "Why change? Why try to fix anything but small details? When you concede a goal it's difficult to come back into the game, and it's true we suffered, but we started the second half very well. The moment to win the penalty was fantastic, and then it was an open game."
That is equally hard to dispute, as is Pochettino's description of Mousa Dembele as a "genius." He is certainly one of the key difference-makers for Spurs, with the way he takes control of a game; Sunday was no different as he took the initiative. His run brought the foul that allowed Kane to score from the spot.
It was symbolic that they were involved in that equaliser together given there had been such doubt about their fitness before the game. Pochettino had been asked whether it was a gamble to start them but dismissed it, saying they had been assessed every day.
Previous Tottenham sides would have lost this game and the stats almost prove it. Consider this: whatever you think about about Spurs' winless run right now, Wenger still hasn't beaten Pochettino in five games in the league. This is also the longest he has gone without beating the White Hart Lane side since taking the job in Sept. 1996. It is also the longest Arsenal have gone without a league win against Spurs since the matches between Dec. 1993 and Apr. 1996, the spell just before Wenger took over.
You could say, therefore, that these shifts in results mark benchmarks between different eras of the grander north London rivalry: the pre-Wenger days and then the spell since Pochettino's appointment. That feels a little premature, however, since four of those five games have been draws. But it does sum up where these teams are right now: Spurs can get to a certain level, but can't quite overtake Arsenal to really seize it. Meanwhile Arsenal can get to a certain level, but can't quite overtake the top sides to really seize the initiative.
It is like Zeno's paradox of the frog: always getting closer but just never getting there. One of them needs to break that and do something new. Instead, from Wenger, we heard something so old that it was almost self-caricature.
"Was there a mental blow when they equalised?" he asked, as if almost doing a Wenger parody. "I don't know."
Right now, we do know these are both good progressive teams that should be greatly respected by everyone else. But we don't know whether they are any closer to reaching their big, elusive targets.
LONDON -- It was a north London derby that neither side could win and as highly entertaining as this 1-1 at the Emirates was, it merely created more debate as to whether either of these sides can actually win the league. In that tense, it was a strange game in that sense, one that merely maintained the status quo.
At 1-0 up, Arsenal both blew the chance to beat an ailing Tottenham Hotspur and the chance to stay joint top of the league. The fact they could have sent their closest rivals into something of a crisis only deepens the sense of missed opportunity since a home win would have inflicted Spurs' first league defeat of the season.
Mauricio Pochettino's side are instead still unbeaten after a tough game, and that is why it doesn't feel like it matters as much that they have now gone seven without a win in all competitions. It does make it 19 draws since the start of 2015-16, however, more than anyone in the Premier League from that time. That trait is undeniably why they did not win the title last season, and Pochettino was fairly asked after this game whether they are "ruthless" enough. Once the returning Harry Kane had made it 1-1 from the penalty spot, both the English star and Christian Eriksen squandered chances to make it 2-1.
The Spurs boss understandably tried to reframe it. "But you know, all teams have good and bad moments over the course of the season. If you have bad moments, as we have had this month, and you are still unbeaten... all I can do is smile. I'm happy."
That mood is precisely why it feels the biggest take-home from this game is about Arsenal rather than Spurs. Arsene Wenger even came right out and said as much. After Pochettino had declared his satisfaction with the afternoon, the Arsenal manager admitted his frustration. He acknowledged it was two points dropped and that is hard to dispute.
At half-time, Arsenal had their great rivals right where they wanted them. They had overcome Spurs' surprise tactical adjustment to a three-man defence, and were repeatedly exposing Kevin Wimmer at the centre of that backline. The Austrian was repeatedly struggling with the rapid breaks of Alexis Sanchez.
"In the first half, we always looked like we could score every time we crossed the half-way line," Wenger said."
When their goal eventually came, there was a lot of argument over the fact that Sanchez and Laurent Koscielny had crossed Spurs' defensive line to go offside. The linesman kept his flag down, though, and Wimmer could only slump the ground as the panic he felt with every Arsenal attack culminated in a misjudged header that went into his own goal.
At that point, it looked very good for Arsenal and very bad for Spurs. It was also difficult to know where Pochettino would go next. He had already tried a big tactical trump card from the start of the game in switching to three at the back, and they didn't exactly have many attacking options from the bench. So he just dug in and leaned on the mentality he has instilled in this team.
Arsenal and Spurs gave as good as they got but the 1-1 draw left both sides feeling slightly dissatisfied."We tried to give confidence and trust in the way we were playing at half-time," Pochettino said. "Why change? Why try to fix anything but small details? When you concede a goal it's difficult to come back into the game, and it's true we suffered, but we started the second half very well. The moment to win the penalty was fantastic, and then it was an open game."
That is equally hard to dispute, as is Pochettino's description of Mousa Dembele as a "genius." He is certainly one of the key difference-makers for Spurs, with the way he takes control of a game; Sunday was no different as he took the initiative. His run brought the foul that allowed Kane to score from the spot.
It was symbolic that they were involved in that equaliser together given there had been such doubt about their fitness before the game. Pochettino had been asked whether it was a gamble to start them but dismissed it, saying they had been assessed every day.
Previous Tottenham sides would have lost this game and the stats almost prove it. Consider this: whatever you think about about Spurs' winless run right now, Wenger still hasn't beaten Pochettino in five games in the league. This is also the longest he has gone without beating the White Hart Lane side since taking the job in Sept. 1996. It is also the longest Arsenal have gone without a league win against Spurs since the matches between Dec. 1993 and Apr. 1996, the spell just before Wenger took over.
You could say, therefore, that these shifts in results mark benchmarks between different eras of the grander north London rivalry: the pre-Wenger days and then the spell since Pochettino's appointment. That feels a little premature, however, since four of those five games have been draws. But it does sum up where these teams are right now: Spurs can get to a certain level, but can't quite overtake Arsenal to really seize it. Meanwhile Arsenal can get to a certain level, but can't quite overtake the top sides to really seize the initiative.
It is like Zeno's paradox of the frog: always getting closer but just never getting there. One of them needs to break that and do something new. Instead, from Wenger, we heard something so old that it was almost self-caricature.
"Was there a mental blow when they equalised?" he asked, as if almost doing a Wenger parody. "I don't know."
Right now, we do know these are both good progressive teams that should be greatly respected by everyone else. But we don't know whether they are any closer to reaching their big, elusive targets.
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