Arsenal lost yesterday’s North London Derby to Tottenham yesterday, but on harsh terms. Spurs took a 2-0 home win on Sunday to end all hopes of a 22nd consecutive St Totteringham’s Day celebration, thanks to goals from Dele Alli and Harry Kane.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes things could have gone differently had his side not been killed off by the penalty, in which he believes Harry Kane dived to earn.
Asked whether he thought Kane had dived, Wenger said: “Yes. We conceded straight away a soft penalty and the 2-0 was a shock.
“You could see we were affected by that and Spurs looked more dangerous than before.
“We did lose the game in a very quick space of time, and after that it took us time to recover.”
The loss now means that Arsenal can no longer finish above their noisy neighbours for the first time in forever, and Spùrs fans celebrated such a fact.
The win also keeps Tottenham’s Premier League title hopes alive, with them keeping within four points of leaders Chelsea, with four matches left to play.
Luckily for us, both Manchester United and Manchester City could only muster draws against relegation-threatened Swansea City and Middlesbrough, meaning we didn’t lose much ground in our bid to reach the top four, and with United set to take us on next weekend, shortly after their crucial Europa League semi-final first-leg, and then the following week they have to face the Spuds after the second leg.
It’s weird to want Spurs to win a game, but our need for a top-four finish is our new objective, and them beating United will give us a boost. We will still have to rely on Liverpoòl and City to drop more points, but that is not unlikely given most of our rivals’ form of late.
Could we have gotten back into the game without the dive penalty shout? Can we still reach the top four?
Pat J