The Gunners started the first half in lively fashion, but Spurs catch up with the pace and it is exciting end to end stuff for the first 20 minutes. Chances from both sides but Campbell doesn’t quite look up to speed as yet, but does earn some whining from Rose when his sleeve brushed his nose….
Halfway through the half our defence begins to look shaky and Spurs start to put us under the cosh, so it was not much of a surprise when Kane beat our offside trap to slot the ball past Cech. 1-0 to the Spuds!
More of the same for the rest of the half, and 10 mins before the break a frustrated Giroud looks lucky not to get a telling off for some off-the-ball antics with Vertonghen. Tottenham were really pushing for a second goal right to the end, and they came close a couple of times, so I was glad to hear the half-time whistle….
Cazorla looked out of sorts in the first half (or just knackered!) so Wenger decided to take him off, but I didn’t expect Flamini to be the replacement, although we could certainly do with some help in defence.
Tottenham go straight back on the attack and are really turning up the pressure, but Arsenal get the best chance of the first 20 minutes but Giroud somehow manages to turn his header past the post. Then spends the next five minutes with his head in his hands of course. This seems to galvanize Arsenal a little and Giroud misses another similar chance five minutes later, but Tottenham quickly take control again and are trying extremely hard to put the game to bed. Arsenal just seem to have lost their fire this evening, and Spurs look so much fitter despite having played on Thursday night.
Then comes a shock! Mesut Ozil sends a fabulous ball over the Spurs defence and Kieran Gibbs sneaks in at the far post and scores! 1-1 Game On!
Suddenly everything has changed and Arsenal begin to believe they can win it. They have made a massive turnaround and they have found their energy. Maybe they were saving it up all that time, but they are by far the most dangerous team coming up to the end. But no matter how much pressure the Spuds are holding them off, much like Arsenal did to them in the first period.
All in all it seems a fair result, as Arsenal were on the back foot for most of the game….
But look on the bright side, we are still joint top over the international break!