An improved Tottenham performance earns a B+ in north London derby

Aditya Devavrat 21:39 02/03/2019
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  • Tottenham escaped with a draw in the North London derby.

    A fiercely contested north London derby ended in a stalemate on Saturday as Harry Kane’s second-half penalty cancelled out Aaron Ramsey’s 16th-minute opener.

    It’s a first Premier League draw of the season for Tottenham, but having lost their last two games and gone behind at home in this one, the point will be a welcome one. For Arsenal, this was a blown opportunity, as a win would have brought them to within a point of their rivals.

    Here’s a look at how the teams fared.

    TWO GOOD

    Mkhitaryan’s good form continues

    Henrikh Mkhitaryan had two goals and three assists in his last two games, and the confidence he’s gained from that run of form was on show again on Saturday.

    It was his pass that led to Arsenal’s penalty, the second time he’d nearly contributed to a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goal, with the striker’s poor first touch wasting a superb pass from Mkhitaryan earlier in the game.

    But perhaps the most telling moment came in defence. Arsenal had a set-piece that came to nothing, and as Spurs broke it was the Armenian who covered almost the entire length of the pitch to put in a vital clearance in his own box.

    Somewhere, Jose Mourinho must be fuming.

    Trippier puts mistake behind him

    After Wednesday’s horror show against Chelsea, in which he slotted past his own goalkeeper, Kieran Trippier will have wanted to banish memories of that moment with a good performance here.

    Though he wasted a couple of opportunities in attack, producing poor crosses in situations where he usually does better, he was assured defensively. There was one moment where he headed back to Hugo Lloris and the Tottenham fans no doubt held their breaths for a second, but it was perfectly done.

    In general, the Englishman was solid defensively, winning six of his nine tackles and producing an error-free performance.

    TWO BAD

    Emery’s second-half substitutions

    In this season’s first north London derby, Unai Emery’s substitutions at half-time and in the second half changed the game, turning a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 win.

    This time, protecting a lead, Emery brought on Lucas Torreira for Matteo Guendozi at half-time and Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil for Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey later.

    But Aubameyang wasted one scoring chance, then missed a penalty. Torreira’s red card for a daft challenge at the end undid his good work. Ozil, meanwhile, barely got into the game.

    Son Heung-min goes missing

    Given the season he’s had, Son Heung-min can be forgiven one poor performance or two, but in a game like this, Tottenham would have expected one of their best players to step up.

    Instead, he was a peripheral figure. Well-marshaled by Arsenal’s usually flimsy defence, the Korean managed just one shot and one dribble. He linked up well with Christian Eriksen and Kane, but it wasn’t a surprise when Mauricio Pochettino chose him as the man to come off for Fernando Llorente.

    KEY MOMENTS

    3rd min – MISS: Lacazette finds himself unmarked in front of goal after Alex Iwobi’s deflected cross falls to him, but his volley is wide.

    16th min – GOAL: Poor defending from Davinson Sanchez allows Lacazette to slip the ball to the streaking Ramsey, who keeps his cool when through on goal to slot him the opener.

    22nd min – DISALLOWED GOAL: Kane buries a header from Eriksen’s free-kick, but the goal is rightly chalked off as the striker was marginally offside.

    44th min – SAVE: A stunning double save from Bernd Leno. Eriksen should have scored, firing straight at the Arsenal keeper after being found by a brilliant ball from Kane. But the save on the follow-up from Moussa Sissoko is even better.

    53rd min – CHANCE: Lacazette fluffs his lines again, firing wide of the target from Nacho Monreal’s cut-back when completely unmarked in the box.

    74th min – GOAL: Kane was fouled on a free-kick – though a penalty shouldn’t have been awarded, as he was offside in any case. No matter. The Tottenham talisman scored his ninth goal from nine North London derbies to bring Spurs level.

    90 + 1st min – PENALTY MISS: Having won a dubious penalty, Aubameyang stepped up with a chance to win the derby. Instead, his tame spot-kick allows Lloris to make the save, and a brilliant tackle denies him a tap-in on the rebound.

    90 + 4th min – RED CARD: Torreira goes in hard, high, and late on Danny Rose. The only thing okay with this tackle is that it wasn’t entirely two-footed. Rash and a deserved red card that means the midfielder will miss next week’s clash against Manchester United.

    GRADES

    Tottenham – B+: They missed a couple of good chances, were wrongly awarded a penalty, and saw a late Arsenal penalty – perhaps also wrongly awarded – saved. But this was an improvement from their two losses over the past week.

    Arsenal – B-: They’ll look back at the two missed chances by Lacazette, and of course Aubameyang’s missed penalty, in a game they probably should have won. But that penalty miss and Torreira’s late moment of madness marred their performance.

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