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It was another anaemic showing by the Lilywhites against a lass than
red-bloodied Arsenal, but a cracker from Jermaine Jenas with almost the
last kick of the game earned Spurs a point that they did not deserve.
For those who had castigated Jenas for his
performance, it was ironic that they were dancing up and down as he
salvaged a point with a crisp low drive into Lehmann's bottom right hand
corner out of the reach of the obnoxious German keeper. That gave
me a double reason to be happy. One, Jermaine deserves to be
recognised as the goal-scoring midfielder we have been seeking for some
time. He needs to sharpen up his passing, but his energy on and
off the ball is outstanding, while he is a player who does not hide and
will always try to spark Tottenham to go forward. Secondly, it was
the goalkeeper that the shot beat that was an ironic schadenfreude as he
is the most objectionable of all the Arse players. His booking for
elbowing Berbatov in the head must have made the Bulgarian thought he
was seeing things, when he also got a yellow ... for being elbowed in
the head !
But there was much to this London derby
than the last minute, although for those Spurs who stayed to the end,
the last seconds will live long in the memory.
With a quick start and Berba taking a
sloppy Gallas back-header down before trying to lift over the Arsenal
keeper, who clattered him on the way through. With just seconds on
the clock, the lob bounced a yard wide. Jermaine Jenas hit a
free-kick that caused Lehmann few problems and then Tainio delivered a
fine pass forward to Berbatov, who won a corner, which was cleared for
another, but it came to nothing. Zokora showed while he has yet to
ripple the net for Tottenham, as he worked a good position and then
crashed his shot a long way wide. The Ivory Coast midfielder was
making some penetrative runs into Arsenal's last third and causing the
defenders to bring him down.
Just after the ten minute mark had been
passed, Ljungberg flicked the ball past the Tottenham defence and
Adebayor fired his shot past Robinson, but the linesman's flag was held
aloft long before the Togolese striker got to the ball. The top
rows of the Paxton cowered in fear as Ljungberg ran onto Adebayor's pass
and hit it so high over the bar that it is the closest to launching it
out of the ground for some while.
While Arsenal were trying to build, their
best opportunity came on their right wing, where Clichy got forward and
into a good crossing position, but over-hit his ball intended for
Adebayor. Straight up the other end and Jenas releases Keane, who
holds the ball up until support arrived, then chipped it straight into
the goalie's hands. Berbatov does better with the next forward
ball, controlling it well before mugging up Clichy and only being denied
a shot on goal by a deflection that goes for a corner. As Jenas
was shaping to take the corner, Lehmann and Diaby started bullying
Berbatov in the six yard box. Berba held his hands up to indicate
that he was not holding or pulling, but with the Teutonic twat in goal,
nothing would have been so straightforward, so he elbows Dimitar in the
head. Dean saw it all, but decided on booking all three players
and leaving Lehmann on the pitch.
When the cautioning was over, Jermaine
played the ball in, Dawson rose high to head at goal and as it bounced
down in the six yard box, Keane was on the spot to nod home past Lehmann
and two defenders on the goal-line. It was a goal from a set-piece
which Spurs have not had a lot of joy from this season - at either end.
Zokora got closer with a curling effort
that just cleared the crossbar and when Toure missed a header, the ball
would not quite sit up for Keane to shoot like he did at Fulham and his
effort was tame when the ball did come down for a shot. The game changed
with Fabregas coming on for the injured Ljungberg. His short
passing opened Spurs up in a move like that which gave Sevilla their
second goal at Tottenham. This time, the post came to Robbo's aid
as Eboue hit a low shot that bounced back and Adebayor was not quick
enough to react and could only shoot over the top.
It was a scorching hot say and the
Tottenham team that took the field for the second half was a sluggish
Spurs. There is always much speculation that Martin Jol sends the
team out to defend a first half lead, but the two rows of four took
their place just like they had in the first half, but maybe sitting a
bit deeper. Some of that was because Arsenal had to push on to get
back into the game and therefore, they were further up the pitch than in
the first half and the second reason was because Tottenham kept giving
the ball away. It was something that happened last week at Wigan,
but against a side like Arsenal you are asking to be punished if you
hand them possession.
Tottenham's passing was too rushed and
with the midfield not getting up to support the front two, the ball kept
falling for Arsenal to make forward moves. On 52 minutes, a
Fabregas corner was headed against the post by Toure, as Spurs failed to
mark up in the box from a set-piece and Robbo saves the follow-up shot
from Rosicky. The Czech finished Tainio's part in the game with a
late studs up challenge and Arsenal were somewhat guilty of leaving a
foot in when they went for the ball, which was something else Mr. Dean
failed to make anything of. Seven minutes later, the ball thudded
against the crossbar as Adebayor got a header on a cross from Clichy.
With 64 minutes gone, a free-kick was
awarded against Jenas when he ran alongside Rosicky and the Arsenal man
dropped as though he had been hit by a train. The ref indicated
that there had been a tug on his shoulder, but it was shoulder to
shoulder rather than anything more sinister. Fabregas stepped up
to take the kick and the wall was of three men and it cover the middle
of the goal. The ball to the far post might well have taken
Robinson by surprise, as Chimbonda let Toure run behind him and he ran
the ball unchallenged. It was the second week running Pascal's
poor marking at a set-piece had cost us a goal.
There was a brief altercation when it
appeared that Dawson was showing the referee some stud marks in his
stomach that Baptista put there and the Brazilian Beast was trying to
wind Daws up. Instead, all he did was frustrate his own fans with
some pitiful finishing that failed to trouble anyone but the fans behind
the goal.
Aaron Lennon had been stuck out on the
left and starved of possession, so he made little impact. He was
taken off for Huddlestone to come on, but Tom looked less than match fit
and looked a little out of touch. Steed almost put Berbatov
through, but an outstretched Arsenal leg deflected the pass away from
the forward.
A cheap free-kick was awarded when
Huddlestone mis-timed a challenge and made little contact with the
Arsenal full back Eboue, who has been known for simulating in the past.
Fabregas swung the bal into to the far post and Adebayor jumped above
Jenas, who was up a little early, to put his header into the top corner
past Robinson's outstretched hand. It had been coming, with all
the pressure building towards the Spurs goal.
Baptista missed what appeared an
easy header when Adebayor got around the Tottenham defence too easily
and pulled a cross back from the touchline. When the fourth
official raised the board to show four minutes left, it sounded as if
the Tottenham crowd sighed a sigh of despair. It looked like we
would have to have signalled four days for a chance to score again, but
I am not sure how many Arsenal would have got by then. The
assistant got the attention of the referee to allow Wenger to swap
Senderos for Hleb, but the change might have just helped Spurs more than
the change that saw Ljungberg have to go off and Fabregas come on.
Mike Dean, who's refereeing had been a bit odd all day saved Arsenal in
injury time as he rescued Lehmann's weak flap at the ball and Berbatov
hooked it back into the goalmouth, only for the whistle to sound as
Defoe fouled some giant of an Arsenal defender that defied reason.
As Arsenal got sloppy and Spurs took
possession, Jermaine Jenas strode forward. He played the ball out
to Malbranque on the right wing and his return ball was well-weighted in
front of his fellow midfielder and allowed him to strike the ball
on the run and his fiercely hit drive flew a couple of inches off the
ground and straight into the back of the net, low down to Lehmann's
right.
It would be hard to say that a draw would
have been a fair result, but the chances that Arsenal created really
failed to trouble Robinson. They hit the woodwork three times, but
Robbo only had one save to make, as Lehmann did. The fact that
Jenas had the will and the energy to keep going to the end of the game
(something not shared by some Tottenham fans) lead to a pint being
salvaged.
It might be an important one in the quest
to finish in a position to get a UEFA Cup place, but the team will still
need to step up their game to win a couple more (at the very least)
before the end of the season.
BARRY LEVINGTON |
Arsenal
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