Source: Telegraph
Tottenham v Arsenal: as it happened
Full time: Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal [LNB]22.29 There we are, then. Tottenham rediscovered hope from the ashes of despair. Arsenal saw hope cruelly extinguished. And on one of the biggest stages imaginable, we saw in Danny Rose perhaps one of the brightest hopes of all. But that's the Premier League in glorious, debt-laden microcosm: a nine-month melodrama of dreams renewed, dreams dashed and dreams arising afresh. We'll be back on Saturday for the Manchester derby. Until then, see you soon.[LNB] Related ArticlesAston Villa v Everton: liveWigan Athletic v Portsmouth: liveSpurs warn fans over Campbell abuseHill-Wood: Barca won't bid for FabregasKroenke deal may delay Arsenal moveFootball hate figures22.23 You can read Henry Winter's match report now. Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger looks like Rio Ferdinand has just burst out of a doorway and announced that he's been 'merked': "It will be difficult [to win the title]. We will continue to fight, but this makes it very, very difficult. But as long as it's mathematically possible, it's not impossible. We played against a Spurs team who defended very well and were very sharp on the counter-attack. We had to take massive gambles, but we weren't sharp enough. Vermaelen has a calf strain, it's too soon to say how long he will be out for."[LNB]22.16 He had a super game, but it's probably a bit of a leap to call Heurelho Gomes one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Meanwhile, Harry Redknapp can barely conceal his jowled delight: "It's been 11 years since we beat them in the league. The fans want to beat them more than anything, and we hung in there late on when we came under pressure. It's going to be hard to get that fourth place, but we're in there still."[LNB]Ledley King: "It's a massive game coming off a disappointing result in the Cup. But we didn't have no time to dwell on that. It's a big, big result for us. Big. Heurelho's one of the best in the world at the moment, and he's done it again today. We feel like we can beat anyone at home. We've beaten Arsenal today, now we have to go and do it against Chelsea on Sunday."[LNB]22.10 You know that advert for some price comparison website where a woman is woken late at night by a pair of jeans gently taunting her while she sleeps? I wonder whether in days - or who knows, years - to come, Arsene Wenger will sit up and see a gleaming Premier League trophy at the end of his bed. "That was the trophy I could have won but for the saves made by Heurelho Gomes," he will explain to a baffled and irritated Mrs Arsene. [LNB]22.01 Six points behind Chelsea with four games left, the game looks up for Arsenal now. The only comfort they can draw is that their two rivals still have to play this excellent Tottenham side. They weren't the better team, Tottenham - they simply picked off their rivals, once with a sublime goal, once with a deadly, raking move. After that, Heurelho Gomes brilliantly kept them ahead, despite Bendtner's late consolation. The race for fourth is back on, too, with Tottenham moving within just a point of Manchester City with an almost identical goal difference. What a climax in prospect for this season. [LNB]90+4 min It's all over. Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United celebrate. Arsenal look devastated. [LNB]90+3 min Bentley breaks. He cuts inside and shoots, winning a corner. And the corner looks like where it's going to stay. [LNB]90+2 min Desperate defending from Tottenham here, but Bale scampers down the left. "Get it into the corner," the crowd are shouting. Campbell does well to muscle him off the ball and win a goal kick. [LNB]90+1 min Gudjohnsen has done a great job of getting the ball down and holding on to it since he's come on. He tries to play Modric through, but there's just a little too much on it. [LNB]90 min You wouldn't begrudge Arsenal an equaliser here, they've had so much of the play. There will be four minutes of injury time. Hang on to your fingernails. [LNB]89 min Just as Tottenham are relying on Huddlestone to keep possession, he spreads the ball wide... and straight into the crowd. Arsenal come again. [LNB]88 min Robin Van Persie is threatening to turn this wonderful game on its head. He gets the ball 25 yards out and shoots. Gomes flies and pushes it away. Another great save. Crouch on for Pavlyuchenko. Two minutes remain. [LNB]87 min Modric was through there. Gudjohnsen controlled a long ball, took it inside and played it into the area. Modric needed a good first touch, though, and didn't produce one. [LNB]86 min Arsenal have been peppering the Tottenham goal of late, and finally they break through. Walcott crosses, and Dawson can't track Bendtner as he ghosts into the far post to tap in. Game on! Tottenham look tired. [LNB]85 min GOAL Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal (Bendtner)[LNB]84 min Another wonderful save by Gomes! The corner comes in and Campbell gets a firm header on it. It looks in, but Gomes gets fingertips on it and it goes onto the bar. [LNB]83 min Oh, it's such a good free-kick, and another wonderful save from Gomes, arching his back and tipping it over. [LNB]82 min Van Persie's arrival has instantly given Arsenal some impetus. Dawson is booked as he brings down Diaby on the edge of the area, and the Dutchman will now get a go from the free-kick. [LNB]81 min Rosicky shoots from the edge of the area! It's deflected wide. Van Persie again, but it clips a Tottenham leg on the way through to Gomes. [LNB]79 min Brilliant save by Gomes as Van Persie turned and shot on the volley. He comes for the corner, but is nowhere near it. It's easy come, easy go with out Heurelho. [LNB]77 min Arsenal break after a slack pass from Gudjohnsen, but aside from a short period after their first goal, Tottenham's defence has been pretty solid. Arsenal are trying to play through them, but time and again King and Dawson have got something - a foot, usually, but sometimes a strategically positioned posterior - in the way. [LNB]76 min Arsene Wenger's face looks like an Auvergne rainstorm. Campbell fouls Pavlyuchenko in the air. [LNB]74 min Tottenham are still coming forward. To them, the phrase 'two banks of four' refers to the queue outside the physio's room. Assou-Ekotto takes up an advanced position and crosses, but it's beyond Gudjohnsen to control it. [LNB]73 min Clichy passes it stright out of play. Perhaps Arsenal are having one of those nights. Hell of a night to have it, though. [LNB]71 min Only Manchester United have scored more than once in the league at White Hart Lane this season. Arsenal have less than 20 minutes to score three times. [LNB]70 min The game's opening up just as Tottenham should be trying to close it down. Walcott has an opening, but his two shots are closed down. [LNB]68 min Ooooh, what a chance for Gudjohnsen. A crossfield ball of genius and great vision from Pavlyuchenko, finding Bale, who flips it through for Assou-Ekotto whose cross is straight into the path of an onrushing Gudjohnsen 12 yards out. But he miscues. Great chance to make it 3-0. [LNB]67 min Gudjohnsen comes on for Defoe, who had just one pass in the first half, according to Opta. Meanwhile, Denilson comes off and the man - Robin van Persie - comes on. This could be a crucial period of play. [LNB]65 min Oooh, that's close from Bendtner! Just gets half a yard on Ledley King and fires it across Gomes, but it's just wide. A goal for Arsenal now and I wouldn't put anything past them. [LNB]64 min Looks like a two-horse race for fourth place. Aston Villa are losing 2-1 at home to Everton. [LNB]62 min John Giles says: "St Hotspur's day today. 19 years ago today Spurs defeated Arsenal 1-3 at Wembley. Gascoigne scored a fantastic free kick, can we do it today?" Surely there can't have been a St Hotspur, can there? What would he have been, the patron saint of groin strains? [LNB]60 min Great cross from Bentley. Defoe volleys. Miscued. Modric shoots. Blocked. [LNB]58 min This from Paul Woods: "Great goal from Spurs but think the result has already been decided before the game. Arsenal not playing for real in front of goal. FIXED!" If we suspected foul play every game in which Nicklas Bendtner missed chances, the entire Fraud Squad would need to buy Arsenal season tickets. [LNB]56 min Modric is coming into his own, too. It's Campbell who eventually dispossesses him after a jinking run, to the general dispproval of the crowd. [LNB]54 min Arsenal responded with real gusto to Tottenham's first goal, but after the second, they're looking genuinely rattled. Sagna's withdrawal has left real gaps on Arsenal's right, which Modric and Bale are exploiting. Bale's cross finds its way to Pavlyuchenko, but Arsenal swamp him with numbers and clear. [LNB]52 min First action for Walcott, crossing the ball into the Tottenham area. King heads it away, but it comes out to Eboue, who lifts his shot into the Tottenham High Road. [LNB]50 min Tottenham are simply steaming here. Bale runs straight to the heart of the Arsenal defence. He's dispossessed , but the ball ricochets out to Bentley on the right, who tries an audacious shot which is deflected on its way through to Almunia. Bold substitution from Wenger, bringing Walcott on for Sagna. [LNB]49 min That will sicken Arsene Wenger to the back of his false teeth. By the way, David Bentley came on at half-time for Danny Rose. [LNB]47 min Could that be the ball game? Clinical from Tottenham, Defoe bringing down a long ball and threading a wonderful cross through to Bale. Arsenal's defence is nowhere and Bale has a simple tap-in at the far post. What a start to the second half for Tottenham! [LNB]46 min GOAL Tottenham 2-0 Arsenal (Bale) [LNB]21.06 The second half begins. [LNB]Henry Winter on Twitter: "Ginola being presented to fans at break. Cheers from Spurs, and from Arsenal? 'You're just a **** Robert Pires'"[LNB]20.51 Fascinating first period of this derby game. Arsenal looked surer on the ball, more threatening going forward, more imaginative with the pass. But equally, they have 45 minutes to score two goals and save their season after Danny Rose scored a goal for Tottenham that will be replayed again and again. At least, if you have Sky. [LNB]45+2 min Arsenal have the last play of the first half, knocking the ball around the edge of Tottenham's area after it breaks kindly for Nasri. But they don't get a shot in and after around a minute of pretty football, Clattenburg blows up for half-time. [LNB]45+1 min Both teams are winding down at the end of the first half. Nasri releases Rosicky on the Arsenal right, but King clears his pull-back. [LNB]44 min Plenty to give Arsenal heart as half-time approaches. A wonder goal aside, they're having by far the better of the game. Three minutes of stoppage time for the injury to Vermaelen. [LNB]42 min Classic Defoe turn-and-shot-with-zero-room on the edge of the area. Straight at Almunia. I'd wager there's more goals in this game, though. [LNB]41 min Arsenal are ending the half strongly. Clichy nutmegs Kaboul, who's looked fairly wooden in the unfamiliar position of right-back. He shoots from an angle, but into the side netting. [LNB]39 min Neat play by Arsenal on the edge of the Tottenham area, but it breaks down and Tottenham counter. Clichy gets a foot in just as Modric looks set to break free, but the Croatian almost gets a second bite of the cherry, Almunia just about getting on top of the ball as it squirms loose. [LNB]37 min Little by little, Tottenham are coming back into this. Rose's cross is headed away, but only to Kaboul on the right-hand edge of the Tottenham area. Defoe's free, but Kaboul plants his cross straight into the arms of Almunia. [LNB]36 min Nasri's free-kick is well over. [LNB]35 min And another! Kaboul, who really had to bring down Rosicky there before he put Bendtner through. Free-kick. [LNB]34 min And now a yellow card for Denilson, who clips Rose as he's about to turn and run. Assou-Ekotto wastes the free-kick. [LNB]33 min Nasri's free-kick looked too long, but it was headed back to Rosicky, whose shot was blocked by King. Corner to Arsenal, which Gomes manages to punch away. [LNB]32 min First yellow card, Modric cynically bringing down Sagna on the Arsenal right. Free-kick, which Nasri will take. [LNB]31 min Did Tottenham think the match had finished after 10 minutes? Eboue is simply allowed to run to the edge of the Tottenham area, but takes a touch too many and Huddlestone finally decides a clearance might not be a bad idea. [LNB]30 min Sagna's getting more and more joy down the right. It takes a good piece of shepherding and shielding by Assou-Ekotto to see the ball behind for a goal-kick. [LNB]29 min Eboue is dispossessed by Huddlestone and Modric finds Pavluchenko, who tries to put Jermain Defoe through. Decent chance for Defoe, but the flag's up. [LNB]27 min Sustained spell of pressure from Arsenal, who are managing to pin Tottenham back into their own half. Eboue spreads it out wide to Rosicky, who cuts inside and plays it right to Sagna. King gets a foot in, but Arsenal come back at them. [LNB]25 min It's Arsenal who are playing like they're 1-0 up here. Huddlestone and Modric simply don't have enough outlets when they get the ball, Pavlyuchenko is being drawn deeper and deeper and Rose has been anonymous since his career-defining goal, which may yet turn out to be his "remember the name" moment. As a result, Arsenal are playing through them and Bendtner has another great chance after Rosicky plays a short pass to him in the area. [LNB]23 min Bendtner through, but offside! But not offside, according to the replay! He was just level with Assou-Ekotto as Eboue put him through. [LNB]22 min Tottenham look none too sure at the back. Another ball into the box is simply hacked away by a desparing foot, possibly from Dawson again. [LNB]21 min Testy cross from Sagna. No nonsense from Dawson, heading behind for a corner, which is taken short. [LNB]20 min Sol Campbell's getting awful abuse from the home fans, for some reason. Anyone know why? Nasri spreads the ball right for Eboue, but his shot is blocked. [LNB]18 min The stretcher-bearers are on, but Vermaelen is on his feet. He hobbles very gingerly indeed to the side of the pitch, and Silvestre is indeed going to be brought on. Problems for Arsenal now. [LNB]17 min Big worry for Arsenal as Vermaelen stretches for the ball and goes down. Already the physio is on and Silvestre is warming up on the sidelines. [LNB]15 min Bale's fine, and Arsenal have had more of the ball since that goal. The noise coming out of White Hart Lane is phenomenal, as you can imagine. [LNB]13 min Rose's celebration was the stuff of unfettered teenage dreams. Not the rocking cradle or carefully-choreographed training ground manoeuvre. He simply ran away screaming. Even the normally inert Harry Redknapp burst out of his seat as if he'd just seen the Holy Trinity. Meanwhile, Gareth Bale's down, he took a knock on the side of the... face, was it? Sagna with the aerial challenge. [LNB]11 min The 19 year-old debutant Danny Rose from 35 yards, and surely that must be a contender for Goal of the Season. Bale sent the corner in, Almunia came a long way and got a good punch in. It came out to Rose - on his weaker left foot, by the way - who just let fly on the volley. Almunia, out of position, had no chance. Shades of David Bentley's screamer from last season. Never mind that, shades of Pele. [LNB]9 min GOAL Tottenham 1-0 Arsenal (Rose) What a goal! [LNB]7 min Chance for Tottenham! Bale surges down the left, but Clichy heads away his cross. But the ball comes in and Pavlyuchenko shooots from eight yards. Vermaelen got in the crucial block. [LNB]5 min Foul by Denilson on Pavlyuchenko. Spicy start. Then Bendtner's almost clean through and it needs a last-ditch foot in from Michael Dawson. [LNB]4 min Tackles really flying in here. Eboue gets a tap on the ankles from Assou-Ekotto, but they both hug and make up. That's nice to see, but it's not really the idea of a North London derby, is it? [LNB]3 min Bright start by Arsenal, though, who would just love to play this game in and around the centre circle. Even without Song, they're an intensely physical presence, at least compared to the lightweight Modric, who has never really convinced me as a central midfielder. [LNB]1 min What a start that could have been! Sol Campbell has a shot cleared off the line! The corner came in from Arsenal's right and Campbell tried to bundle the ball home. He didn't get all of it, but it still evaded Gomes and Assou-Ekotto was hypercool in controlling the ball with his chest and allowing Gomes to claim. [LNB]20.01 Mark Clattenburg places the whistle to his lips, and we're away. [LNB]19.59 We often get letters speculating how much it must cost to send Henry Winter all over the place. Nou Camp one night, Anfield the next, Stamford Bridge, the next, Old Trafford on Saturday. Well, I'll let you in to a secret: it actually costs us nothing. We're still using up the air miles he's accumulated during his first 35 years in the job. [LNB]Henry Winter on Twitter: Cheeky Arsenal fans...chanting "Play Up Pompey"[LNB]19.57 Sky Sports are introducing the teams using that ridiculous shot they use of the players walking towards the camera with snarls on their faces. I mean, they're playing a game of football, not wrestling reindeer. Ridiculous, and parodied excellent by Jimmy Bullard in this excellent clip. [LNB]19.42 It's a big night for Roman Pavlyuchenko. If he's not careful, the Russian's going to pick up a reputation as a poor man's Dimitar Berbatov. Impressively, he's picked up 10 goals this season from just eight starts. But less impressively, here's who they have been scored against: Fulham, Blackburn, Everton, Bolton, Wigan, Leeds, Doncaster. Did anyone go through that list and instinctively pick out Leeds as the biggest of the bunch? Me too. [LNB]19.33 Both of these teams were humiliated on their last outings. Arsenal were marmalised by the mighty, magical Messi while Tottenham came unstuck against points-deducted, poverty-stricken Portsmouth. [LNB]19.27 Even with Cesc Fabregas and Andrey Arshavin out injured and Oleg Luzhny now sadly retired, that's a strong-looking Arsenal line-up. Their midfield three will try and swamp Tottenham's two of Huddlestone and Kaboul. Tottenham will try and switch the ball out wide, where Bale, Modric and Rose can run at Arsenal's full-backs. Meanwhile, Sol Campbell will no doubt lurch clumsily towards another appearance fee. [LNB]19.22 Ledley King starts his first game for Tottenham for almost two months, replacing Sebastian Bassong. There's also a first Premier League start for Danny Rose, a speedy young winger in the Aaron Lennon mould (he was even signed from Leeds). Younes Kaboul plays in midfield. For Arsenal, the great RVP starts the game on the bench, but you've got to imagine he'll get a chance to unfurl that left Scud at some stage. Other than that, Arsenal are as expected. [LNB]Tottenham (4-4-2): Gomes; Assou-Ekotto, Dawson, King, Kaboul; Bale, Huddlestone, Modric, Rose; Pavlyuchenko, Defoe. Subs: Alnwick, Bassong, Walker, Livermore, Bentley, Crouch, Gudjohnsen. [LNB]Arsenal (4-5-1): Almunia; Sagna, Campbell, Vermaelen, Clichy; Eboue, Diaby, Denilson, Nasri, Rosicky; Bendtner. Subs: Fabianski, Silvestre, Merida, Eastmond, Eduardo, van Persie, Walcott. [LNB]19.08 You can read John Ley's match preview here. So, what do we reckon? Will this be the night Arsenal's hopes of silverware finally rusted? Or will it be Tottenham whose dreams of jumping on to the Champions League express train finally hit the buffers? Tenuous metaphors aside (and yes, I know silver doesn't rust), it should be a cracking game of football between two sides with a wealth of attacking capability and defences like rice paper. [LNB]19.00 Welcome to live commentary of the 165th North London derby between Tottenham and Arsenal. There may be older sporting rivalries out there, but none quite so... well, Cockney. Kick-off is in around an hour. Do stick around, I'll have the teams for you as soon as we get them. [LNB]
