Source: Telegraph
Tottenham v Arsenal: live
E-mail Jonathan Liew with comments here, or have your say using the form at the bottom of the page.[LNB]Half time: Tottenham 1-0 Arsenal [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 figures20.51 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]
