The Emirates is rarely a place for fiery passions but the home fans make an exception here for north London derbies.
Those Arsenal fans roared their team on in confident expectation. They knew the victory should be theirs. Their team had largely dominated against their neighbours. They had by far the better of the attacking play and they had a sprinkling of delightful offensive players in Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla, a trio who would grace almost any team, anywhere in the world.
Only Younes Kaboul and Hugo Lloris, giants in the Tottenham defence, stood between them and three points. Surely the goal would come? Surely such an array of talent would be enough to overpower Spurs?
And yet it was not to be. Arsenal’s infamous brittleness had cost them again. Games they should win, they draw; games in which they ought to be competitive, they end up being comprehensively beaten. It is almost pointless to single out the individuals — yesterday it was Mathieu Flamini, losing the ball in front of his own penalty area — as almost all the team are serial offenders.
Spurs will be grateful for their draw. But until Arsene Wenger can address the vulnerabilities he has in shielding his defence — and he shows no sign of wishing to do so — there will be many more Groundhog Days like this.
There was much speculation as to whether Ozil would return to his favoured central role — or be shunted out to the left. As it was, he started out wide, but swapped the position regularly with Jack Wilshere, the two of them undertaking the wide left duties as though it were an undesirable job-share.
And this derby felt a very Anglo-Saxon affair early on. Certainly the tackling was of a certain vintage. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wilshere received yellow cards, all too keen to make their impression — literally — on Tottenham, before Erik Lamela added his own Latin mark, cautioned for a late challenge on Kieran Gibbs.
And the football was of variable quality in that first half. What there was, was mainly created by Arsenal. Danny Welbeck was the first to inject some class into the game with a lovely flick past Jan Vertonghen and, leaving the Belgian in his wake, he was only denied by the assiduous covering run of Kaboul.
Welbeck shot unconvincingly at Lloris on 22 minutes but it wasn’t until 28 minutes that Arsenal conjured another clear chance. Aaron Ramsey raced down the right and released Welbeck, who touched the ball back to Wilshere, who in turn struck the ball ferociously from the edge of the box with Lloris well positioned to save.
