Arsenal 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1
In the end, both teams will look back on a compelling, fluctuating match with the sense that perhaps it might have gone their way with some better finishing. For Tottenham Hotspur, perhaps a fully firing Harry Kane might have accepted one of the chances he missed either side of his penalty, on his first start for seven weeks. Yet Arsenal will have their own regrets and were undoubtedly the more frustrated side after being unable to hold on to their first-half lead.
Both sides had spells of superiority and the speed and frequency at which the game swung from one end of the pitch to the other was one of the reasons why it became an absorbing spectacle. Tottenham have now gone seven games without a win in all competitions but they showed the kind of competitive courage that made them authentic title contenders last season.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side immediately look better with Kane back in the team although they also had to withstand some sustained pressure, particularly in that 20-minute spell in the first half when Arsenal took control and Kevin Wimmer’s own goal gave the home side a 42nd-minute lead.
Arsenal will be aggrieved they could not build on that position but it was a spirited response from their opponents after the break and, if anything, the away team looked the more likely winners during the closing stages.
Spurs were missing Dele Alli because of a knee injury he suffered in training on Saturday and they also lost Kyle Walker during the second half. Yet Arsenal never looked so dangerous in the second half against a side experimenting with a three-man central defence.
Pochettino was certainly taking a gamble by trying in such a key fixture an unorthodox 3-3-2-2 formation for the first time and there were periods of the first half when Theo Walcott and Alexis Sánchez were trying to get behind their opponents, with Mesut Özil always in close proximity, that it was not easy to remember the visitors had the best defensive figures in the league.
Alex Iwobi really ought to have given Arsenal the lead after the best passing exchange of the first half only to trundle his shot into the arms of Hugo Lloris with so little conviction it was tempting to question his big-game mentality. Iwobi later chose the wrong pass from another threatening break, promoting a rare show of anger from Özil, and Walcott almost scored a beauty with the rising shot he cracked high against Lloris's left post.
Tottenham did, however, have legitimate grievances about the opening goal, when Sánchez and Shkodran Mustafi had both strayed offside when Özil whipped in the free-kick that led to Wimmer heading the ball into his own net. Those two players were conceivably in Wimmer’s eye line, perhaps leaving him momentarily fearful of being caught out of position. All that really can be said for certain is that it was a poor misjudgment on the part of a player making his first appearance in the Premier League this season.
Tottenham have won this fixture away from home only once in the last 23 years but there is another statistic that says Arsenal have not beaten them in the league in Pochettino’s time.
Mousa Dembélé's switch to a slightly more deep-lying position was a subtle yet important change for the second half. Christian Eriksen became more influential and Son Heung-min was prominently involved. Dembélé still had the licence to roam forward and it was his run from right to left, eluding Francis Coquelin and then coming inside Nacho Monreal, that prompted Laurent Koscielny to make the challenge that led to the penalty. Kane put the ball down the middle and Spurs will also look back on that moment, five minutes from the end, when Eriksen's free-kick curled beyond everyone and hit a post.
(Guardian service)
