SOCCER/ENGLISH PREMIERSHIP/Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1:A GLEEFUL Tottenham Hotspur support turned White Hart Lane into a festive graveyard for Arsenal's ambitions. Following this defeat, the visitors are six points behind the Premier League leaders Chelsea and, almost certainly, at the end of their ambition for the title.
When Robin van Persie, making an impressive comeback from the bench after a long injury absence, seemed sure to cut the deficit, Heurelho Gomes put the 80th minute attempt over the bar brilliantly, before reaching an attempt from the same player and then denying Sol Campbell. With five minutes left, however, Nicklas Bendtner did turn home a low ball from the substitute Theo Walcott to maintain the tension.
Tottenham have not been pretenders to the title in modern times, but thwarting the bid of their north London rivals looked almost as inspiring for them. There was elation to the opener in the 10th minute which went far beyond the happiness due a 19-year-old making such a mark on his league debut.
Manuel Almunia did not get a sufficiently acute angle on his punch when clearing a Gareth Bale corner and the ball dropped to Danny Rose for a strong 25-yard volley that arced over the Spanish goalkeeper and into the net.
Despite the admirable execution of that shot, Arsenal’s greatest problem of late has been ill-fortune and their centre-back Thomas Vermaelen pulled up with 20 minutes gone and had to make way for Mikael Silvestre.
The disruption still did not stop Arsene Wenger’s side from having plenty of possession before the interval.
Any notion that this ground could be intimidating for them was laughable. The visitors’ centre-half, Sol Campbell, as a former Tottenham player, received the hostility to be expected by an alleged traitor, but reacted with a desire to show to remind the home support of his expertise.
Tottenham’s approach was not simple to interpret. Harry Redknapp’s line-up showed five changes from the selection beaten by Portsmouth on Sunday after extra-time in the FA Cup semi-final. It was not an ideal line-up and the partnership in attack between Roman Pavlyuchenko and Jermain Defoe was not convincing.
Nonetheless, a first outing for Ledley King since February 21st roused the audience. Van Persie’s value to Arsenal was underlined by the fact that only Cesc Fabregas, Nicklas Bendtner and Andrey Arshavin have outscored him in this campaign despite the fact that his last outing for the club before the severe damage to his ankle ligaments had come at Wolves on November 7th.
While he sat on the bench, Arsenal lacked menace despite their typically slick passing.
Campbell’s attempt to bundle a corner into the net was foiled on the line by Benoit Assou-Ekotto, but his team made few clear openings before half-time. There was merely exasperation over, for instance, a foul by Younes Kaboul that stopped a promising attack by Tomas Rosicky in the 35th minute. A yellow card was shown although it was unclear if King was in position to prevent his team-mate from being regarded as the last man.
Little went the visitors’ way, but the thinness of Wenger’s means was illustrated when a second goal was conceded. Silvestre is far from an ideal choice nowadays, as had been confirmed painfully last week when there had been no option but to pick him for what became a 4-1 trouncing by Barcelona in the Champions League.
The level of menace was far from comparable at White Hart Lane, but Silvestre was exposed two minutes after half-time.
Defoe fed a very good pass towards his left and into the goalmouth. Silvestre did not close down Gareth Bale and the full-back put Tottenham 2-0 ahead with a capable finish.
Arsenal continued to press on. Although there was no reason simply to give up hope the intent still reflected well on them.
Circumstances were not easily altered, however, even with Theo Walcott on as a substitute.
The inevitable alteration was made after 67 minutes when Van Persie came on for Denilson to make his first appearance since November. He has entered desperate circumstances for his club.
TOTTENHAM: Gomes, Assou-Ekotto, Dawson, King, Bale, Kaboul, Huddlestone, Modric, Rose (Bentley 46), Pavlyuchenko (Crouch 88), Defoe (Gudjohnsen 67). Subs not used: Alnwick, Bassong, Kyle Walker, Livermore. Booked: Modric, Kaboul, Dawson.
ARSENAL: Almunia, Sagna (Walcott 52), Campbell, Vermaelen (Silvestre 20), Clichy, Eboue, Diaby, Denilson (van Persie 68), Rosicky, Bendtner, Nasri. Subs not used: Fabianski, Eduardo, Merida, Eastmond. Booked: Denilson.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne Wear).
