On the Whistle: Arsenal 2-2 Tottenham - “Derby frustrations as lead lost twice”

Hello guys, full time at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal 2, Tottenham 2. I'm very much still on holiday, sat directly in the sun actually, it is baking here in Turkey but I did manage to watch the game and I'll share my thoughts with you now. To all, I quite fancied a score draw I have to say, if I had to pick a winner I would have picked Arsenal but Spurs are playing full of confidence, the manager's done an annoyingly good job there in reinvigorating not just that team but that club, they were in a real mess at the end of last season and he's turned it around pretty quickly, playing some good football as well. But Arsenal, further along in the project, better XI I think, better players even with a few injuries and at home, so I did fancy Arsenal if I had to pick a winner. They got the lead through Bukayo Saka's deflected shot, nice little move, good overlap from Ben White, Saka cuts inside, comes off Cristian Romero, couldn't pick a nicer bloke for it to happen to and Saka gives it the old James Maddison celebration. I was very much fearing we'd see that at the Emirates Stadium this season, in the end I was delighted to see it on two occasions. So that was 1-0 and I think really, for me, the story of the first half, maybe the big story of the game, is that Arsenal missed some really presentable opportunities in that first half. Bukayo, to be fair, made an excellent save from Gabriel Jesus, Jesus blasted over with another chance after he'd robbed Maddison, Eddie Nketiah hit it straight at him when he was through on goal, albeit from a tight angle, but in games of this importance, games of this significance, those were big chances and they're chances that if you take, the game is over, the game is killed. Arsenal completely dominated the first half, even Gary Neville was purring about the performance and yet they did not take those opportunities and it meant that Spurs only needed one chance to get back into it. As it happened, they had two in the first half. I think the moment that Jesus blasted that shot over the bar was kind of the moment where the game hinged and actually, in what remained of the match, I think Spurs were probably the better team. They'll be looking at this two-all draw and think, they'll be happier with that result than Arsenal fans. I think their manager will be happier with the way his team performed than Arteta will and I think you can argue on balance they were the better side across the course of the 90 minutes. Particularly for the away team, I thought they managed Arsenal very well, really, really limited what we would do in the second half. We'll get to that. End of the first half, David Ryan makes an extraordinary save, brilliant save to deny Johnson springing back towards his own goal, clawing it out, fantastic save and a big moment for him. Goalkeepers careers are often defined by big moments and I think it was a crucial moment for Aaron Ramsdale when he made that stunning save from Son in his first North London derby, tipping a deflected shot onto the cross but unfortunately for David Ryan, he had a bit of a worse moment shortly afterwards. The cross came in for the right-hand side, he'd taken quite an aggressive position to deal with the cross. Generally, I think that's a really positive aspect of his game. Backpedalled a bit and just didn't get good contact really. I think a flap would be maybe harsh but palmed at the ball, didn't get it clear. Spurs kept the attack up, he made a save then I think from Johnson. Ball broke to Maddison who got Saka back really with a lovely turn, drive to the byline, pulled it back and Son somehow between three Arsenal defenders is the man who gets there and tucks it away and it's 1-1 and the stadium sounded silenced on the TV and I was a bit silenced and stunned watching it home because Spurs hadn't particularly been in the game and yet suddenly it's 1-1. Second half, Arsenal get the penalty. Now we do make two changes at half-time. The first is Fabio Vieira off for Kai Havertz. I would assume that was tactical. The second was Declan Rice for Jorginho. What a big moment that was. Declan Rice, I've known, has been dealing with a calf issue since the summer, had to be quite carefully managed in pre-season by Arsenal. It's why it took him a few games to get going because he was overcoming this calf issue and I gather his calf is what was strapped up when he emerged from the tunnel after half-time. So we have to hope that's not too serious, not a big recurrence there because his absence would be a big blow going forward. It was a big blow in this game. I think Havertz may well have come on anyway but presumably Arteta thought losing the physicality of Rice, we need to replace that elsewhere too. Havertz made sense, I guess, as the change. Look, it was a blow. Bear in mind we started without Leo Trossard, Gabriel Jesus on the left, Gabriel Martinelli is out and I think anything Arteta said about him potentially being available is just mind games. He was clearly out, it was a hamstring injury. Losing Trossard in training a day or two before the game is a big blow. He's got three goals in three games for club and country, he's a man bang in form. We've got Thomas Partey out, well that's Thomas Partey, we've become accustomed to that, but then to lose Declan Rice during the game as well. Then we were seeing some key areas of the squad down. Arteta talks a lot at the So we were improvising, we were using Jesus on the left. I know people were frustrated with Eddie in this game and understandably so but he kind of had to stay on because Arsenal probably knew Jesus wasn't going to play the 90 minutes which again limited the kind of attacking subs we could make. Nevertheless we do get the penalty. Listen, I know it's close to Romero but if he doesn't make that handball the ball's in the back of the net so for me it should be a penalty. That's my opinion, the laws might say otherwise but I feel like the laws should make that penalty otherwise it's a goal. Saka tucks it away, lovely, glad to see a bit of confidence back in his spot kicks. Gives the old dart celebration again, well Arsenal give away the lead within 60 seconds and I have to say I didn't expect the mistake to be made by the most experienced player on the pitch. I'm actually quite a big fan of Jorginho but he makes a catastrophic error. Spurs take it away from him, play Son in and he scores. Big moment in the game, they looked out of it, 2-1, Arsenal were flying, feeling very good about life, suddenly it's 2-2 and actually Spurs had a really good period after that and it looked like they might even get a third at times. People will say is it about concentration, is it about over celebrating? Maybe, Gary Neville was that case, I don't really agree with that. It wasn't particularly raucous celebrations at 2-1. I think this really does just come down to an individual error and one that couldn't really be anticipated. As I say, I don't think that's characteristic of Jorginho at all. I'm sure he'll be in that dressing room now holding his hands up apologising and saying sorry guys, this one is on me. There's nothing else he can do frankly. So that was 2-2 and Arsenal brought on Reece Nelson in the last stages, they brought on Emile Smith-Rowe. We never really exerted much pressure, we had a run of corners but didn't offer a great deal of threat from them and the late winner was not forthcoming as it had been against Manchester United. Spurs had moments at the other end. You get these results in the derby, a bit of a crazy topsy-turvy game to all but Arsenal will feel looking at where Spurs are in their development, looking at where they are and what their aspirations are and looking at the quality of football they played in that first half at times, they'll feel this is a game they should have won even with the injuries. Now the worry is what hangover do we get in terms of the injuries because Saka limped off as well. Is that going to affect Arsenal in other competitions as well as the Premier League? Man City is not too far away now, we've got the Champions League to contend with. I imagine it'll be a heavily, heavily rotated team in the Carabao Cup, you'd hope so anyway against Brentford but those injuries are stacking up at this point in time. Don't forget Jurien Timber is out as well. So I think in summary, that's as disappointing as the result of the performance. As I say, Spurs will be delighted today and any day that Spurs are delighted is a bad day. So yeah, interesting. I thought in that first half we showed some signs that the shackles were off, played some really good football, had some chances, pressed quite well, nicked the ball off them a couple of times but we weren't clinical. I remember when we signed David Rye and this is no criticism of him whatsoever, the debate was could that money be spent elsewhere in the squad and looking at it now, you do wonder if centre forward, maybe we are missing something there. Sky was certainly making that point during the game. I do feel like that might be the next step in the development of this team. I liked what I saw from Gabriel Jesus out wide today, I think we might see that again. I'd like to see him through the middle, he was brilliant in the Champions League in midweek but when he's not there, have we got anyone of that calibre? It's all well and good to say we need a Haaland type, well there aren't many of those but we did lack a kind of penalty box presence in those final stages of the game. I'm going to leave it there guys because I'm going to dissolve in this heat but speak to you all soon. I won't see the Brentford game in the League Cup because I think I'll be on the plane so you probably won't get a video from me then but normal service will resume after that. Take care, bye bye.