Taking the long miserable walk up from Seven Sisters Underground station along Tottenham High Road to White Hart Lane, a walk incidentally not brightened up the Easter sun, I pondered the status of the North London derby. Certainly in the English top three, probably bigger than City v United, on a par with Everton v Liverpool? Tonight though was about more than North London pride with three points essential for both sides. Add in the rivalry though and you get an exhilarating no holds barred contest which must have been thrilling to watch on TV. Stuck in the upper tier of the Park Lane though it was more of a harrowing emotional rollercoaster as Arsenal lived up to the music hall joke of being worse than a pet dog which can at least hold a lead.
So there was pandemonium when Theo Walcott gave the Gunners the lead, followed by an unbelievable crescendo of noise from the majority of those in the ground when Rafael Van Der Vaart equalised straightaway. Samir Nasri and Robin Van Persie's goals at least meant there wouldn't be a repeat of the proceedings in the corresponding match at Arsenal last autumn, but Tom Huddlestone's goal just ahead of half time gave notice that the game wasn't over.
Tottenham's resilience bore fruit when they equalised again from Van Der Vaart's penalty, and they seemed to most likely to win at this point as Arsenal seemed to be running on empty, lacking the mental capacity if nothing else to create a fourth goal. Like two prizefighters who had been slugging punches at each other all evening, fatigue took away the goal scoring edge leaving the game a draw. In the short term a point was no good for either team, but surely the night will live long in the memory as the genuine El Classico on show on Wednesday. A point some of the Tottenham fans seemed to want to put to us as they waited impatiently on the corner of Park Lane as the Arsenal fans streamed out.
No comments:
Post a Comment