Hugo's Heroics

"We forgive you Hugo!" The Spurs player celebrate with their captain who makes a vital penalty save in the final few minutes.

Image Credit: checkpointcharley

By Lee Clow

2 March 2019 | Premier League

Hugo Lloris atoned for his errors against Chelsea and produced a penalty save to deny Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Arsenal the 3 points in the dying moments of the North London Derby.

The 198th North London Derby started off at a high intensity with the atmosphere at Wembley being at its best. Arsenal looked like the team who came out of the blocks first and this was proved when they took lead in the opening 16 minutes. Aaron Ramsey, playing his last North London derby before moving to Juventus in the summer, found himself free, after a mistake from Davinson Sanchez, and cooly rounded Lloris to slot home the opener.

Spurs struggled to find a way back into the game with the Arsenal defence standing strong throughout the game. Tottenham had a goal disallowed in the first half through Harry Kane and saw 2 efforts from Eriksen and Sissoko saved excellently by Bernd Leno.

After the break, Spurs again started slow and were fortunate not to go 2 goals down when Lacazette sliced his shot wide of the goal. However, Spurs soon got their rhythm back and started putting pressure on Arsenal’s defence. Toby Alderweireld came close for Spurs from a free kick but as the game progressed it was starting to look like Tottenham and Pochettino were going to face a third successive league defeat for the first time.

Just as Spurs' hopes looked to be fading, they won a penalty when Mustafi barged Kane in the back. Kane stepped up and finely placed the spot kick into the back of the net, sending Leno the wrong way. The Arsenal players and fans were not happy about the decision as the replay suggested that before Kane was bundled over, he was in an offside position when the free kick was curled into the box. The penalty lifted the Spurs side and it seemed they would go on and get the winner.

As the final few minutes were dying down, Aubameyang found some space and ran towards the goal being marshaled closely by Sanchez. According to the referee, Sanchez appeared to have fouled Aubameyang in the box and this led to a penalty being given in the 89th minute. Aubameyang stepped up to take the spot kick but his tame penalty was saved well by Lloris. Defender Jan Vertonghen was quick on the march to clear the follow up attempt from Aubameyang to deny Arsenal the 3 points and give his side their first league draw of the season.

The late chaos was rounded off when Arsenal's Lucas Torreira was sent off for a reckless challenge on Danny Rose in the closing seconds.

The result maintains Tottenham's four-point advantage over Arsenal in the Premier League. The 1-1 draw also ends Tottenham's run of 28 Premier League games without a draw - the third longest run ever without a draw from the start of a top-flight season.

Mauricio Pochettino after the game stated his thoughts on the match "It was a fantastic game, exciting game with great atmosphere with two teams that wanted to play and win the game. If we assess the game I think we were better than Arsenal in all the aspects. Our performance was not great, but it was really good to draw and maybe deserve to win."

Arsenal boss, Unai Emery was quick to praise his players effort in the match "I am proud of the players and their work. You can win, lose or draw, like we did, but above all this we played like a team and fought together. The adaption to the match was good and our moments in 90 minutes were strong, we could have won this match."

What’s next?

After avoiding a 3rd league defeat in a row, Tottenham take on Borussia Dortmund in the second-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, with a 3-0 aggregate lead. Arsenal on the other hand travel to Rennes for the first leg of their last-16 in the Europa League.