Ominous start for Arsenal as they go to sleep characteristically to allow Louis Saha to romp ahead and score a deflected goal. Shockingly poor defending by Thomas Vermaelen. Then Gareth Bale bulldozes his way past Kieran Gibbs and Vermaelen and is brought down by Wojciech Szczesny. Adebayor takes the PK and it is 2-0 to the Spurs.
The Gunners refused to roll over with Bakary Sagna pulled off a blinding header off a Arteta cross and then a minute later RVP turned on a dime to curl a delicious left footer past Friedel for a sublime equalizer. Great response.
Vermaelen is having another meltdown. The centre back seems to be a poor reader of the game which finds him out of position when Spurs mount these counterattacks. At the other end one can legitimately say Walcott has “no footballing brain”. He also seems to have the physical pizazz of a gnat.
Onto the second half. Arsenal have to pull up their defensive socks because those Lka Modric – Gareth Bale led counterattacks are going to come. They have to keep up that attacking intensity.