^ Oh that's a lame attempt. Arsenal were outplayed, and Tottenham should have won, but they didn't finish it off when they could/should have. And who's fault is that? Not Arsenal's, we just took advantage.

And the Arsenal squad was a reserve squad. The only person that was in the starting lineup that would get regular starts in the first XI was Van Persie (if it wasn't for him being injured). The rest get a shot every so often, if that.

EPL match starts:
Fabianski - 0
Diaby - 5
Senderos - 4
Denilson - 1
Gilberto - 5
Djourou - 0 (13 with Birmingham)
Traore - 0
Hoyte - 1
Walcott - 3
Van Persie - 7
Bendtner - 1

Clearly not the first choice squad.

diably 30 games for Arsenal , denilson 30 games ,walcott 33 games .van persie 122 games ,hoyte 50 games .....sanderos 12 gilberto 113 .... djourou 13 ... over last 3 seasons ... the true story of your "reserves"

First XI:

-----------Almunia
Sagna, Touré, Gallas, Clichy
Hleb, Cesc, Flamini, Rosický
---van Persie, Adebayor

How many of them started the game? One - van Persie played despite poor match fitness levels.
How many of them came into the game as a substitute? One - Sagna came on for Djourou.

It's as simple as that.

clearly a backup team we played, we got outplayed by a primarily first strangth Spurs team and still salvaged a point after playing arguably the worst soccer weve played all season. be worried for this return leg Spurs fans. we couldnt have played any worse and you still couldnt beat us.

SPOT ON!

It's not...



They didn't get any points.

An enjoyable game to watch, I felt we generally played well and not wanting to harp on about it but I don't think we would have seen such a performance if Ramos hadn't taken over the reigns.

The signs for the future look promising, Ramos got a performance out of the same players Jol struggled with.

A wise old sage* once said 'This is my Moment' and that was ours last night, but we still fluffed it.
Strong performances from all the lads, but the chances were there to finish the game off: Keane frustrated, Malbranque missed, and Defoe blazed over.

It was refreshing to see the Lillywhites walk out actually believing in themselves - but the reality is it was an Arsenal second XI, regardless of how many games the players have under their belts.
They also have a good record at The Lane so I wouldn't be surprised to see them grind out another result unfortunately, but this competition represents our best chance for European football next season so fingers crossed the lads will be well up for the 2nd leg.

In my opinion Ledley King was a beacon of light at the back for us, his performance the highlight of the night for me.
And I must feel a mention should be made to the referee also - the game was allowed to flow, the passion of a derby was not watered down by needless yellow cards aplenty, and you hardly noticed the ref on the pitch (in a good way) A big thumbs up from me.
A perfect example was Ledley took out Eduardo, it was a foul no doubt - the ref spoke to King, Eduardo got straight back up (credit to him) and the match continued with all players giving 100% without fear of pointless retribution. I don't think any cards were shown last night.

I had to chuckle when Walcott fluked his goal, put his hand up to his ears in front of the Spurs support and then proceeded to publically shat himself.
And I hate to say it but I think Defoe may take over Sagna's mantle of 'Most Stupidest Haircut'. What a nob.

Another good advert for the North London derby, which I believe (albeit possibly a biased opinion) to be the most entertaining derby when compared to its Merseyside and Mancunian counterparts.





*Martine McCutcheon circa 1999

well we started off well and the first 10-15 mins we palyed the ball around nicely and Spurs seemed a bit hesitant to get stuck in and try anything . When they did start to attack they caused us quite a few problems and at times we were badly out of position .

The Tottenham goal was nicely set up and well taken by Jenas , but it was bad defending by us ...but for some poor finishing by Spus we could have been 3-0 down by half time .

I agree with J-Axe that Gilberto is just a shadow of his former self and just does not seem interested when playing at the moment , Diaby is trying too much and Walcott needs to keep it simple ...although he did play better second half . Robin Van Persie was quite clearly not ready to play really ...never in the game i thought ...should have started with Bendtner and Eduardo .

The goal by Walcott came off his shoulder/arm , that is not handball ..if anyone is saying that it was . So ...to sum it all up , we were very lucky to come away with a draw and we will need to step up a gear at White Hart Lane if we do want to get to the final again .

anyone know who the 8 players are?
i heard about defoe and robinson
haven't read a paper in a while...

Couldnt watch this game last night so recorded it and watching it now, a good result at the Emirates that is, result as I predicted and hopes for but watching it now we could have easily gone on to win if only for some more composure infront of goal.

Sets up a good match back at the Lane.

Got to say Ohara has definitely earned his spot in the first team and should stay there until his form says otherwise. Jenas man of the match, anyone who doubts how important he is to us just needs to watch the games we dont have him compared to the ones we do.

Good to see Cerny have a good game, Robbo spat the dummy at Ramos about being dropped and im told is either off to Barcelona, or Fulham.

ah ~ too bad it's a draw ~ i'd really like to see Spurs win [Gunners scored when i passed out ~ lol]
the first goal by Spurs came from a great collaboration ~ and i knew it would've been a goal before it happened ~ i haven't seen Gunners's goal anyway ~ was it a good one too? lol

Yea that drinking yourself to sleep thing works every time

Once again we contrive to throw away a promising position against a top four club. This time though the goal came out of nothing. We virtually bossed the entire match, save for the opening period. Arsenal never looked like scoring in a million years but everyone knows that with Spurs’ defence a goal can come out of the blue.

I’m very proud of the way Spurs played, and I don’t just put that down to Arsenal having a weakened side out – we bossed their senior side a couple of weeks ago. It’s just that Ramos is trying to instil a winning mentality and a fearless attitude to playing football, regardless of who we’re playing against. It’s certainly looking promising.

I don’t want to be greedy because I’d have taken a point beforehand, it’s just that we had a golden chance to break the hoodoo against them and didn’t take it. 1-1 is still a good result though.

I’m still confident that we’ll go through at The Lane, especially if they send the kids out again. That unbeaten record won’t last forever.

almost certain Wenger will continue with the kids ....along with maybe a couple of first teamers ... It is still anyones game really ....we have to score at White Hart Lane that is a certainty as a 0-0 draw would take Spurs through on away goals ..after extra time .

Right hold on a minute.... I'd just like to bring all Spurs fans down to a little place I like to call Earth.

We had no given right to be walking away with a draw last night let alone get as far as we have in this competition with our second string, under 21 kids out!! Arsenal don't take this competition seriously.. it's only because it was a North London derby we're all talking about it and making into a bog deal. If it wasn't Tottenham and we had lost it'll just be a shrug of the shoulder's and a "oh well"

It's laughable, Spurs multi-million pound side should have destroyed the likes of Senderos, Djourou, Hoyte, Fabianski (3rd choice keeper) Traore (whole battled well against international Lennon!!) I believe it's only because they had such a differcult game against Burnley otherwise we might have got a better result.

If I was a Spurs fan I would be absolutely fuming with that result! that's not a top 4 side you played against but a mid-table at best. The problem is your so used to have seven shades of sh!t kicked out of ya that you come away thinking..."phew...we didn't lose" it's so funny.

I'm hoping Wenger will mix youth with experience at WHL and get the result we want. Unfortunately we're only play our kids against Chelsea (Should they make the final) and will lose against them.

You're right about Arsenal not taking this competition seriously, their fans dont even care. Imagine not selling out your stadium for a semi-final against your local rivals. Plastic fans.

^ My understanding behind that was due to security reasons. And the late release of tickets to the general public.

They sold out against Newcastle in the Carling Cup, I see no reason why they couldn't sellout with Tottenham coming into town.

It was still 53,136, 20,000 more than that sh1t hole down the road!!

Our stadium has character yours is just new and fancy.

Talk about grasping for straws! what a load of bollox.
[Edit: Watch your langauge, please refer to the new forum rules in the announcements section]