Toothless Spurs spurn chance

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Tottenham 0 Arsenal 0IN THE end even bitter rivals were united in seething frustration. Tottenham Hotspur remain precariously placed just above the relegation cut-off, the exasperation at their inability to pierce an Arsenal side forced to play the majority of this game with 10 men matched only by the visitors' sense of grievance over an early disallowed goal. Both managers grumbled in dissatisfaction at the implications of parity. In truth, this contest merely served to expose just why these clubs' seasons have veered so horribly off course.

It was Spurs who had more reason to depart enraged, though, like Arsenal, their failings here were invariably of their own making. They will never have a better chance to end a dismal sequence against their north London rivals, a decade having passed since Tottenham last prevailed in the Premier League, after being handed the initiative by Emmanuel Eboue’s crass stupidity eight minutes before the interval.

The Ivorian had already been booked for refusing to retreat at a free-kick when he was shoulder charged by Luka Modric and lunged out to trip the Croatian. The retaliation was well spotted by the officials and merited further sanction.

Eboue issued an apology post-match, a belated recognition of a rush of blood that might have wrecked Arsenal’s pursuit of the top four, but he could be thankful that Tottenham proved so gummy in his absence. The onus was on the them to carve open opponents whose ambition had been limited to counterattacks and pumped passes to Nicklas Bendtner, the Dane having replaced a hamstrung Emmanuel Adebayor who was still being carried around the pitch on a stretcher as Eboue made his own exit.

Yet Tottenham in their current fragile state do not boast the guile to unpick a massed defence. Modric was inventive and elusive here, but his deployment drifting in from the left rendered Spurs narrow when the situation demanded width to stretch the 10 men thinly across the surface.

As excellent as the Croat was, all slippery creation while Wilson Palacios snapped impressively at his side, Arsenal could contain his threat. Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who might have galloped more eagerly down the flank, offered an uncomfortable impression of a left-winger.

The home side had appeared happiest when Arsenal remained at full strength. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Aaron Lennon were wasteful when supplied by Modric, the playmaker then spinning away from Alex Song to drill a shot goalward that Manuel Almunia touched behind. Palacios, too, forced the Spaniard to save a vicious drive from distance but, once Arsenal had regrouped at the break, the opportunities became more sporadic. Samir Nasri moved infield alongside Song, the France winger revelling in life as a defensive shield while Denilson offered more security on the flank. Tottenham rather ran aground on their resolve.

This should have been an opportunity for Robbie Keane to reignite his own campaign, but the Republic of Ireland international’s second coming since his messy divorce from Liverpool rather petered out in anti-climax. A flicked header from Lennon’s second-half cross, the effort arcing over an open goal, was as much as Keane offered with the returning captain left to run the channels while those on the home bench cursed Jermain Defoe’s untimely absence.

As it was, the only player to find the net was, in fact, Eboue who, having benefited from Jonathan Woodgate’s mistake, wriggled to the by-line 14 minutes in and, once his low centre had prompted panic, tapped in the loose ball only for Mike Dean to cry foul. Woodgate may have been tripped by Adebayor – or, indeed, pushed by Eboue – but Wenger, from his distant dugout, could discern no wrongdoing. Thereafter, the contest’s most exhilarating passage of play was reserved for stoppage-time.

Both goalkeepers excelled in the rat-a-tat of late chances, Carlo Cudicini touching away Bendtner’s thrashed shot from distance before Spurs broke at speed with Adel Taarabt feeding Modric. The Croat had time to consider his finish before Almunia lept in to block his angled shot from close-range.

GuardianService