Alan Shearer column: Arsenal missed a key opportunity to go top of the Premier League against a weakened Spurs side short of confidence
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IT was a big opportunity for Arsenal to send out a statement in the North London Derby.
And while it was an excellent game and a fair result, I’m sure Arsene Wenger and his team will view it as a missed opportunity.
Spurs had two key players out in Toby Alderweireld and Dele Alli and were using a new system, plus Arsenal were playing at home.
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And while Spurs were going into it still unbeaten they hadn’t played well since they beat City at home.
They were slow and sluggish against Leicester and were awful against Leverkusen in midweek.
Arsenal will have looked at this one, seen how Spurs had been playing and will now feel it was two points dropped.
They’d have fancied their chances and had the opportunity to go top of the league after City were held by Middlesbrough.
Arsenal have a better team than last year but it remains to be seen if they’re good enough to win the league.
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I’m not going to say they can win it because they’ve fallen apart when it really matters too many times in recent years.
Shkrodan Mustafi has made a difference, while they have more muscle in midfield.
Also, playing Alexis Sanchez through the middle, has freed Mesut Ozil. Even though both of them were a little bit quiet against Spurs they are a better team with those two playing in tandem.
Mauricio Pochettino made a big call to go with three at the back. They had the better of the first 20 minutes. It was all Spurs and they looked comfortable.
But in the latter part of the first half Arsenal sussed out how to play and got runners in behind Kyle Walker in particular when he went forward, causing a few problems.
The second half was even-stevens. Neither of them did enough to win but Spurs will definitely feel better about it. It was a positive result for them and they looked a lot better with Harry Kane back.
Suddenly they had runners going behind him, which we haven’t seen for a few weeks.
Christian Eriksen had a better game and Son Heung-Min was lively.
After nearly two months out, as you'd expect Kane wasn’t fully match fit but he immediately gave Spurs a presence that allowed the midfield to make those runs off him, while he can go both ways as well.
He can come short or go long. More importantly, as soon as he is on the pitch the other Spurs players look at him and have more confidence in what they are doing.
It was a very positive result for Spurs but if Tottenham want to do better than last year they have to get more goals from midfield.
Eriksen hasn’t scored yet, Moussa Sissoko has done nothing for them so far and Dele needs to put more chances away, while they need to get more out of Erik Lamela too.
The plus for them is Mousa Dembele. He was the pick of the bunch, man of the match and deservedly so.
And Danny Rose was brilliant, absolutely excellent. All match he was up and down, offering things going forward and secure defensively.
His development over the past couple of years has been a big plus for Tottenham and I felt that system actually suits him, too.
He looked naturally comfortable and where Arsenal were able to get in behind Walker when he pushed forward, Rose was never exposed in the same way.