Not sure, but Spurs have a four-year overall win drought against Arsenal. 40th min. -- King, on a quick counter, forces Lehman to save well off his line. 43rd min. -- Kanu gets a good look at goal from the top of the area, but shoots over Keller's goal.
44' Postiga in again on a great cross from Anderton. Some good counters by Tottenham in the last few minutes but Arsenal is still controlling the tempo.
45' Kanu screams for a handball on Anderton in the box but receives no joy from the referee. The replay clearly shows a case of ball playing the hand, rather than hand playing the ball. In fact, it looks like Kanu intentionally scooped the ball into Anderton's hand to try and get the call.
HALFTIME Arsenal 0-1 Spurs Anderton in the 5th. Stats: Arsenal ============= Spurs 6 goal attempts 3 2 shots on 2 61% possession 39% 1 yellow cards 3 0 red cards 0 6 fouls 8 2 offsides 4 5 corners 0 4 crosses 1
Once again, gamesmanship. Halftime whistle goes... ARSENAL 0 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 Anderton 4 61-39 percent possession edge to Arsenal, says on the broadcast. With the Gunners having that run of play, Spurs' defence has been up to the task, and Kasey Keller has been even better. Keller's made a few key saves, including a couple of early ones on Thierry Henry. Wjarretc, the PbP's yours for the second half. Bedtime beckons for me, as my wife's already asleep beside me.
Mark Halsey is in the center. He's done a good job with foul recognition in my mind. In some ways I think he may have gone to the cards too soon because later in the second half there were plenty of fouls and tussles every bit as severe as the earlier offenses he booked but he slowed down on the card production. I'm sure he was hoping those early cards would calm things down from the start but I'm not sure they bought him what he was looking for. If he's not careful he'll be in a position shortly where he'll have no choice but to send someone off for a second bookable offense. As a fellow referee, I'm curious to see what kind of tone he sets in the first 5 minutes of the second half.
I'll be here as long as I can but our guests (and their toddlers) are starting to get restless (I'm the only real football fan in the family) so I may have to finish the game up on TiVo. Anybody else out there watching this one that can help out on the PbP?
I can manage to hold off on sleep, I guess, if there are no other PbP volunteers. No changes at the break, for either side, as the second half commences.
47th min. -- Lehman and Gardner having words, after Campbell stretches fully on a tackle to deny King. Corner to Spurs, which Lehman clears.
49' Tarrico gets the first yellow of the second half. 53' Postiga leaves another shot begging. This one from 20 yds out is shot wide. 54' Scoop pass finds Kanu behind the Spurs defense but he's offside.
55' Lauren cross deflected out for a corner. Pires corner cleared out to midfield. 56' Spurs counter broken up by fouling Carr in midfield. 57' Bergkamp lacing up his boots on the sideline. Lehman comes outside his box to deal with a long ball down the right flank. 58' Better possession now from Spurs. Konchesky makes a nice move to create a chance but his last pass can't find its target. Another attack by Spurs down the left flank and they've won a corner (first of the game for Spurs?)
62' Konchesky's dangerous cross headed to safety by Campbell. Corner punched not clear by Lehman but Arsenal's defense punts the ball down field. Quick counter by Spurs falls victim to the offside trap.
It's always good to know that. Sometime it feels like we're just doing this to increase our post counts