3  Bakary SAGNA
  5  Laurent KOSCIELNY
  6  Thomas VERMAELEN       (  4 Per MERTESACKER 46)
17  Nacho MONREAL

44  Serge GNARBY
10  Jack WILSHIRE (20 Mathieu FLAMINI 71)
  7  Thomas ROSICKY 
  8  Mikel ARTETA (c) (11 Mesut OZIL 75)
19  Santi CAZORLA 

14  Theo WALCOTT
 

Unused subs: 
13  VIVIANO
25  Carl JENKINSON
30  PARK Chu-Young
  9  Lukas PODOLSKI
 

  2  Kyle WALKER
20  Michael DAWSON (c)
  6  Vlad CHIRICHES
  3  Danny ROSE

  7  Aaron LENNON
42  Nabil BENTALEB
19  Mousa DEMBELE
23  Christian ERIKSEN

  9  Roberto SOLDADO (21  Nacer CHADLI )
10  Emmanuel ADEBAYOR

Unused subs: 
24  Brad FRIEDEL
43  Ryan FREDERICKS
35  Zeki FRYERS
15  Etienne CAPOUE
45  Jon OBIKA
31  Harry KANE
 

The Third Round draw back in early December pitted us on a short trip across North London and to the league leaders.  While teams from lower leagues have dreams of playing a big club, as a Spurs fan, I share these and would look forward to a trip to Macclesfield or Rochdale once in a while.  We went into the game in good form and I hope that after a 0-2 defeat that we can kick off again in the Premier League, picking up where we left off at Old Trafford.

Tim Sherwood made the bold choice of including Nabil Bentaleb instead of Etienne Capoue, who had an outstanding game at Manchester United. We have been told by Sherwood that he is more au fait with the Under-21s than the first team, but that should not colour his judgement on picking a team to win a game.  Bentlaeb played well, but with Arsenal only playing one up front, their five midfielders looked like they might enjoy playing around four in the opposition, with one being a newcomer at that.  They played an 18 year old themselves in Gnarby, who was in midfield and he showed that the experience he has had in the first team made him a little more assured than Nabil.

Other than that, the team was much the same as at United, so we hoped for a similar performance.

An early corner saw Dembele hit back a clearance but it was stopped by head. Spurs were pushing forward but got caught out when a Chiriches clearance was blocked out wide and Gnarby played it low into the box from the dead ball line, but there was nobody there to receive it.

In the ninth minute, Christian Eriksen intercepted a pass by Koscielny and was through on goal to the left, but Fabianski managed to get a touch on the ball to stop it beating him at his near post and it went away for a corner.

Three minutes later, Walcott ran at the defence and from just right of centre he had a low shot from 20 yards out that Hugo Lloris did well to dive to his right to push wide for a corner. Nothing came from that but in the second phase from their next corner, Gnarby hit a shot coming in from the right that just cleared Lloris' bar.

A late tackle on Mousa Dembele by Vermaelen, which earned him a booking, gave Eriksen a chance to hit a free kick at Fabianski's goal and it went a foot over. When play went to the other end, Cazorla shot wide form just outside the box after Vermaelen had made a well-timed tackle to deny a neat turn by Soldado.

Arsnela made a break through the Spurs defence, with Walcott put in on goal, but his low shot from the right was blocked by Lloris' legs. But Hugo could do nothing when Arsenal broke on Spurs and Gnabry put Cazorla in on the left and drilled his shot to the keeper's right to give the home team the lead with 30 minutes gone. Spurs had been giving the Arsenal midfielders a bit too much space to run at them and that was the reason the first goal came about.

Fat Wilshire was doing his usual wind up in midfield, pulling Dembele's shirt whenever he could and then barging into him, but Mousa wasn't having any of it. The Arsenal midfielder conned the referee into giving them a free kick when he ran straight into Bentaleb 30 yards out, but Walcott's shot hit the wall. A corner resulted and from it, the same player struck a volley that flew two yards over the bar from the edge of the box.

Clattenburg was falling for Wilshire's antics every time. His late nudges were ignored while tackles on him that saw the fat man rock the turf.

Spurs worked the ball well as half-time approached, moving it from right to left and then back again for Kyle Walker to set up Soldado for a shot from the right corner of the box that he dragged across the keeper, but a couple of yards wide.

At half-time, the talk was of Tottenham's midfield and how they were coping with Arsenal's middle five. The need to pick up the runners was uppermost in the way they would need to stifle the way the home team were playing. The build up work by Spurs was good but they needed to ensure that the final ball was the right one and was designed to pick out its target.

From the kick off Spurs own a corner and from it Monreal headed it narrowly wide of his own goal under pressure from Chiriches. This one was taken long and it was met on the volley by Roberto Soldado, but he was being closed down and it flew well over.

Adebayor started the second half with a mixture of good and bad. He was holding the ball up well to force markers to foul him, but then he was playing loose passes to concede possession. Eight minutes into the half, Spurs broke well, as Dembele picked the ball off Gnabry, but the final shot from Soldado was pulled across goal from the right to go wide to the left.

Three minutes later, Spurs almost capitalised on another loose pass. Monreal cleared but straight to Walker, who freed Lennon on the right wing and his cross picked out Ade, whose good control brought the ball down. However, as he swivelled to strike it from around the penalty spot, his legs went from under him and he only half-hit his shot into the ground.
The Arsenal crowd were getting to Adebayor a bit, as he was jeered every time he got the ball and cheered every time he lost it. It looked only a matter of time before he blew and did something that might cost Tottenham.

As it was, it was Danny Rose who cost Spurs. Walcott had got in behind the Tottenham defence to go around Lloris, but could only hit the side netting, then the Spurs left back was alone on the halfway line. He tried to take the ball past Rosicky as he was closed down, but the got a foot to the ball that took him away into the Spurs half on his own. Walker tried to get back, but he was too far ahead and lifted the ball over Lloris as he went to ground to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute.

From there on, Arsenal were just keen on holding the ball and opening up chances when they could. Monreal went down under challenge from Walker in the box and wanted a penalty, but his claims were waved away. Mousa hit a shot from the edge of the box in the 69th minute, but Fabianski dived and got behind it. Interestingly, when Walker burst past Monreal, the Arsenal man barged into him, but once more Clattenburg waved play on.

In the 77th minute, there was a massive mix-up in our defence, when Walcott was offside and Vlad messed up his clearance, giving the ball back to Cazorla, who found Walcott this time and his shot went a foot wide with the whole goal to aim at.

Spurs won a corner and Bentaleb won a low header at the near post, but it came off his shoulder and went wide. With 12 minutes left, Walker picked up a clearance to his own cross in the right hand corner of the penalty box and the ball lifted up to hit Cazorla's hand, but would Clattenburg give a decision ? Nooooooooo.

The play had continued while Walcott was laying on the floor, but he managed to get up to chase Rose back and conceded a corner, before going down again. After treatment he was carried off on a stretcher. Having used all three subs, Arsenal had to play on with ten men. Walcott was making a 2-0 sign to the Spurs fans as he was carried away in front of them and coins rained down as well as the rain, so no doubt Spurs fans will be criticised, while the perpetrator will not be mentioned.

Tottenham created few chances despite having an extra man, but Arsenal just packed their defence, as they did towards the end of the league game. A short free-kick to Chadli was struck at goal, but it was blocked.  Then Clattenburg gave a free-kick against Lennon for handball on the halfway line when it was blasted at him from close range. Funny how it is a handball there and not in the penalty area. From it Arsenal released substitute Ozil and his low cross-shot was touched aside by Lloris.
.
The five men in midfield were too much for Spurs and although there was only Walcott up front, they did support him well and there was a lot of tracking back needed by the Spurs midfield. Their passing was better than ours today and we were not penetrative enough in the last third.

A defeat in the FA Cup is not the end of the world, even if it was to Arsenal.

We will need to battle better when it comes for points, but a week's grace before the meeting with Crystal Palace might get some players back fit again.

Isaac Gregory

However he has got his karma now because he is out of action for 6 months thus missing out on playing on the greatest stage of any footballers career, the World Cup.  Shame, but, as a professional footballer earning thousands a week, he needs to grow up as well as some of our fans.

PS  Why has Brendan Rodgers been pulled up by the FA for his ref comments but David Moyes hasn't for his "the FA need to look at who they employ for these types of games" remark after Mr Webb dared not to award the usual penalty at Old Trafford ?