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A typically tough north London derby was settled in dramatic fashion as Lauren slotted home an 86th minute penalty to earn Arsenal a deserved 2-1 victory just as it looked as if Spurs were going to nick a point in their cup final.
Freddy had given us an early lead, latching onto Dennis Bergkamp's excellent pass before rolling the ball past Kasey Keller in the 24th minute.
Dennis came close to extending our lead after half an hour but his curling effort was palmed wide by Keller.
Yet for all our possession, Spurs might have gone in at the break level, Teddy Sheringham firing high over the bar when just six yards out. The flag was up anyway, but Sheringham's shot reminded Arsenal that their lead was a slender one.
The second half saw Freddie come close again, and Spurs appealing desperately to the linesman after Seaman appeared to have carried a cross over the line. But it remained 1-0 until, with just ten minutes remaining, referee Mike Halsey decided to liven things up a bit by awarding Spurs a dodgy penalty.
Gus Poyet snatched at a shot, missed and collided with David Seaman who had rushed out to stop the shot. Spurs did not appeal loudly, but Halsey pointed to the spot and our old friend Teddy Sheringham made no mistake drilling his penalty into the corner of the net.
That seemed to have earned Spurs a point and put the skids under our Championship challenge, but this Arsenal side is made of solid stuff, and they picked themselves up immediatly, laying siege to Tottenham's goal.
They got their reward when, with time running out, Dean Richards brought Thierry Henry down inside the area. TH has missed his last two spot-kicks and lay on the ground for a while (perhaps dreading a third crucial penalty miss on the trot) but he needn't have worried. Lauren picked the ball up and in front of an ecstatic North Bank sent it past Keller to win the game and send us back to the top of the Premiership.
Incidentally after the game a large crowd gathered outside the dressing room window in the East Stand. The players were clearly delighted with the win and joined in with much of the singing. Thierry Henry got well into it, Freddie did some headbanging and some bright spark (Sylvain Wiltord I think) taped Sol's shirt to the window sending the crowd wild in the process. Top stuff.
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