Arsenal:
              Lehmann
Djourou Toure Senderos (Eboue 54) Flamini
  Pires Gilberto Diaby (Cesc 62) Reyes
     van Persie (Henry 62) Adebayor

But in principle it was a rational gamble, it just didn't pay off and that's the nature of gambling. The visitors had much the best of the match, and the chances, until the double substitution on the hour which saw Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas come on. Tottenham looked like the home side for most of the game up till then, and were fully deserving of at least a point.

I'll leave detailed discussion of their 'controversial' goal till that point in the report. For now I'll just say that I didn't see anything wrong with it.

We had a couple of early half-chances. Reyes got a cross in from a nice van Persie pass inside the full back, but the defence was able to clear. And Adebayor won a free kick on the wing which van Persie whipped in for Gilberto to glance a header just wide of the post.

On 14, Tainio had a header on target from a cross from their left by Lee. Tainio did well to pull away from Senderos, but the cross was still a bit behind him and stretching his neck back to get to it meant that he couldn't get power on the header - it looped easily into Lehmann's arms.

Lennon, looking lively coming in from the right, beat Senderos on the edge of the box after a neat interchange with Keane on the touchline. But, with plenty of time to compose himself, he dragged his shot beyond the far post.

Then they apporached again through Lennon. He squared to Defoe in the D who did well to create a bit of space before trying a Wrighty-style chip over Lehmann. But he didn't get enough on it and again the ball looped nicely into the keeper's arms. Davids had been in acres of space to Defoe's left.

More good approach play by Tottenham ended with a Carrick chip into the box for Defoe, who took it down well but, with only Lehmann to beat, fired it at the keeper's nose. Lehmann didn't know a lot about it, but you've got to applaud the save for his positioning and making himself into a big obstacle. Defore should have scored though, any kind of low shot would almost certainly have gone in.

Davids fouled Pires for a yellow card, not long after Senderos had been a bit lucky to get away with barging Keane off the ball in our box. It was legal, just, but a lot of refs might have given the penalty.

Towards the end of the first half we at last had a decent chance. A Gilberto header turned defence into attack when it fell for Jose Reyes. He brought the ball forward before slotting a terrific pass into the path of :Robin_van_Persie. Under pressure, his first touch made him the inch he needed for a shot, and with his second touch he drove it goalwards with good power but too close to Robinson in the Tottenham goal.

Then Carrick should have done better after a mazy run which took him past 3 Arsenal players (two of them, Djourou and Gilberto, twice each). But his second to last touch was too strong as he got into the box on their left and took him too close to the goal-line from where he could only find the side-netting.

Early in the second half van Persie did well to switch directions in the box and take the ball to the goal-line on the right. He drove the ball across the face of goal and Robinson got a slight touch on it. But it still went over past the far post, where Mathieu Flamini had been a bit hesitant in attacking the post and was miles off getting the touch the cross was begging for.

Then, 9 minutes after the break, Senderos had to limp off and on came Eboue - replacing Djourou at right back while the Swiss youngster took the place of his compatriot alongside Kolo Toure.

Straight away, the more attacking Eboue was involved in that way. He raced up the right and fed van Persie whose shot trickled across the face of goal.

Then it was Gilberto's turn to put the Dutchman in, with a superb pass forward fromn the halfway line. Van Persie chased it down and got there just before Robinson, but could only poke it past the keeper and, agonisingly, also past his left hand post.

Then Lennon had a go with a volley on their right, which flew wide of the far post.

With half an hour to go, Wenger decided it was time to change things, bringing on Thierry Henry and Cesc Fabregas for van Persie and Abou Diaby, who'd not been involved nearly enough.

5 minutes later, the visitors took the lead. It all started with Carrick bringing the ball out of their half. Just inside ours, Gilberto and Eboue converged on him, but collided with each other. Carrick followed the ball to the touchline on their left, and gathered it while the 2 Arsenal players were down. He looked over, towards the ref who was right by the incident and towards a teammate also in that vicinity. The ref took a look at the Arsenal men and, rightly in my opinion, decided that there was no need to hold up play. Gilberto was on his way back up and Eboue was down and holding his leg, but not in such a way as to make you think it was a very serious injury. Jol was gesticulating from the touchline right by Carrick. He claims that he was telling Davids to get onside but others have claimed he was shouting 'play, play' (and this is what appears to have angered Wenger in particular). Either way, he was within his rights and Wenger's failure to shake hands with Jol at the end was a bit over the top. Not that I'd want to sound overly critical though, it's always good to know that your players and managers care that much.

Anyway, Carrick played the ball forward for Davids, who put a good cross through the box for Keane who was coming in on the far side beyond the last defender, and made no mistake with the easy chance.

Arsenal responded well. A nice move ended with Henry on the right edge of their box where he held the ball well before feeding a cross through to Reyes who shot first time forcing an excellent low save out of Robinson, who had to change direction to get down to it.

Eboue played a good one-two with Henry and powerd on to the goal line on the right, before hitting a cross which was blocked but came back to Reyes a few yards behind Eboue. He rifled in another cross which ricocheted off 2 defenders and popped luckily into the keeper's arms.

With just 5 minutes left we grabbed the equaliser which keeps alive the faint hope of getting back into the Champs League next year through league position. It was finished with a couple of world class touches from Henry, but created by superb strong play from Emmanuel Adebayor.

He received the ball from a defensive header, 15 yards inside our half and the same distance towards our left touchline. He turned and took it to that wing, where he muscled his way past Staltieri and started infield again. He slipped the ball into the box as Henry made his run into it. Thierry touched the ball on with his right foot then with his second touch flicked the ball past Robinson with the outside of the same foot, and inside the right post.

A minute later Davids picked up his second yellow card, getting a bit over-eager after habing been tacjkled and feeling he should have been given a free kick. He also received a nice little pat on the back, followed by rather more of a shove, from Cesc as he walked off.

Tottenham defounded stoutly with 10 men for the remaining few minutes.

This leaves us still 4 points behind with a game in hand, and needing Bolton or West Ham to do us a favour. There's little hope for the West Ham game on the last day, I fear.