3 positives & negatives from frustrating North London derby

Positive #2: Unbeaten record maintained

In truth, there aren’t many positives to take from the match from an Arsenal perspective, but, at the very least, our unbeaten record remains intact.

A draw against Tottenham, especially at home, is rarely enough to be considered a good result, but it does take our points tally to 14 from a possible 18.

Negative #2: Team selection/substitutions

I am a huge fan of Mikel Arteta, however, in my opinion, his decision to start with no natural left-winger led to our attacking play becoming predictable.

The injuries to Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard of course limited his options, but, we must question why Reiss Nelson was recently handed a new contract if he is not trusted to start when all those above him in the pecking order are unavailable.

Without a natural winger in that position, our play felt unbalanced and we lacked width on our left flank given Oleksandr Zinchenko’s tendency to drift into midfield. With that in mind, not only do I believe Arteta was wrong to not start Nelson, but I also believe he waited far too long to bring him on from the bench too.

Perhaps the injury to Declan Rice forced Arteta into waiting longer than he wanted, but the 23-year-old looked dangerous when he came on and should have been introduced earlier.

Continued on the next slide…