Tottenham Hotspur has refused to blame http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Emmanuel-Adebayor-c12526 for the 5-2 defeat against Arsenal yesterday following the striker’s early sending off.
The Togolese opened the scoring for the visitors in the opening 10 minutes after he tucked the ball in from a rebound coming off a http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jermain-Defoe-c18359 strike.
The man who once was a constant thorn in Tottenham’s side back when he was an Arsenal player had not scored against his former club in one of the most popular and fiercely contested derbies in http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749.
Tottenham looked like they were in cruise control up until Adebayor rushed into a late and rash tackle on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Santi-Cazorla-c32505. The challenge was late and Adebayor went in with his studs-up. Luckily, Cazorla escaped unscathed, but Adebayor was given his marching
orders by referee Howard Webb.
The sending off proved to be the turning point of the game, and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lukas-Podolski-c22896.
The second half saw 3 more goals, with Cazorla and Walcott getting their names on the score sheet, and deservedly so, while http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gareth-Bale-c14422 got a 2nd goal for Tottenham.
It was all too similar and reminiscent of last season’s North London derby, which had also ended 5-2. Arsenal got the result they needed, while Tottenham suffered their third consecutive defeat in the league.
Manager Andre Villas-Boas however remains upbeat and has told his team to be proud of their fighting performance. The Portuguese believes that his team were the better side of the two, and were in cruise control up until the sending off.
Villas-Boas agrees with the red card decision, but has refused to blame the Togolese for their defeat. When asked if the red card swung the game in Arsenal’s favour, he replied:
“No – first I am very, very proud of my players. I think it was too much playing with 10 men.”
“The sending off, these things happen in football. I think the referee made the right decision, but today I’m very proud of my team.”
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