THE TIMES
King threatens Arsenal's reign
By Matt Hughes
After ten years, seven managers and almost £130 million spent on new players, Tottenham Hotspur can finally compete with Arsenal more or less as equals. The balance of power may not have swung decisively, but there is cause for a vigorous debate on who is the cock of North London. Evidence from this full-blooded derby match proved inconclusive.
It is a sign of changing times that Arsenal celebrated returning from White Hart Lane with a paltry point as if they had won the game, whereas those players with a cockerel on their chests refused to crow. Tottenham had scented victory and were disappointed to draw.
As Michael Carrick powered Tottenham forward in the first half, Wenger had cause to regret turning his nose up at the former West Ham United midfield player, or at least confirming his interest at Arsenal’s recent annual meeting. The 24-year-old was simply magnificent, stroking the ball with pinpoint accuracy from the base of midfield and driving his team-mates on, causing some admirers to compare him to Glenn Hoddle in his pomp.
If that is going a bit too far, then Carrick has few peers in the Barclays Premiership, particularly when it comes to striking the ball with both feet. After floating a free kick into the penalty area with his right foot, which Ledley King headed home to give Tottenham the lead in the seventeenth minute, he demonstrated his prowess with his left, shooting powerfully across the goal from 25 yards.
With King a colossus at the back and Jermain Defoe lively up front, Arsenal’s sole England international, Sol Campbell, laboured and showed his age. The 31-year-old’s mind remains willing but his body is all too weak, as he was frequently caught in possession and gave the ball away. If Rio Ferdinand can get his head together — a big "if", admittedly — then Campbell’s recent England recall against Austria could be his last.
After handing Manchester United a goal the previous weekend, Paul Robinson punched away Dennis Bergkamp’s 77th-minute free kick only as far as Pires and the Frenchman earned redemption with a well-taken finish.
Jol defended his goalkeeper, but it was Wenger who was left smiling. Having dropped the ball over Carrick, his judgment on Robinson, another one-time target, cannot be faulted.
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Class of Carrick not enough to kill off resolute Arsenal
By Henry Winter
Just when it seemed north London's power base really was heading up the Seven Sisters Road, the vehicle transporting bragging rights from Highbury to White Hart Lane got held up in heavy traffic organised by Arsene Wenger.
Outplayed by Michael Carrick and out-thought by Martin Jol during a first half of unremitting Spurs pressure
, Wenger's side refused to be out for the count.The Tottenham tempest was whipped up by the brilliant Carrick, who was all determined challenges on Freddie Ljungberg and Cesc Fabregas, all accurate passing and neat shooting with either responsive foot. Watched by England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, Carrick fashioned Spurs' 17th-minute goal, a flighted free-kick headed powerfully in by the unmarked Ledley King.
Spurs were dominant, the cockerel crowing loudly over north London, Jermaine Jenas eagerly joining Carrick in embarrassing Arsenal. Only Jens Lehmann's terrific reflexes denied the revitalised Jenas. Spurs exuded confidence.
Jermain Defoe was all clever feet and spinning-top menace, while good width was supplied by Aaron Lennon and Lee Young-Pyo. Lennon, all pace and purpose, looks a tremendous prospect, just needing to acquire more composure with the final ball. King and Michael Dawson were rocks at the back. No one can now doubt that Spurs' star is on the rise.
Arsene Wenger shed some caution, removing the anonymous Mathieu Flamini for the more creative Robert Pires, who seized on a bad error by Paul Robinson to stroke home the neatest of equalisers.
Rarely a laughing matter, this 150th north London derby should really leave both sides smiling. Arsenal will delight in their reaction to adversity without Thierry Henry, and the growing impact of Fabregas and Robin van Persie. Spurs are progressing under Jol as fast as one of Carrick's drives. What they now require, and inevitably will over time, is an understanding of how to stop a tide turning against them. The nous of the suspended Edgar Davids was much missed in the second half.
THE GUARDIAN
King rocks boat as Wenger bids for conservative leadership
Jon Brodkin at White Hart Lane
Perhaps the dominance Arsenal enjoyed in the last half-hour will bolster their confidence but they were fortunate Tottenham had not put the match beyond them. Though Wenger is entitled to note his teams drew at Spurs even in his three title-winning seasons, they cannot have been as outplayed as they were before the interval on Saturday.
Tottenham are admittedly stronger than at any point since Wenger arrived at Highbury. Michael Carrick shone in their excellent first half, Ledley King and Michael Dawson impressed and Spurs would surely have won had they taken openings for 2-0 while on top. They could not maintain their high tempo, though, and relative inexperience also told as they dropped deeper and belief dipped.
Jol was delighted with his team's first half, in which King headed in a Carrick free-kick and Spurs looked on the rise, Arsenal in decline. Tottenham's pressing unsettled their opponents and they attacked purposefully, Carrick dictating and breaking up play, Jermain Defoe a menace when he drifted left and Jermaine Jenas getting forward effectively.
Jens Lehmann had made two good saves by the time Pires swept in his eighth goal in 10 derbies after Paul Robinson diverted a Bergkamp free-kick to him.
This game had reverted to type, Spurs playing as if they realised they were not supposed to win and Arsenal as if they recognised they were not meant to lose.
Man of the match: Michael Dawson (Tottenham)
THE INDEPENDENT
By Sam Wallace
There was no worse moment for Arsenal in the first half than when Sol Campbell misjudged a pass to Lauren so badly that it went straight into touch.
White Hart Lane expected an epochal match, the end of an era. The Tottenham supporters, whose side have not won a derby since 1999, and whose memories of a time of pre-eminence over Arsenal are more distant than that, were hoping for what Arsenal's vice-chairman, David Dein, once glibly described at Old Trafford as a "shift in power". What they got was a first half in which the tectonic plates of English football began to tremble just slightly before they settled back into a decidedly familiar aspect with Arsenal's second-half renaissance.
Pires scored the equaliser on 76 minutes after Paul Robinson's weak punch, yet it was the neutralisation of Michael Carrick's influence that was most important. In a Tottenham team that featured seven Englishmen he was the pick during the first half, a playmaker in Patrick Vieira's image who crossed the ball for King's goal and made you wonder at times if he could possibly be fitted into the England midfield. The answer is, most likely, no: Carrick's slow-burning career is taking shape at last but he has picked the wrong position, the wrong generation of English footballers to hope to break through in time for this summer's World Cup.
Not even Sven Goran Eriksson, the old master of compromise, who was in the stadium on Saturday, would be able to justify forcing Carrick into the current England midfield shape. Playing in a different, more withdrawn position in the second half, Carrick faded badly and it was hard not to agree with Wenger that if the second half had been 10 minutes longer Arsenal might well have won.