Mauricio Pochettino believes his Tottenham Hotspur side were better than Arsenal in the north London derby on Saturday, which ended 1-1, but has indicated that the draw was a fair result.
Aaron Ramsey gave Arsenal the lead at Wembley in the first 15 minutes and the Gunners were close to holding on to a famous away win over their north London rivals.
But Shkodran Mustafi fouled Harry Kane inside the box from a free-kick tussle and the Tottenham striker converted from the spot kick to level things up in the 74th minute for the home side.
However, Arsenal received another golden opportunity to take all three points when Davinson Sanchez was adjudicated to have fouled Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang inside the box in the final minutes.
But Aubameyang’s resultant penalty kick was saved by Hugo Lloris, and Jan Vertonghen produced a brilliant block seconds later to keep the ball away from the goal.
Pochettino admits that the events of the final few minutes of the game might have made it look that Tottenham escaped with a point, but he believes his side were better than Arsenal.
He admits that the performance was not the best and feels a draw was probably the fair result, but believes it was an important point for Spurs after suffering back-to-back league defeats.
“I think if you assess the game I think we were better than Arsenal in all the aspects”, Pochettino said in a press conference.
“But of course in the way that it finished, with the penalty missing by Arsenal, and the action that we didn't get after because it was a clear penalty on Harry Kane, from lose to win, maybe.
“I think it was a fantastic game, such an exciting game, great atmosphere with two teams who wanted to play and win the game.
"It's always tough to play against Arsenal.
“It was tough because to concede after 15 minutes was tough for us. But of course, I am so happy with the character, the personality and the way that in the end, we played.
“It wasn't great our performance, but it was very good to draw and then maybe deserve to win.
"After two defeats it was important today to build again our positive ways.”
Manchester United’s win over Southampton has pushed Arsenal out of the top four, with Tottenham still holding a three-point lead over the Red Devils.
