Tottenham Hotspur took on Arsenal in yet another full-blooded and thrilling North London Derby this afternoon, with the honours split between the two rivals.
There were many huge events through the ninety minutes, including two goals, two penalties, a red card, and many other contentious decisions.
Aaron Ramsey opened the scoring early on after a Davinson Sanchez mistake in defence, with Tottenham unable to find a reply until well into the second half.
Harry Kane was eventually pushed in the box and a penalty was awarded, with the man himself stroking it home.
Spurs then made a push to win the game, before Sanchez made another mistake, handing a penalty to the Gunners.
Luckily Lloris was able to save it, and Vertonghen hoisted it clear. Lucas Torreira was then sent off for a high studded tackle on Danny Rose.
However, Pochettino believes the turning point in the NLD was before all this, as Granit Xhaka hacked down Harry Kane from behind after 12 minutes.
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Despite his studs slamming into the back of Kane’s leg, no foul was given.
Poch said (Football London): “Sometimes we focus on a few actions. But I think that the action that changed the game was after 12 minutes. The action from Xhaka to Harry Kane that wasn’t even a foul. That was the action that afterwards changed everything in the dynamic of the game.”
On whether Xhaka could have seen red, Poch added: “No, no I said foul, yellow, amber or red, that is the referee’s decision. I’m not going to say which, but it wasn’t even a foul. That changed or not changed? To play after 12 minutes, if the foul was for us we could have scored a goal. If it’s a yellow card the aggression of the player drops. Amber, well we don’t use amber. Red and it’s clear you’ll have an advantage.
“But please make it an exercise to watch this action and afterwards we can talk about whether it was offside, a penalty or not, different decisions, if Torreira should have been sent off in the final minutes, but we are going to put everything and after 12 minutes it can decisive. If you score in the first second of the game maybe you win 1-0. It can be decisive not only the actions at the end if you are going to win a game.”
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