Spurs get just desserts

Harry Redknapp said Tottenham deserved their three points against Arsenal after an impressive second-half in the north London derby.

In an entertaining clash at White Hart Lane, the hosts picked up a 2-1 win with Kyle Walker netting the winner after Aaron Ramsey had cancelled out Rafael van der Vaart’s opener.

The victory was Tottenham’s fourth successive Premier League triumph and, speaking after the match, Redknapp felt his side had been worthy winners.

“We deserved the win; we were excellent after the break and had all the good chances throughout the half,” Redknapp said.

“We had got the goal before half-time and to be honest I nearly made the change at half-time to thicken us up in midfield by bringing an extra one on, but I thought I would continue and see how things went.”

“Then, unfortunately they got off to a better start in the second half and got the goal.”

“They were in the ascendancy at that point and watching the game you may have thought we were in trouble, but then we really upped it; we got better and stronger and really took over things in the second half.”

Redknapp had kind words for right-back Walker, who saw his long-range strike take Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny by surprise to hand his side a priceless derby victory.

“Kyle Walker is a great attacking full-back, he just loves to get forward,” Redknapp said.

“It was a great strike from Kyle. He has done ever so well and had a good to start to the new season.”

Arsenal boss admitted after the loss that the Gunners can no longer win the English Premier League title after a disastrous start to the season.

“If you say today we will win the league it is not realistic,” Wenger said.

“At the moment we are 12 points behind Manchester United and Manchester City. We have to fight to come back into a much better position, that’s reality.”

However, the Frenchman was dismayed that van der Vaart was not sent off after escaping a second yellow card for celebrating with fans after scoring his goal, which came after he appeared to use his hand to control the ball.

“It is frustrating as well because their first goal was handball,” Wenger said.

“I wonder what the linesmen do in these situations. It is a second yellow card as well because he already had one – for handball, on purpose.”

However, Wenger admitted his side had also been guilty of some poor defensive work.

“We lost the game when we were on top, and we conceded two poor goals,” he said.

“After the second goal I think we defended badly, and made two or three mistakes in the same situation.”