'We couldn’t find the creativity'

For a record 24th time in the Premier League, the first team to score in the north London derby failed to win the game.

This time we fell foul of that statistical quirk and Arsene Wenger agreed that it was “two points lost” when he faced the media after the game:

• 'These games hurt me the most'
• Read the match report from Emirates Stadium
• 'We lost our rhythm after the penalty'
• Wenger on the penalty and title race

on his assessment of the game…
It was a game of high intensity where I felt in the first half we looked always like we could score every time we crossed the halfway line and in the second half we looked a bit more flat physically, a bit more less sharp and we couldn’t find the creativity, the fluency around the box nor the vision we are used to.

I think our level dropped and we were a bit too stretched as well. Spurs defended well on some crosses in the final 10 to 15 minutes, I feel there were some balls where the fact that despite three tall players we couldn’t make enough of corners and we missed some crosses as well. So overall it was high intensity, technically I think our level dropped in the second half and the desire was there. Maybe the result is fair.

on whether the performance was affected by a midweek trip to Bulgaria…
No, I don’t think so. No. Maybe I felt we were not compact enough. We were stretched and after you that you run more - we did in the first half but not in the second half. In the first half they played many long balls and they stretched us because we pressurised very high, so it’s more difficult. Did we get a little bit of a mental blow when they equalised? I don’t know. But overall I felt that when we were questioned in the final 30 minutes, we had no physical answer good enough to win the game. But we tried. I cannot question the spirit and the intensity of the game, but we lacked, we looked a bit flat.

on if there were any plans to counter the Spurs back three…
We knew how to play against a back three, we knew that they could play with a back three. You know, I felt that that was not the basic problem. There were some other areas in the game where we had a problem.

on whether he was surprised by the back three…
Not really, no.

on if he is surprised by the lack of ruthlessness today…
No, I felt we were quite dangerous in the first half a lot and we created many dangerous situations. I felt that we gave absolutely everything but we were not as sharp physically as we can be in the final part of the game.

More polls coming soon!