U21s report: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Arsenal

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WHAT HAPPENED

We were held to a 0-0 draw against Tottenham in a fierce north London derby at Hotspur Way on Saturday afternoon.

Mehmet Ali had an almost-full contingent of players to choose from, including our captain, Matt Smith, fresh from making the bench in midweek for the first team in the Europa League.

It was Smith who created the game's first real chance, collecting the ball deep from Taylor Foran, before picking out Nathan Butler-Oyedeji in behind, but our number nine sent his effort inches wide of the post.

Our early dominance continued, as Smith once again caused chaos for the Tottenham backline, this time feeding Amario Cozier-Duberry through one-on-one, who could only find the outstretched leg of Josh Keeley in the Tottenham goal with his strike.

On the stroke of half time our skipper almost got the goal that his first-half performance deserved, curling a free-kick from the edge of the box just wide of Keeley's post, as we went into the break level with our north London rivals.

The hosts started the second half brightly and almost took the lead through de Santiago Alonso, but for some goalkeeping heroics from Hubert Graczyk to deny the substitute from close range with a smart stop.

Tottenham continued to take the game to us and nearly capitalised on a defensive mishap from Zach Awe, with Graczyk forced to smother the ball away from the feet of Alfie Devine in a moment of chaos at the back.

The derby reached boiling point deep into stoppage time, as Jamie Donley was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Charles Sagoe Jr, before an altercation between both sets of players resulted in a second yellow for Kallum Cesay, meaning the hosts would play out the closing stages with nine men.