Mauricio Pochettino knew the importance of his Tottenham side stopping the rot in the 1-1 north London derby draw with Arsenal.
Spurs came into the game on the back of two successive defeats – against Burnley and Chelsea – which had crippled their Premier League title challenge and they were perhaps lucky to avoid a third.
Having trailed to Aaron Ramsey’s first-half opener for much of the game, Harry Kane levelled from the spot before the Gunners were awarded their own penalty in the 90th minute.
"We came back stronger in the second half, equalised and then pushed to score again, but they defended well and Hugo made a big save. It’s a draw, we’ll take it and now we have to concentrate on the next game."— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) March 2, 2019
However, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris kept out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s effort to ensure Spurs held on to a point which keeps them just ahead in the race for the top four.
Pochettino, who insisted his side were the better team, was pleased to be able to travel to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League on Tuesday on the back of a positive result.
“I think it was a fantastic game, such an exciting game, a great atmosphere with two teams who wanted to play and win the game,” the Argentinian said.
“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 a great 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. We have a very difficult game on Tuesday against Borussia Dortmund and arriving in a better condition than we arrived today is going to be key.”
The game could easily have panned out differently had it not been for a brilliant double save by Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno on the stroke of half-time.
First he kept out Christian Eriksen’s first-time effort with his legs before pulling off an instinctive one-handed save from Moussa Sissoko’s follow-up, which everyone expected to ripple the net.
“I don’t know what happened, everything was so quick,” the goalkeeper told the club’s official website.
“Sissoko’s shot, I didn’t see the ball, I just reacted, I think the best saves are always those when you don’t quite know what happens!
“It is very frustrating because we conceded a late goal and also had chances to score with the penalty.
“We were a bit unlucky but that’s football.
“The first half was good and the second was not our best game, and the equaliser was deserved for Tottenham but in the end we had the chance (to win it).”
