Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HARRY’S HOUDINI MIRACLE
IF ANY Tottenham fan tells you they went to Harry Redknapp’s first game in charge, ask them if they stayed until the final whistle.
The chances are they didn’t. Most had left the Emirates Stadium that night believing their side was going to lose 4-2 – at the very least.
That was the score entering the 89th minute of Redknapp’s North London derby debut...
Spurs were in crisis in October 2008, bottom of the Premier League with two points from eight games.
Juande Ramos, who had steered them to the League Cup the previous season, had to go and they turned to Redknapp (below).
He wondered how a team that included Gareth Bale and Luka Modric could possibly find themselves where they were.
Redknapp was present for Spurs’ first win of the season, a 2-0 victory over Bolton, before taking charge for the trip to Arsenal.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger had decided against signing Modric, and David Bentley had played only 61 minutes in the Premier League under Wenger.
So Bentley will have taken particular satisfaction in the 13th minute, when he teed-up a 40-yard strike that Gunners keeper Manuel Almunia got a hand to, but could not keep out.
The scores were level at half-time after Mikael Silvestre headed in Robin van Persie’s corner and within a minute of the restart, Arsenal were ahead, William Gallas converting Van Persie’s free-kick.
Van Persie set up the third as well. His pass landed in between Samir Nasri and keeper Heurelho Gomes.
Nasri got there first to lift the ball over Gomes and Emmanuel Adebayor stabbed in for 3-1.
Darren Bent got Spurs back in the game after 67 minutes, mopping up after Almunia could not hang onto Tom Huddlestone’s piledriver, but 84 seconds later Van Persie belted a shot past Gomes to make it 4-2 and that was how it stayed until the game entered the 89th minute.
But then Jermaine Jenas bent home from the edge of the area and astonishingly, four minutes into injurytime, Tottenham got level – Modric slammed a shot against the post and Aaron Lennon tapped in.