That familiar November feeling? The draw against Tottenham will not make Arsene Wenger happy

Arsene Wenger nailed it. He closed his zipper in a flat five seconds inside the first quarter of the match. That should have been a good omen for Arsenal, but it was not. Tottenham and their embattled manager Mauricio Pochettino surprised the hosts with a three-man defence of Eric Dier, Kevin Wimmer and Jan Vertonghen.

“We need to improve, we don’t have a lot of time,” said Pochettino on Wednesday after a lacklustre defeat in the Champions League against Bayer Leverkussen. “We need to be critical and put ourselves in front of the mirror and say ‘come on, we need to improve.’ We need to be realistic in our analysis and that is very important.”

Pochettino’s message of auto-critic translated into a new formation against Arsenal. It was a bold move and in an atypical North London derby, Tottenham’s 3-4-3 formation became the defining intrigue of the match – a three-man defence is a template that is in vogue since the revival of Antonio Conte’s Chelsea in the Premier League. It was only the second time that Spurs had played with three men at the back, doing it once last season.

This was not a helter-skelter match with incisive build up play, spectacular finishes and a pre-war scoreline. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose pushed higher up as Tottenham dominated the midfield. They had 60% of possession midway through the first half, with Moussa Dembele neutralising the threat of Mesut Ozil. Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min roamed around on the wings.

An own-goal disaster

Somnolent at first, the game was taut and spiteful, but never of high quality. Kevin Wimmer received the first booking for a strong fault on Francis Coquelin. There had always been a chance of a bloodbath with Arsenal’s No. 34, Granit Xhaka, Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama on the field – but apart from a few challenges, it was a quiet game.

Arsenal predominately struggled to get on the ball – after 15 minutes, the hosts had not encroached upon Tottenham’s box. The visitors had a sniff of Arsenal’s goalmouth with a burst from Heung-Min Son on the left, but his cross for Harry Kane was imprecise.

At the half-hour mark, Arsenal gained mastery of the match, with attempts from Sanchez, Ozil and Iwobi, who had underwhelmed for large swathes of the first half. Walcott hit the woodwork with a howitzer from outside the box. Finally, in the 42nd minute, Arsenal’s pressure told as Ozil’s inswinging free-kick was headed down into the corner of his own net by Tottenham’s defender Kevin Wimmer. With Sanchez and Koscielny behind him in offside positions, the Austrian stretched and misdirected the ball.

Cagey and compelling

Tottenham may have felt aggrieved, but referee Mark Clattenburg awarded the visitors a soft penalty after the break. Dembele’s long, winding run forced Lauren Kocielny into sticking out a leg just inside the box. The Belgian fell with all the enthusiasm of Arjen Robben, and his semi-schwalbe – shielding the ball with his left foot while seeking contact – allowed the returning Harry Kane to ram the ball straight down the middle.

Arsenal were shattered. Erikssen hit a ferocious shot goalward, but keeper Petr Cech tipped it wide. The Gunners misfired, barely registering an attempt on target. It was all a bit pinball in the absence of Santi Cazorla. Xhaka and Francis Coquelin did not exert enough influence as Dembele marshalled the midfield. The game lurched from end to end, with Arsenal never developing their game and getting into a rhythm. It was both cagey and compelling. Even a last-ditch onslaught rarely troubled Tottenham, who with Erikssen and substitute Vincent Janssen came close to snatching a win.

And so the November curse may well haunt Arsenal again, possibly undermining a credible title challenge. The London club have almost always struggled in the month regardless of who they face. For every other month of the year, their points-per-game average never drops below 1.88. In the month of November, it is 1.59. Wenger’s team should be capable of more. Will the North London draw precede more doom for Arsenal this month, with fixtures against Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League coming up?