Arsenal pace ace Theo Walcott denied Tottenham a rare win over Arsenal as the Carling Cup semi-final first leg at the Emirates Stadium ended 1-1.
Jermaine Jenas' 37th-minute opener looked set to earn Spurs their first win over their north London rivals since 1999 before Walcott's fortunate 79th-minute leveller.
Jenas slid home a square pass from Robbie Keane to fire the visitors ahead before Walcott's pace allowed him to equalise via a lucky deflection.
Paul Robinson's replacement Radek Cerny was called into action in the 14th minute. Robinson's replacement looked to be heading in the wrong direction when Nicklas Bendtner met Justin Hoyte's cross - but he threw himself towards the ball and parried to safety.
Steed Malbranque was guilty of an awful miss in the 33rd minute, shooting wide when the ball broke to him after Philippe Senderos tackled Robbie Keane.
And he could have atoned a minute later but headed wide after Keane had rounded Lukasz Fabianski out wide and crossed to the far post.
But Spurs were not made to wait long for the opener.
Dimitar Berbatov latched onto Johan Djourou's poor clearance and played Keane through.
Keane squared to Jenas and the flag stayed down as he applied a simple close-range finish.
Arsene Wenger responded at half-time by taking off Djourou and Robin van Persie, with Bacary Sagna and Eduardo coming on.
Abou Diaby saw a shot from the edge of the penalty area blocked by Michael Dawson as Arsenal pushed for an equaliser.
And the leveller arrived on 80 minutes when Eduardo fed Walcott through the middle and the former Southampton ace then fortuitously saw his effort rebound off Lee Young-Pyo and into the empty net.
Sub Jermain Defoe almost put Spurs ahead again, but he fired over from close range after collecting a diagonal pass from Aaron Lennon.
Source : www.sportinglife.com
