It was certainly a North London Derby that was already living up to its astronomical expectations even before Spurs star Eric Dier cancelled out deadly Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s opener.
Dier produced a deft header onto the end of a Christian Eriksen cross on the half hour mark and subsequently riled up the Gunners crowd in the North Bank corner of the Emirates by putting his finger to his lips, gesturing to the Arsenal contingent to ‘pipe down’ after they had been in fine fettle for the opening 30 minutes.
After celebrating with his Spurs teammates, the England man was initially oblivious to the follow-up and was seen running back to a starting position, ready for play to be allowed to restart by referee Mike Dean.
Instead, most Arsenal and Spurs players were embroiled in a confrontation that had been triggered by Dier’s reaction to his goal, with furious remonstrations by Gooners on the pitch and on the sidelines.
The most visible beef was clearly between Dele Alli and Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey, who had been omitted from the starting XI by manager Unai Emery.
Immediately registering the kerfuffle, Dier ran over to the ruckus and became part of the melee that seemed to involved almost every player on the pitch.
Ramsey, who was eventually a second-half substitute, was fuming and riled by first Dier, and then Alli’s, antics.
In footage available to view below, as the cluster of players dispersed Dier clearly instructs the Welshman to ‘get back there’ and gesturing to the bench.
Fired up, Ramsey was introduced after the interval for the ineffective Alex Iwobi as Arsenal produced a scintillating second 45 minutes performance and run out 4-2 winners against their fierce rivals.
The Dier incident was just one of a number of talking points in an absolutely fantastic and frantic game of football.
You can watch the video below.
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