Arsenal vs. Tottenham: Rating the Spurs Players in North London Derby

Tottenham just couldn't do things the easy way, could they?

Although it seemed as though Tottenham had relatively little riding on the North London Derby in comparison to Arsenal going into the match, a win would have stamped Spurs' dominance on their London rivals for the season, all but secured third place with a 13-point lead over the Gunners in the EPL table and kept Tottenham in the title race with a top-of-the-table clash with Manchester United just over the horizon.

Now, Tottenham find themselves in a very different scenario. The title race is over; Manchester City are 10 points ahead and only a fool would bet on Tottenham making up that gap between now and the end of the season.

Additionally, Arsenal and Chelsea are both only seven points behind Spurs. With a loss to Manchester United this weekend, and an Arsenal or Chelsea win, that gap could be cut down further to four points, hardly a comfortable lead to hold over your rivals in the EPL, and one that could be overcome down the stretch.

It's a doomsday scenario to be sure, but it is possible for Spurs to get knocked out of the top four if they don't bounce back quickly from their resounding derby loss to Arsenal.

Before we get ahead of ourselves though, let's take a moment to rate the players involved in the disastrous NLD of this past weekend.

The ratings won't be pretty, but it's important to reflect on the mistakes made by each player and the team as a whole before moving on to the next game.

Goalkeeper/Defense

GK: Brad Friedel—6.0

Really unlucky to concede five goals against Arsenal, especially since he started the game in great form with an excellent reaction save to a flicked-on header from Tomas Rosicky. Could do nothing on all five goals as his defenders completely let him down.

LB: Benoit Assou-Ekotto—2.5

I know BAE was inconsistent when he first came to Tottenham, but I don't think he ever played as bad as he did this past Sunday. He was at fault for four of the five goals, and played with no sense of urgency throughout the entire game.

I can comfortably say this was BAE's worst ever game as Spur.

RB: Kyle Walker—6.5

Tottenham's best defender in the game wasn't directly or indirectly at fault for any of the five goals conceded by Spurs. He kept Yossi Benayoun quiet for most of the game, and his run early in the game was instrumental in the build-up to Louis Saha's opening goal.

CB: Ledley King—4.5

Tottenham's captain is usually the gel that holds the team together and provides the leadership to win big games, but he was woeful in the North London Derby.

He didn't make any mistakes in the first half, but was probably more at fault than BAE on Arsenal's third goal and partially at fault for Arsenal's fourth goal, as well as being unable to apply adequate pressure on Robin van Persie.

CB: Younes Kaboul—4.0

Tottenham's second worst player on the night was Younes Kaboul, as he settled the Dawson-Kaboul debate (at least with regards to big games) with a very poor showing.

Arguably, he could have done more on Arsenal's second goal, he was more culpable than King on Arsenal's fourth goal and completely culpable for Arsenal's fifth.

Midfielders

LM: Gareth Bale—5.5

Aside from the excellent run that he made onto a well-placed through pass by Luka Modric, Gareth Bale found himself frustrated for most of the first half by Bacary Sagna, who won the first half battle with the Welshman on both ends of the field by nullifying him offensively and beating him to a header to score Arsenal's opening goal.

In the second half, Bale was switched to the right flank, where for the millionth time he proved that he is simply incapable of operating on the right. He didn't see much of the ball though, as Arsenal dominated play in the second half.

RM: Niko Kranjcar—5.0

He really should not have been selected ahead of Aaron Lennon for this type of game, and was largely absent until he was taken off at halftime for Sandro in a failed attempt by Harry Redkapp to stifle Arsenal's midfield.

CM: Scott Parker—4.5

If it wasn't for his passion, I'd probably have given Scott Parker a lower score. Against Arsenal, Parker probably played his worst game as a Spur, finding himself at fault for Arsenal's second and fourth goals.

His passes were off all game long, he failed to stifle Arsenal's midfield in the manner we've become accustomed to and to put the icing on the cake, he picked up two more yellow cards and got himself sent off, ruling himself out of a key clash against Manchester United this weekend.

CM: Luka Modric—5.5

Modric's quality was evident early on as his trademark passing led to Tottenham's penalty and 2-0 lead, but once Arsenal turned things on, his game began to slip with the rest of his team.

He's not at fault defensively, especially since he was playing with two other defensive midfielders in the second half, but he could have provided the inspiration to turn things around when his team emerged from the locker room for the second half.

Strikers

ST: Louis Saha—5.5

Good movement and good shot to open the scoring for Tottenham, but disappeared afterwards, and was rightly taken off at halftime.

ST: Emmanuel Adebayor—5.5

Managed to score a goal (via penalty) and record an assist, but after his goal he too disappeared for Tottenham. Couldn't create much in the second half, although he was deprived of service by Arsenal's domination of the game.

Substitutes

DM: Sandro—5.0

Was brought in at halftime to help Tottenham regain control of the midfield, but Redknapp failed to take into consideration that swapping a wide player for a central player meant that a full-back was going to be free to bomb forward regularly and act as an auxiliary winger.

In this case, that full-back was Bacary Sagna, and Redknapp's poor tactical decision here was arguably the turning point of the game that ensured Arsenal's momentum from the first half would carry into the second half.

AM: Rafael van der Vaart—5.0

Forced to make his return from injury in tough circumstances, as Arsenal's flowing midfield play meant he never had much time on the ball to impact the game in any meaningful manner.

Not necessarily a terrible substitution by Redknapp, but certainly Lennon would've had a much more meaningful impact on the game, if simply due to the fact that he would've forced Sagna to guard someone rather than have all the freedom in the world to attack Tottenham's defense.