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da bet7： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
Tottenham Hotspur drew with Arsenal at the weekend and one has to wonder why Lucas Moura was not involved.
Snapshot
Spurs took a 2-0 lead against the Gunners, with goals from Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane placing Mauricio Pochettino’s men in a commanding position at The Emirates.
Arsenal pulled a goal back on the stroke of half-time through Alexandre Lacazette, though, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then equalised in the 71st minute.
Spurs struggled to gain control of the ball in the second half, with the Gunners dominating the majority of possession until Giovani Lo Celso was introduced in place of Son Heung-min.
There was a clear substitution that could have been made by Pochettino, though, and he opted against it.
Off the bench
Lucas did not play a single minute against the Gunners, having played the entire 90 in the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United.
That was very clearly a game that was not set up for the Brazilian; the Magpies set up with a low block and he had little space in which to operate.
Arsenal, though, continually looked to push their backline up the pitch and Spurs were able to take advantage in the first half; both of their goals came from a counter-attack.
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Bringing on Lucas, particularly for a player like Christian Eriksen, whose influence waned throughout the game, could have stretched the Gunners and added in some genuine threat for the visitors.
As it was, the two biggest chances of the second half fell to Moussa Sissoko; obviously, he missed both of them.
Having Lucas on the pitch could have seen one of those chances taken, particularly if it fell to the player who scored a hat-trick from three half-decent chances against Ajax in the Champions League last season.
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