King: We gave Gunners too much respect

Ledley King believes Tottenham's players were guilty of showing Arsenal too much respect in last night's north London derby.

Spurs were beaten 1-0 by the Premiership champions after being outplayed for long periods in a one-sided encounter at Highbury.

King said: "Although they are good team, I think we showed them a bit too much respect at times and they just played round us. It was a disappointing result.

"When you go there you know it's never going to easy, but you hope to play well and get a bit of luck on the day. In the first half they dominated us and we struggled to cope with their movement, but we sorted a few things out in the half-time break and it seemed to work a bit better after that."

Despite Arsenal's dominance, Spurs came close to snatching a late equaliser. Substitute Robbie Keane headed wide from close range and the Irishman was also convinced of a handball by Ashley Cole as the defender fell on the ball in his own penalty area.

King added: "Robbie was closer than me and he seemed to think it was handball. Sometimes you get them and sometimes you don't."