After a week in which Arsenal and Spurs both threw away chances to gain points before running each other ragged in a spirited 2-2 draw on Saturday, Leicester must sense the miracle might really be happening.

With nine more games left, league ­leaders Leicester have a 5-point cushion over Spurs, having scraped a 1-0 win over Watford on Saturday and earning a tough draw on Tuesday against West Brom.

Leicester also had to deal with being ­cited in reports Thursday about the proposal of a European "Super League," with one of the key figures in the talks, an American sports executive, saying that Leicester should not be in the Champions League ahead of Manchester United because they are not a big club. That is ridiculous, since if Leicester do not deserve to be in Europe's top competition despite their attractive play and table-topping exploits, then many of the Premiership's big guns certainly don't either based on their woeful displays this season.

Which brings us to Arsenal, who - not satisfied with their disastrous outing to Old Trafford on Sunday - threw away any realistic hopes of a title surge by losing to Swansea at home on Wednesday. These two losses brought up the familiar complaints about Arsenal being spineless, lacking leaders and not being able to handle adversity. It also raised the ire of fans, some of whom cried out on online forums that it was time for manager Arsene Wenger to resign.

As such, the North London derby on Saturday at Spurs was a scary affair for ­Arsenal fans, and this writer, who must have thought their team would be in for a terrible mauling. Instead, the Gunners fought to a 2-2 draw, despite playing with 10 men for the last 35 minutes.

With Danny Welbeck leading the charge as striker instead of the ineffectual Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott, the Gunners showed a lot more spark than usual from the start and scored first. Spurs refused to back down and, with their own young star striker Harry Kane leading the way, went ahead with two quick strikes in the second half, helped by the earlier sending-off of Francis Coquelin and some spotty defending from Arsenal. Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez had a much-improved performance in this game, scoring a decent equalizer for the final goal.

There is no doubt that Spurs missed a fine chance to chase down Leicester, but they are still second and the only real contender. It was a case of too little, too late for Arsenal, which have been good at times but who proved to be susceptible to the same kind of mental lapses that have plagued them in the past.

The author is a Beijing-based freelance writer. hcpyip@gmail.com