PETER CROUCH defended David Prutton for his moment of madness after joining Kevin Phillips at the top of the Saints goal charts.

Crouch's equaliser against Arsenal was his eighth goal in 12 starts since Harry Redknapp took over as manager.

He and Kevin Phillips are now level on nine goals each but although Prutton's behaviour overshadowed Crouch's latest goal, the 6ft 7in front man defended his teammate.

Prutton was booked for a first-half foul on Mathieu Flamini before being given his marching orders for another bad tackle on Robert Pires, which is thought to have ruled the Arsenal winger out of the Gunners' next three matches.

The petulance which followed will see Prutton handed a lengthy ban, but Crouch said: "David's a big player for us. He's an up and down midfield player who creates and is extremely strong in the tackle, even if it's sometimes mistimed. In the heat of the game that's what happens. You don't think about your first booking, you just try and win tackles and it was one of those things.

"David isn't pleased at the moment. He's obviously down but we managed to get a point so that will help him hold his head a bit higher.

"He's been integral to the way we've been playing. He puts himself about and gets after people. Maybe he's overdone it a bit this time but other than that he's been superb this season."

Crouch added: "You have to work hard against a team like Arsenal otherwise they'll play you off the park, and we managed to do that. David, Nigel Quashie and Jamie Redknapp got right in among them straight away and they were a bit ruffled.

"But we let our heads drop with the sending off. They scored straight away and when we came in at half-time the manager said we'd pay the penalty if we didn't get our heads up.

"He told us to believe, to keep playing as we were before the sending off and to get in among them. I thought we did that. We gave a good account of ourselves in the second half and it gave us a big lift when they went down to ten men.

"With ten men against the champions it was always going to be difficult but Robin Van Persie's sending off made it more even. I thought he had to go. The first booking was for when he caught Rory (Delap) with an elbow and was not looking to play the ball at all. And the second one was much the same as David's.

"But it was a hugely contested game today and these things happen."

On current form Crouch will go close to his previous best goals haul - the 18 he scored for Portsmouth in the old first division back in 2001/02.

But for the moment he is enjoying his best run in the Premiership.

He added: "At the start of the season when I wasn't playing at all, I wouldn't have thought I'd even have a chance to get nine at this stage so it's a good feeling. I'm sure Kevin would say he'd like to finish top scorer as well but it's a team game and the most important thing is that we start to turn draws into wins.

"I was more than pleased when I saw the linesman's flag at the end because we've conceded so many late goals, but hopefully this will be a point that helps keep us up.

"Middlesbrough and Everton both scored late goals against us but hopefully this was a turning point, and we have to take confidence from it. To get a point after going down to ten men against the champions is more than satisfying."