With the 198th north London derby on Sunday, live on Sky Sports, we take a look at the big talking points as Arsenal host Tottenham in one of the fiercest rivalries in British football…
Arsenal’s massive week | Can Spurs stay unbeaten away?
Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Chelsea – all in the space of seven days. Is this the week where Arsenal’s season is decided?
First is the north London derby – the biggest game in the club’s fixture calendar. Then comes Harry Kane – arguably the best striker in the world – to the Emirates a few days later. Then it’s Chelsea – with Mikel Arteta describing Enzo Maresca’s side as the “best attacking team in the league” earlier this year. It’s a massive run.
Sunday 23rd November 4:00pm
Kick off 4:30pm
Win all three and Arsenal will be top of the Premier League and the Champions League – you would probably back them to be favourites in both. Slip up anywhere and it will show Mikel Arteta’s side have a lot of work to do to earn that status, particularly with Man City on their Premier League coat-tails.
Ironically, if Arsenal want to know how tough that run can be, then they should just ask their women’s team. Renee Slegers’ side have just played those exact three opponents, all in a row, and failure to win any of those games has left their season in tatters.
Arsenal’s men’s side cannot afford the same, or all their early-season momentum would have evaporated.
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Ex-Arsenal striker Thierry Henry previews Sunday’s north London derby as the Gunners host Spurs
For Spurs, their unbeaten away record in the Premier League and Europe this season faces its toughest examination in the space of four days.
Spurs have only won once in the league at the Emirates Stadium – that 3-2 comeback win under Harry Redknapp coming exactly 15 years ago – while they have avoided defeat just once in their last five league visits there.
If Frank’s side can maintain their immaculate away league form on Sunday, then another almighty test awaits on Wednesday if they are to preserve their unbeaten Champions League away record as they visit holders Paris Saint-Germain.
What a blockbuster week ahead for the two north London clubs.
Eze’s awkward meeting with Spurs
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Eberechi Eze is introduced to Arsenal fans at the Emirates!
Wednesday, August 20. The day everything changed.
Eberechi Eze was heading for Tottenham when he called Mikel Arteta. The Arsenal manager was about to go into a board meeting when Eze asked if there was any chance his boyhood club were still interested in him, before a move to their arch-rivals.
By the end of the day, Arsenal re-entered the Eze race, having lost Kai Havertz to a long-term knee injury earlier in the week. One Eze phone call swung the tide – giving Arsenal a boost in attack and leaving Spurs kicking themselves.
“That shows you how much he wanted to come,” said Arteta about that phone call with Eze on the following Saturday, after his new midfielder signed on the dotted line.
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Speaking in August, Sky Sports News reporter Kaveh Solhekol explained how Arsenal hijacked Tottenham’s move for Eze
Despite a high-profile transfer, Eze is biding his time when it comes to life at Arsenal. There have been glimpses, but two goals and three assists from 15 games has left some wanting more.
Eze’s already scored against his former club in Crystal Palace while in Arsenal colours. A goal against the team he so nearly joined would take his Gunners career into lift-off.
Spurs’ Eze alternative, Simons, struggling
If Eze’s start at Arsenal has been a little slow, then Xavi Simons’ has not even got off the line at Spurs.
The player Tottenham moved for after Eze’s late change of heart is yet to score in his first 14 appearances.
The £51m signing has struggled to adapt to the pace, power and intensity of the Premier League – and Sunday’s game will have this in abundance.
But there have been signs that Simons is just starting to find his feet at Tottenham. He was awarded player of the match in their 4-0 Champions League home win over Copenhagen, and his substitution in the following 2-2 home draw against Man Utd was booed by fans, who were enjoying his positive display.
The 22-year-old’s confidence and form continued to move in the right direction during the international break as he scored in the Netherlands’ 4-0 home win over Lithuania to help book their place at next summer’s World Cup.
Xavi Simons scored for the Netherlands during the November international break
Simons will now be targeting his first goal for Tottenham at their fiercest rivals, with Thomas Frank’s side badly needing his creativity and spark if they are to come away from the Emirates with something.
Will injured players from both sides return?
Injuries have been a huge issue for these two rivals this season.
Arsenal ended the international break with Martin Odegaard, Viktor Gyokeres, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Noni Madueke all absent.
And while some could return for Sunday, there is another blow in defence with Gabriel set to miss Arsenal’s big week due to an adductor problem picked up in Brazil’s Emirates Stadium friendly with Senegal.
That Brazil-Senegal game also delivered an injury blow for Spurs as midfielder Pape Sarr went off in the second half.
The Senegal boss played the injury down afterwards, but if it is more serious than first thought, then Frank could be without 12 first-team players against Arsenal.
The Dane will be particularly sweating over the availability of attacker Mohammed Kudus, who has missed their last two games, and midfielder Lucas Bergvall, who is recovering from a concussion.
Battle of the set-piece experts!
Arsenal and Spurs are united in their joy of set pieces. If the real prize on offer was goals from set pieces, then Sunday’s meeting would be a title decider.
The comparisons go further. When Nicolas Jover – Arsenal’s set-piece guru – left Brentford in 2019 to join Man City, the man who replaced him a year later at the Bees was Andreas Georgson, who is now Spurs’ set-piece coach.
Not only that, but the two north London sides rely on set pieces for a lot of their chance creation output. These two sides rank second and third for the percentage of their overall Expected Goals coming from the dead ball.
Top of that list is Sunderland – who used set pieces to create a chink in Arsenal’s armour via the 2-2 draw before the international break. Dan Ballard’s goal from a free-kick put the Gunners on the back foot in the game – meaning three out of the four goals Arsenal have conceded this season have come from set plays.
There were similar concerns last season, with 14 out of the 27 league goals Arsenal allowed last season coming from set pieces. If Sunderland can exploit this weakness in Arsenal’s system, then Spurs are also capable of it too.
Frank’s faltering attack
But if Spurs’ set-piece game stutters at the Emirates, then the spotlight will be firmly on Tottenham’s open-play threat.
Despite Spurs being the joint-fourth top scorers (19) in the Premier League this season and having the best shot conversion rate of any team, the underlying numbers tell a different story.
Spurs are outperforming their xG by almost eight goals – the biggest overperformance in the league. They also rank bottom of the league for through balls attempted (4) and completed (2), while only two teams have had fewer shots and created fewer chances than Tottenham.
Frank’s uncertainty over his best attack – not helped by their lengthy injury list – has seen him use 16 different attacking combinations in 18 games this season in all competitions.
The Dane has only started the same attacking combination in successive games twice this season, the last time coming in the first two games of October, with Kudus, Simons, and Wilson Odobert the three behind striker Mathys Tel.
And that front four could well be the one which starts at the Emirates after Tel came off the bench to score an equaliser in the Man Utd draw to push his case for a start over the frustrating Richarlison, with Randal Kolo Muani now injured.
Odobert also made a huge impact off the bench in the draw as he helped in the build-up to Tel’s goal and then provided the cross for Richarlison’s stoppage-time header before Man Utd equalised minutes later.
Spurs’ attack has been heavily biased towards the right-hand side, with Kudus and right-back Pedro Porro creating the most chances for Tottenham this season.
It is why Frank should start Odobert at left-wing and Destiny Udogie at left-back on Sunday to provide better balance.
Udogie has had a stop-start season due to injury, but his recent displays against Copenhagen and then off the bench against Man Utd were eye-catching.
Udogie’s drive from left-back gives genuine width down the left, which the right-footed and inverting Djed Spence cannot, and so the Italy international’s thrust from defence should help improve the speed of a so far spluttering attack.
