please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Venue: Emirates Stadium Sunday, November 8th 2015 KO Time: 16.00 BST please log in to view this image Head to Head Against Tottenham Hotspur: Played: 170 Wins: 72 Draws: 45 Losses: 53 Goals For: 267 Goals Against: 231 Goal Difference: 36 Last 6 Meetings: Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Arsenal (Capital One Cup) Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur 0-1 Arsenal Arsenal 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur (FA Cup) Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur please log in to view this image Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of Sunday's north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur" on the team news… From the unfortunate Wednesday night, we have no injuries. Players back for Sunday, we might have Koscielny and I think that it is. Arteta has a test tomorrow morning, Bellerin is a doubt already. on Koscielny’s chances… Eighty per cent. He will have a test tomorrow. on Debuchy and Bellerin… Mathieu needed a little competition. Game after game he has basic fitness and now with another game he should be better. Bellerin unfortunately will not be ready, I think he could be back after the break.
This couldn't have come at a better time in my opinion. We've just come back from a drubbing and need a game we can focus on and make another comeback. What better than playing Spurs and taking it out on them. The team should be doubly motivated for this one!
While this may be vaguely true, the fact there have already been so many of these "we've just lost so now we can bounce back" posts this season and we're only in November is depressing. Title winning teams don't need to 'bounce back' six times in the first three months of the season... but we'll see.
To be fair, we've been garbage in the CL for quite a while so many of us had no expectations. In fact i wanted us to concentrate on the league as this is our best chance to win it for quite some time. Also our form in the league has been consistent and I was referring more to our confidence than our results, which took a hammering after last nights game. The issue stems from peoples unrealistic idea of how good we are. We are a very good Premiership team, one of the best. But in the grand scheme of things, we are an ok CL team. We have a realistic chance of winning the Premier league, but not in the CL. So i'm hoping that we keep our run going in the league and give Spurs a good hiding
The NLD is always a massive game and the players and fans will be well up for this one. Looks like Bellerin and Kos are still out, but Debuchy and Gabriel should be okay against the Spuds. Even though we got tonked against Bayern, I thought Debuchy looked a lot better than he did in the Sheff Weds game. Shame we have no Walcott or Ox, as either one would have been able to open up the Spuds on the right. Campbell though has done okay and should get a bit more room on Sunday. We could do with Sanchez and Santi being on their game again, but for me the danger man is Giroud, he's in good form and taking his chances. I think it will be tight on Sunday seeing as we are missing a raft of players, but I still fancy us to win it. 1-0 to the Arsenal with Giroud scoring the only goal
Just watched the Spuds v Anderlect game and to be honest, although they won, Spurs were second best for most of the game and were lucky to win. If they play like that again on Sunday then I think we'll get a lot of chances, especially down their right with Sanchez. They had very little cover there and their midfield looked pretty soft too. I think we need to press them high up the field, because they don't really look like they can play their way through from the back to front and we could limit them to a long ball game, which Mert and Gabby should mop up.
Although you are missing 'a raft of players' your starting XI on Sunday will have cost you about £165m in transfer fees and ours less than £100m. And probably an even bigger differential in salaries. But you say the game will be tight so do you think you are overpaying or we have got great value?
We pay more because we can afford to so its all relative. We also have more trophies, more league titles, more fa cup wins and higher league finishes than Spurs. Would you say that you are underpaying or that we have got great value ?
A game being tight also does not mean the teams are close in ability or stature. We have tight games home and away with lots of clubs that are weaker than us. Those are clubs that never finish top 4. We always do. Depressingly that's all we do. Anyway, why don't you just spend another £65m then and win a couple of FA cups? Wouldn't that be worth it given that it's about that easy using your assumption...
I don't think its as simple as that - being in the CL gets you access to a number of players who would not consider signing for us even if we could magic up £65m plus the same again in wages somehow. Money talks these days in football more than ever. All I was really pointing out was that your injury hit team will still cost a lot more than anything we could field so really ought to be favourite.
The game will be tight because the NLDs are always keenly contested. Also the NLD is like a cup final for the spuds as it tends to be the highlight of their season. But the gap overall between the two clubs is still huge. 13 league titles to 2 and a vastly superior trophy haul speaks volumes. The spuds do occasionally sneak a win, but we have also hammered them 5-2 a couple of times recently.
Even despite our current injury worries, anything less than a win will really disappoint me. 3-1 Arsenal
I really hope we win, but I don't just expect that we will. We need to work hard to win this game as Spurs do have some danger men. We need to make sure that we keep Kane quiet as he's the one who can create something out of nothing. I would double mark him and starve him of any room. Also Erikson, Dembele and Alli can cause problems too. But as I said, I think we should press them high and make the ****ers play a long ball, because that is not Kane's game.
I'm quite confident of this game. We usually turn it up after a bad defeat and we're up against our favourite team, Spurs. They always seem to find new ways of capitulating and giving us 3 points. Saying that, we are clearly the better side and will win by showing them how to play.
Whilst they are all valid points, I believe there are a number of factors going in our favour. 1. After getting hammered by Bayern, one would hope the players will not want to greatly upset the fans with another disappointing and disjointed performance. 2. Due to some of our players coming from aboard, they may not truly understand the history of our rivalry, but at the very least, they will know that this is the game where we are expected to really turn up. AW and some of our English players will make some of the newer foreign players aware how significant this fixture is for us. 3. We have a very good record against Spurs at home - which suggests that their players don't really like playing us on our own patch. One away win since 1993 tells its own story. They were also incredibly fortunate to get away with a draw last season, too. 4. As you said earlier, their display against Anderlecht left a lot to be desired. Despite us playing the more gruelling fixture away from home, we have also had an extra day's rest and they fielded a very strong side against Anderlecht. So I don't expect all their players to be at the races on Sunday. 5. You talk about Kane, Eriksen, Dembele etc. What about our own attacking talent? Giroud has caused them problems in the past, Sanchez - although he hasn't been 100% this season - is always a threat with his dribbling and capability of shooting from distance, Cazorla's eye for a pass, Ozil stretching defences and Campbell's work-rate/threat going forward. We have some terrible injuries, but we can still field a side that is capable of beating them. I expect us to.
Oh I think we've got the edge. I'm just saying that we need to be aware and shut down Spurs' danger men. If we keep Kane and erikson quiet, then I think we'll dominate them. Against Anderlect they were on the back foot for most of the game and Anderlect probably should have won by 2 or 3 goals.
They were NOT extremely fortunate to get away with a draw last season at ours. I was there... It was a mediocre performance and game all round.
Not saying we were anything special, but I still think even despite how average we were, we had a lot of chances (which we typically didn't take) and their only real chance was the goal they scored as a result of Flamini/Szczesny's error.
Sanchez's form is a concern for me going into this game, and also it's not just a coincidence that as soon as we lost Walcott, Sanchez's performances have dipped. Giroud and Sanchez is not a combo that works for whatever reason, maybe because with Giroud, Sanchez is forced to stay on the left more and can't move centrally like he does when Walcott or even Welbeck played centrally. The main attacking hope has to be Ozil, who I personally thought looked great against Bayern even though we were getting battered, with Ozil we can always create something out of nothing, so as long as the defence is solid, we can win this without too much problems.
I'm hoping that Wenger will announce either Bellerin or Kos on the team sheet just before KO as last minute boost to the team and throw the spuds off. But even with Debuchy and Gabby I think we should be able to cope. Debuchy did okay in Munich, despite the onslaught and that tackle on Robben was similar to one that Bellerin did against Swansea the week before. Some people seem to have written Debuchy off, but he's still a top quality RB and always needed a couple of games to get back up to speed.
