Pre-Match Analysis:
This is a huge game for several reasons.
Firstly, it's the north London Derby. We hate them; they hate us. Ever since we moved from south of the river from Woolwich to north London, they've had a bee in their bonnet. It's somewhat understandable, as we took over their area and they have been inundated with watching us win trophy after trophy, creating success after success, and we did this in between stealing one of their best ever players, who is now part of Arsenal folklore. Meanwhile, they have flattered to deceive. Even the most ardent Spurs fan cannot deny that we are the most successful north London club.
Interestingly - there was a period of time (not THAT long ago) from 2000-2008 where we actually faced them 21 times and they could not beat us.
In the last 10 years, however, their record against us has begrudgingly improved. Within that time, they have also had several different managers come in; from Juande Ramos to Harry Redknapp; from Villas-Boas to Tim Sherwood; from Tim Sherwood to Mauricio Pochettino. They have also witnessed some very good players become a part of their club, too. The likes of van der Vaart, Bale, Modric, Walker, Kane, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Alli, Eriksen and others have been integral components of recent Spurs sides, which has seen them go from languishing in mid table obscurity to competing for the Premier League title.
Which brings me onto the second reason why this game is important - we are not just geographical rivals anymore, we are Premier League rivals too.
As Spurs have steadily improved, we stagnated under a manager who, though will forever be remembered for the abundance of success he brought the club, overstayed his welcome and became dogmatic in his ways. This culminated in Spurs finishing above us for two consecutive seasons, having not finished ahead of us for 20 years prior to this.
For years, the writing was on the wall for Wenger. But now we are in a new era. Unai Emery, having not renewed his contract at PSG in the Summer, was appointed as Arsenal manager. And he has been a huge breath of fresh air. Despite working with a limited transfer budget and players who he hasn't been familiar with, bringing in new backroom staff, and working under a brand new continental structure, these wholesale changes at the club haven't deterred him from maximising the potential of the current crop of players.
Disappointing back-to-back losses to Manchester City and Chelsea are now a distant memory, as Arsenal have gone on an 18-match unbeaten run (W14, D4). We've seen the additions of Lucas Torreira add real tenacity and steel in midfield, whilst Bernd Leno has been a superb acquisition too, making extraordinary saves and being comfortable with the ball at his feet. Elsewhere, Aubameyang is joint top goalscorer in the Premier League; Lacazette has been absolutely superb in the lone striker role; Iwobi has come on leaps and bounds. Additionally, there have been improvements to other existing players like Bellerin, Holding and Xhaka. We've also seen Emery incorporate youth into the first-team, which underlines the meritocratic nature of Emery's regime. Emile Smith Rowe, Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah have reaped the benefits of this. What's even greater than all this is how the fans are united again and seem genuinely optimistic about what this manager can achieve.
This feel good factor hasn't been around the atmosphere of the club for a long while.
However, things have not been totally rosy - there have still been huge question marks over our defensive capabilities and the concentration levels of certain players, who have made several individual errors leading to goals/shots at the goalkeeper. In some games we have won, the performances have been far from convincing. The exclusion of Ozil in certain matches, who is our best creative player, has raised question marks over whether this will galvanise the German in raising his game or whether his ego will take a hit and he will continue to slide down the pecking order. Some have deemed it 'ballsy'; others claim it's 'risky'.
Going into this game, with Spurs 3 points ahead of Arsenal, and an identical goal difference, the outcome of this game will have huge consequences.
A Spurs win (God forbid) will reemphasise Spurs' recent dominance over Arsenal and they could open a healthy 6-point gap over us.
An Arsenal win will put us level on points, but we would go ahead of Spurs on goal difference.
A draw keeps things as they are more or less, and it wouldn't be disastrous for either side, albeit it would be underwhelming.
However, with Arsenal being the hosts, and with Pochettino getting the better of Arsenal more often than not since becoming Spurs manager, Arsenal will want to win this. Not just for restoring parity in the league, but to take home the bragging rights.
Arsenal won this fixture 2-0 last year, with goals from Shkodran Mustafi and Alexandre Lacazette doing the job. Arsenal will be looking for a similar (or better) level of performance this year, too.
Having rested all our key players after the 3-0 away victory in Kiev, they will be fully fresh for this enticing encounter on Sunday afternoon. Spurs had a tough midweek game against Inter Milan, and won 1-0, with a lot of first-team players starting. I've been told that they've been rotating their squad a lot recently, so fatigue or tiredness shouldn't be a factor for them in this game.
Whatever the outcome, it promises to be an exciting match up between two competitive sides vying for supremacy.
And I cannot wait.
COYG!
Always the optimist Cini
