Match Day Thread Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur - Matchday Thread

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Venue: Emirates Stadium
Date: Sunday 2nd December
KO Time: 14:05pm


Overall Record
All: 195
Won: 81
Drawn: 51
Lost: 63

Last six meetings

Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

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Team News:
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Arsenal will assess the fitness of Lacazette, who returned to training this week.

Nacho Monreal (hamstring), Konstantinos Mavropanos (groin) and Danny Welbeck (ankle) remain sidelined, while Mesut Ozil will be pushing for a recall after sitting on the bench at Bournemouth.

Erik Lamela is a doubt for Spurs after suffering a thigh injury in Wednesday's Champions League win over Inter Milan.

Kieran Trippier is close to a return from a groin injury, which has kept him out of the last two games.

Mousa Dembele, Davinson Sanchez and Victor Wanyama are out.

 

Pre-Match Analysis:
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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 Alexis Sanchez 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!

 

I love and hate the NLD in equal measure. It's one of the biggest games of the season, but it makes me so nervous watching it that I'm not sure I really enjoy it tbh. The stakes are so high and the bragging rights go with it to match. Win and you can take the piss for months, but lose and you know it's coming your way back.

Anyway as for the game, we are going to have our hands full with Kane, Alli, Son and Erikesen. Also Sissoko has been playing really well in Midfield for them. So Torreira and Xhaka are going to need to be at their defensive best to stop them maraudiung through our midfield. I think their weakness is in their fullback positions, Ben Davies and Serge Aurier are bang average, so I'd set up 3-5-2 with Bellerin and Kolasinac getting down their flanks.

Is Lacazette back for this game ? He and Aubameyang have got a great understanding and we're much more potent with them both in the team together.

 

We're ****ed then.

 

I hate to pour water on another good post - but it was Sanchez who scored the second, not Lacazette, sorry.

 

Always the optimist Cini

 

You won't be watching then?

 

You are indeed correct - my mistake! Will amend it now!

 

We really need to make a statement and this would be the perfect game to do it in. I have a feeling the players are pumped for this one... Sp*rs won't know what's hit them on Sunday.

 

The most common result at The Emirates between the two sides has been a draw since Poch has been at Spurs. We really need to buck that trend and start winning these games, particularly as we don't seem to do that well against them away from home.

These are our results against them (in the league) since 2014/15 which is when Poch took over:

Arsenal 1-1 Spurs
Spurs 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-1 Spurs
Spurs 2-2 Arsenal
Arsenal 1-1 Spurs
Spurs 2-0 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Spurs
Spurs 1-0 Arsenal

So that's 1 win in 8 meetings (4 draws, 3 losses).

As mentioned earlier, they've gotten the better of us in recent times. But we are now starting to improve and have an innovative manager, so it'll be interesting to see how Emery sets up for his first ever north London derby.

Emery is a highly intelligent, meticulous bloke and will have done his research on the history of this match. He should now understand why it's more than just the result that matters in this game.

Lacazette should be back fit, according to the social media gurus.

For all the talk of Davies and Aurier being average, word on the street is Emery doesn't entirely trust Kolasinac's defensive qualities. He's the only fit recognised left-back in the squad, so this will be a problem if Kolasinac doesn't defend properly, unless Emery does go for 3 at the back to compensate for Kolasinac's deficiencies.

The good thing about Emery is his tactical flexibility. His switching of formation from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3 means it is hard for opposition managers to prepare specifically for what our strategy will be going into this game. Even us as Arsenal fans don't know what formation will be adopted.

 

Arsenal XI:

Leno, Bellerin, Holding, Mustafi, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Torreira, Mkhitaryan, Iwobi, Aubameyang

Bench:

Cech, Litchsteiner, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Elneny, Ramsey, Lacazette

Ozil omitted completely from the squad???

Is he injured or has he fallen out with Emery?

Regardless of what people think about him, he's our most creative player. He was also MOTM in this fixture last year. That is a huge miss.

 

I am usually inclined to go with the official story, and it really doesn't make sense that he would be so out of favor. Mikhitarian hasn't been stellar in his play lately and Ozil has at least been as good as him going forward . I get it that a lot of people don't like Ozil, and he may have taken offence at being left out last week, or Emery may just feel that the money and salary room Ozil would bring in is better spent elsewhere. If he can get him to move in January, then it may be a great move, and I say that as a huge Ozil fan.

I have already said that he is one too many non-combative midfielders if you have Lacazette and Aubamayang in the team. We are over stocked in that area, and we would be better suited with a more aggressive box to box type playmaker. With Ozil money, we might be able to find one.

 

Jesus, should be three up.

The Spurs Juggernaut has marmalade wheels

 

Soor but that should have been saved.

 

nice dive by Son.. ref bought it. Those missed chances...

 

How the f--k does a spurs fan get put in charge of this game.Poor defending too it has to be said.

 

boomerang has been awful, he's killing ye, he should have a brace

 

That Son is a diving little cheat.We should be a least level with the chances we had,great first twenty minutes,still all to play for.

 

Superb entertainment but bloody unlucky to be down after 45 mins! Spuds' first goal down to a Leno mistake and the 2nd was a really soft soft penalty!
Really think we need Lacazette to come on sooner rather than later, he's great at closing down and harassing in that final third!
Believe we will turn this around! COYG!

 

Infuriating.

We were ****ing superb for the first 20 mins.

Very good game but defensive mistakes have costs us. I feel like its just defensive quality that is holding us back.

We need Aubameyang /Iwobi etc. to be ruthless in the second half.