Arsenal Vs Tottenham
12:45 BST
Emirates Stadium
Referee: Howard Webb


Mother Of All Derbies

We play a lot of games in a season, We watch a lot of games in a season. But there is simple no game which comes close to this one. Think of the Rivalry between Alexander The Great and Darius, or Caesar vs Pompeius or Hannibal vs Scipio Africanus. Now replace them with Arsenal and Tottenham, It's exactly like that. There is no form required in here nor any specific stadium. It's just an good old derby where winning matters more than anything. The chance to bring the other down, the feeling you want to achieve by having the bragging rights. That my friends is the North London Derby. It's one day where every fan get behind the team and acts like the 12th man and all the players play above their weight. However, as there always is an however, things have changed slightly. Tottenham have gone stronger in the past few seasons. They now do have the potential to beat us as they did in the last 3 seasons. We have gone weaker ourselves with the loss of some quality players. But that shouldn't really get in the way. The derby is there for us to get back on form, a chance to get closer to top 4 and a chance to retain the lost morale, belief and spirit.

Tactical Point of View

We are in poor form, probably since the west ham game. Something just isn't working right for us. First it was the attack when we weren't creating chances and scoring. Now the problem has moved on towards our defence and we are leaking goals like no tomorrow. It's hard to point at one thing since there are many small problems all over the pitch. One of them could be solved by Szczesny coming back to the side tomorrow and that will at least provide us with safe insurance and maybe more commandment in the penalty area. The other problem is the poor form of our defenders, specially Vermaelen. But he is a fighter and going in as the captain tomorrow, i think he will deliver his best. Saying that, i do think the derby will have a lot of goals in it as it always do. Spurs may have lost Modric and VDV but they still possess excellent players in Christian Bale and Defoe, and of course a certain Togo striker who will face his former team 2nd time in 2 weeks.
I think we will have more quality in our team tomorrow than them. They are going through a bad period as well along with the fact well, we are better than them. It just depends on us turning up and i really hope the team realise how important the game actually is.

Team News

For Arsenal, Szczesny is back in full training and should start tomorrow. Jack Wilshere is available after suspension but Bacary Sagna, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Mikel Arteta are all concerns for Arsene Wenger. Gibbs, Rosicky, Gervinho and Diaby are still all out.

Tottenham remain without Mousa Dembele, who is still troubled by the hip injury that has kept him out for a month.
Jermain Defoe, Kyle Walker and Aaron Lennon all suffered hamstring problems last weekend but should be fit.


My Preferred Arsenal Line up

-----------------------------------Szczesny--------------------------------------

Sagna---------------Mertesacker----------------Koscielny----------------Vermaelen

--------------------------Arteta----------------Wilshere--------------------------

Walcott-----------------------------Cazorla-------------------------------Oxlade

-------------------------------Giroud---------------------------------------------

Tottenham probable

----------------------------------Friedel-----------------------------------------

Walker----------------Gallas---------------Caulker---------------------Vertonghen

-------------------Sandro----------------Huddlestone-----------------------------

Lennon------------------------Dempsey--------------------------------Bale

-------------------------Defoe---------------------------------------------------

Match Facts (BBC)

Head-to-head

• Tottenham have lost only one of their last five north London derbies with Arsenal: their 5-2 away defeat in February.
  It is almost two years to the day (20 November) since Tottenham's last win at the Emirates - a memorable 3-2 victory having trailed 2-0 at half-time.
  
• There have been 29 goals scored in the six Premier League meetings between these clubs at the Emirates - an average of 4.8 goals per game.
  
• One hundred goals have been scored in 32 derbies between the sides since Arsene Wenger took charge of Arsenal (the Gunners have scored 61 compared to Tottenham's 39).

Arsenal

• This is Arsenal's worst start to a season since 1982-83, when they had only 14 points after 11 games.
  
• Arsenal have won only two home games so far this season: the 6-1 demolition of Southampton and the 1-0 win over QPR.
  
• The Gunners conceded just six goals in their opening nine matches in all competitions but have let in 16 goals in their last eight games.
  
• Olivier Giroud scored the Gunners' first headed goal of the season last weekend against Fulham.

Tottenham

• Defeat at Manchester City last weekend ended Tottenham's run of three successive away wins.
  
• Andre Villas-Boas's men have kept only one clean sheet in 11 league games this season, October's 2-0 home win over Aston Villa.
  
• William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor are two of four players to have appeared for both clubs in north London Premier League derbies, along with David Bentley and Sol Campbell.
  
• Adebayor, who has scored seven Premier League goals in this fixture - equal most with Robert Pires - is one of only two players to net for both teams in this fixture, the other being Jimmy Robertson.

Final words

There is nothing else to say really. It's a derby, a heated one at that. It's significant to win this. More important than any other game. If we fail to win this, there will be chaos everywhere. Not violence obviously but Media will go crazy, the fans will turn into savages and the team will probably crumble even more. Let me leave you with this quote by Lee Dixon on the derby.

Tony Adams, Paul Davis, David Rocastle and Michael Thomas - practically pinned me up against the wall and said: "Now listen here, you outsider from Stoke. Tonight is what being an Arsenal player is all about"

And Tomorrow is what being an Arsenal player is all about indeed.

@RG Christian Bale lol, since when did monkey-face become Batman...

Anyways other than that, it's a perfect, flawless preview as always. I totally agree that if we lose (my God) hell will break loose.

North London Derbies are rarely dull, so juz because of that reason I feel the team will be up to it and hopefully get the win which we so desperately need.

Love the Lee Dixon quote

for the Christian Bale reference.

Can't praise you and Sam enough with these fantastic previews which always keep me updated.

As long as all of our players remains focused and determined, I see no reason why we couldn't nick all 3 points and finally get our season underway.

There's going to be a diarrhetic shitstorm if we don't win this game.

No excuses, no "we lacked sharpness", no "we lacked mentally strength", just have to win.

Great Preview RG.

I dont think I could take another loss or tie at home. I dont have a good feeling about this one, we never play well after international break.

Well .. this explain a lot

Spider wrote:

Well .. this explain a lot

"OMG, OMG, Godolski is touching me!"

I think that this match will come down to one thing. Can we keep possession on their side of the pitch attacking them without constantly passing back to our CBs and GK. If we do end up passing back all the time we will end up trying to feed the ball forward though Artetta and Wilshere. If that happens Dempsey has the technical ability mixed with the size and strength to bully Artetta and Wilshere around as much or more than anyone else. This is one of those matches that Song would have been huge in the midfield. If we can nullify Dempsey it should be a good day. If not it will come down to the wire.

Arsene Wenger's record v Tottenham (all comps): P38 W17 D16 L5 F74 A52

Great Preview RG

yeah that tilting midfield was key as they couldnt stop us building from the back

i would be happy if they come fancy their chance,try to dominate and play High Line then we can see another 5-3,5-2
remember how AVB went conservative vs valencia in CL after that trashing last year

if they play Defoe and Adepaymemore As that dude in scouting said they had good record and we had trouble in 2vs2 with no spare man
and Defoe could do better job on midfielders than Saha

talk about full back selections has been discussed a lot already
needs someone to add width let poldi playing his own game and be an outlet so we can keep the ball high up the pitch better

spuds yet to concede header?over to you Giroud

gotta be one of those games that players turn up with fans pushing them


Lets do this

Nice work RG. I would like to see the OX too, but we know Podolski will 100% play, especially after scoring last week and with his experience.

As for Spurs, I think we'll see Sigurdsson off Adebayor. The former is better than Dempsey at keeping the ball in midfield and defending, whilst the latter can hold the ball up and will love playing against us, plus Defoe is struggling with injury and was dropped against City.

Should be a good derby, but for the first time in years, I'm feeling no emotions, not nervous, not excited. We really need a win though, to go into tough Villa and Everton games with.

Great work RG!

Controversial to include Ox over Podolski I'd say.

If we can win 7 of our next 9 games then we'd be at 37 points halfway through the season which is 1 point better than where we were at the exact same position last year...

Lol, foolish Bale. Come on mate. What are you playing at. AHAHA, puny pathetic Tottenham scum stand no chance. We will have them on the ground begging for mercy by the time we're through with them.

We have Walcot who is best in the world after THOSE performance vs Sweden and Reading.

Who do Tottenham have? Nothing but second rate scum. It's always nice to to sit Tottenham back down on their rumps every season when we defeat them after every year they thinking that this is the season they surpass Arsenal. LOLOLOL. You will NEVER surpass us foolish heathens!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a funny species those Tottenham fans are. They are not human but some wild species that lack brains. Lol, why else would you support such a club as Tottenham which is the WEAKEST side in the EPL, heck even the Championship.

Lol, I feel so bad for the Tottenham players tat they mujst disgrace themselves each day by putting on such abhorrent jerseys. These players will surely be scarred for life now.

Easy win for my powerful Arsenal. 6-1 we will win. There is no stopping us. The cheating from other teams should be over now. Now we are about to go on am epic run of victories and silence the doubters and haters.

The era of Arsenal is about to begin. There is no stopping our reign. We are about to embark on an epic run of results mates. Tune in cause once we get fully fit WE WON'T LOST FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON.

We are the most powerful in the world. We are...........................ARSENAL.

Whom can stop us??????

NOBODY! The trophies are meant to be collected by my powerful Arsenal this season.

A little motivation before our game.

Ricky Cash.

Szczesny & Arteta passed late fitness tests today, both start tomorrow - via @DarrenArsenal1

Team News
but Bacary Sagna, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Mikel Arteta are all concerns for Arsene Wenger. Gibbs, Rosicky, Gervinho and Diaby are still all out

What the fuq

Supposedly it's Djourou who has the injury, not Giroud.

But yeah, international breaks. They suck major arse.

I have mixed feelings about this game. It's something that's either going to go very right, or very wrong. There's hardly been any middle ground between us and Spurs in a while - we either beat them convincingly (5-2 last year), draw with them in some epic (3-3 last year) or lose in horribly embarrassing fashion (the 3-2 at the Emirates). Whichever one it will be will depend on how shit our defence can not be. That's essentially what these games come down to: who has the shittest defence?

I suppose my greatest concern is the defence. Spurs haven't been free scoring by any means but they possess a lot of threat going forward. Adebayor loves playing against us and Bale is a danger, although Sagna usually does well against him.

Then there's Walker and Lennon, two very pacey players, attacking down our weakest side. Walker has to be tracked by whoever is playing on our left, otherwise it's just going to be a case of same old, same old.

Offensively, I'm not that worried because I believe the game will be open and we will create chances. I think Giroud could get some joy up against Spurs' centre backs and if Podolski, Cazorla and Walcott all have good games there's no reason we can't score goals.

I'm hesitant to use the old hyperbole about this being a must win but, well, it is. A win over Spurs could do wonders for our morale and give us the impetus to get a good run under our belts, especially with an "easy" set of fixtures coming in December. On the other hand, I shudder to think of the repercussions should we lose this one.

Mirror says all the doubts passed fitness tests.

Wenger says Gibbs, Gervinho could both be back v Montpellier on Wednesday, Diaby back in full training.

And with Rosicky back training too, we have MOST of our squad in training. That's a start...

What's the Christian Bale reference .
I don't watch films .

Always a classic lol

Oh, I skimmed past that part, Spuds don't matter .

Just target Gallas all game and you'll be fine. Chelsea did that and look how it worked for them

Should be great game either way.

COYS

Great preview lets hope the players display the passion this game deserves and get a win.

Great preview RG..
No expectations.. Going to watch a very thrilling match.. And dont bother to log in here or in any social networking site if we loose.. Sure hell is gonna break loose..