The 23rd of September is a date that all Gooners will have marked in their diary – it’s the first north London derby of the season, as Arsenal take on Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, in their first match of the League Cup.
Arsenal have had a very, well, Arsenal-y start to the season. They’ve won half of their first six league games, losing 2-0 to city rivals Chelsea last Saturday. Their UEFA Champions League campaign started disastrously, losing 2-1 to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia in a match where they were surprisingly outplayed for the most part. It’s been mixed, with some positives and some negatives, and a situation Arsenal fans are all too familiar of.
Looking specifically to last weekend, it was a frankly strange match with a lot of talking points to take from it. The Gunners shot themselves in the own foot, twice over, as they were doing well in the match before the first sending off of Gabriel, which led Arsenal to being a lot more susceptible. That sending off itself has drawn up a lot of controversy, as the red card was essentially a result of the meddling of Diego Costa, bringing out the aggressiveness of Gabriel. Once Santi Cazorla was sent for an early bath, the match was beyond doubt. A game littered with mistakes, dodgy goals, refereeing errors, fights and whatnot, it will be hard for the Arsenal players to really pick apart Saturday’s events.
In regards to Spurs, they’ve had a relatively poor start to their campaign, although it has picked up in the last week or so. After failing to win their first four league matches, they grabbed a late and perhaps undeserved winner via Ryan Mason in their fifth Premier League match, and have now gone on to dispatch Qarabag in the UEFA Europa League and beat Crystal Palace – three consecutive wins, and two clean sheets in that triad, to set them up nicely for the occasion.
What we’ll most likely see on Wednesday are two line-ups heavily youth-orientated – the League Cup is looked down upon by the top teams, not taken seriously and as a result, will be used as an experiment. An extra competition at this stage of the season is perhaps not ideal, however, rest assured that it shall be an interesting match – these north London derbies never fail to disappoint.
A player Arsenal will want to watch out for is Son Heung-Min. The South Korean bagged a brace on his Europa League debut in white and scored the winner in Spurs’ 1-0 win last weekend. He works tirelessly, always looking for an opportunity to exact his impact, and tries desperately to use all his energy in the match. He’ll be a real handful for the Arsenal full-back, as he offers a great deal in many aspects.
A player Spurs will want to watch out for is Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman will most likely play in his preferred position of central midfield this Wednesday due to the suspension of Santi Cazorla, and he’ll be doing all he can to nail down a place there. Expect to see his “old” self with the driving runs, the box-to-box midfielder should make an impact from the middle against a Spurs side that have looked average at times in the middle of the park.
The last time these two met was in the 2014/15 Premier League season, where Arsenal were beat 2-1 by their opponents at White Hart Lane. A brace from the then in-form Harry Kane cancelled out Mesut Özil’s opener, condemning the Gunners to a demoralising defeat. Also, cast your minds back to 2010, where Arsenal defeated Spurs by a scoreline of 4-1 in this very competition. Considering that side boasted names like Emmanuel Eboue, Johan Djourou and Henri Lansbury, perhaps it was a great feat to win by such a margin.
It’s going to be a tight one this Wednesday, it’s going to be hard to call. If Arsenal field a weak team, and so do Tottenham, it’ll have some dull moments, but overall will cause anticipation in the capital. A high-scoring game will certainly insue.
Team News
For Arsenal, there are suspensions to Gabriel and Cazorla – it remains to be seen exactly how long each ban is, although the Brazilian’s could be in the region of five games. Per Mertesacker, Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck all miss out with illness, knee, ankle and knee injuries respectively. This many suspensions might make it hard for Arsène Wenger to rotate the squad.
Spurs’ creative catalyst Christian Eriksen comes back from injury. Moussa Dembele has said his injury isn’t serious, so that could perhaps influence team selection. There are no new injuries in the first team, Hugo Lloris is still out with a long-term problem, and so is Danny Rose, although some fringe players have been ruled out.
Predicted XIs
Spurs (4-2-3-1): Vorm; Trippier, Vertonghen, Alderweireld, Davies; Alli, Dier; Townsend, Eriksen, Son; Kane.
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Ospina; Debuchy, Koscielny, Chambers, Gibbs; Arteta (C), Ramsey; Chamberlain, Campbell, Alexis; Giroud.
Predictions
A 3-2 win to Arsenal. Wenger’s men will open the scoring via Olivier Giroud, before Spurs take the lead through Townsend and Son goals. To snatch the win and an entry into the fourth round, Aaron Ramsey will level it, and Alexis Sánchez will score the winner. It should be enthralling if it’s open enough, so Arsenal can nick it and claim bragging rights in that part of the world.
