Arsenal are facing a formidable English team nearly after a month. This time the Gunners have their pride at stake when they lock horns with Spurs at the Emirates.
A victory for either side could help them climb up and push the other a spot below, thus there’s hardly any doubt that this would be a crucial outing in long-term perspectives.
Meanwhile, 4 key players from the side of Lilywhites are very likely to miss the action on Sunday.
Mousa Dembele, Kieran Trippier, Victor Wanyama and Davinson Sanchez would be sitting out due to their injuries succumbed in the International break. To add salt to wounds of Spurs, their star player, Erik Lamela’s presence is on the ropes due to his thigh injury picked up in the club’s Champions League fixture against Inter Milan.
Nevertheless, Arsenal would need a solid defense to hold back Harry Kane. Their dream run of being unbeaten for 18 games was dangerously close to being tarnished in the past few weeks when they needed late equalisers to against Wolves and Liverpool.
Currently, the Emirates outfit are the only team in Europe to have not been beaten since August.
On the other hand, Laurent Koscielny featured for the Under-23 side for 45 minutes in a fixture against Derby County on Monday with a commendable performance. His presence could bolster the weak defense who were extremely prone to errors this season, conceding 16 goals so far.
Alexandre Lacazette would also be back by all probability after receiving from his minor groin injury. Lacazette had missed the club’s last outing against Bournemouth due to this tear but reports suggest that he is fit as a fiddle and would start alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Paul Merson didn’t exactly fancy the Islington team’s chances because of their dismissal record in the backline. He said,
“He (Unai Emery) knows that he needs two windows – it probably won’t be this window because it’s hard to get defenders in – but next season he’ll know that forward-wise he’ll have to go a lot of places to try and get better, but defensively…”
Another former player, Charlie Nicholas suggested that the Unai Emery‘s side should stick with their rock strong offense and counter-attack their derby rivals with the pace of Aubameyang.
“They (Arsenal) have the perfect team to play counter-attacking football,” he said.
“With Aubameyang’s pace and Lacazette’s finishing they could play on the counter-attack but instead they try to take the game.
“If I was in charge I’d stick 10 behind the ball against Spurs and play counter-attacking football. If they open the game up I just can’t see how they’d deal with Tottenham.”
Arsenal would have a lot of pressure on them against Spurs. To maintain the unbeaten streak would be a real challenge for Emery and his boys.
