Arsenal to focus on Tottenham´s injury-hit defence?

First of all Arsenal fans, I want to say that I am not revelling in the misfortunes of others, but with Tottenham next up in the Premier League I am sure that Arsene Wenger would take any help we can get in beating our local rivals at the Emirates stadium on Sunday.

Mauricio Pochettino does not have as many injury problems to cope with as our own manager, especially if the likes of Santi Cazorla, Hector Bellerin, Theo Walcott and both left backs Monreal and Gibbs do not recover in time to play in the north London derby, but the ones he does have could well be vital.

Most people will point to the possible absence of their centre forward Harry Kane as their biggest problem but I think the one that Arsenal can exploit the most is their central defender Toby Alderweireld. The sports injury website physioroom.com rates the Belgian defender as a major doubt to face us and he looks certain to miss out, giving their boss a major headache.

Last night in Europe he went for Dier alongside Vertonghen but they looked like they had never met and the defensive errors and anxiety went all across the back four, and ith the defensive midfielder Dembele having picked up an injury himself last night, they have also lost protection in front of the defenders. The pace and movement in the Gunners attack is perfectly suited to exploiting any defence that is not on the ball and well organised, so Alexis Sanchez and Ozil should have a field day.

What I think Arsenal need to do is to get at them from the off and utilise the high press like Bayer Leverkusen did last night. The spuds crumbled under the pressure and never really recovered so we can prey on that and get them on the back foot and in panic mode early in the game.

Has this one Spurs injury given Arsenal a huge advantage in the derby?

Bob.

Tags alderweireld Dembele dier kane

6 Comments

  1. Sometimes injuries to big players can take some pressure off the ones who play so we need to be careful. It’s only a couple of injuries but spu are almost trying to play the underdog card after all the title & CL aspirations looks to have been a heavy load. Swa last season not many people will forget, our players had those points counted before we stepped out there. We need to go into this game thinking it’s a title decider, because after this and the away one it could have a huge bearing. Whenever we came up short you never heard rival fans or pundits say Arsenal only lost out due to casualties. We need to do our homework if we want to become the best and the brightest.

  2. Injury or no injury, we have to bring our A game. I don’t like Spurs but they have been playing some good football in the league and still unbeaten although with draws here and there. They are low on confidence for losing to Leverkusen yesterday but if we get carried away, their weakness will end up hurting us

    It’s a derby game and I trust we will approach the game as one. We need to start right and hit them hard.

    Still In the Euphoria of Ozil goal. Ya Gunners, Ya!

  3. As others have already stated, this is a derby match, between 2 bitter rivals. They might have a few injured 1st team players out. But that only means whoever steps in for them will want to impress in hopes of getting more game time. Poch is no mug, and he knows what this match means for his club. He’ll instill some fightin them, plus tweak his tactics accordingly.
    We just need to come out sharper, hungrier and try to play better than them…

  4. I just hope we wouldn’t go with the same lineup. Other than that Ozil’s goal, it was a very dry game to watch.

  5. start with

    Cech
    Bellerin,Mustafi,Koscielny,Monreal

    Coquelin,Cazorla

    Walcott,Ozil,Iwobi

    Alexis

    no experiments.

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