Today is the famous North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham which is to be held at their new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The teams come into the tie with contrasting form. Tottenham can boast some of the best form in recent memory. They are unbeaten in the league since the opening weekend’s loss to Everton, and currently joint-second in the division, but actually come into the tie on the back of two draws.
Arsenal on the other hand maintained their 100% record in the Europa League on Thursday, but domestically have been all over the place. We have just one win from our last six Premier League matches, and have dropped as low as 15th in the table at present.
Luckily for us, form counts for nothing in such a game, and the team should be self-motivated for the match, which should overpower any negative energy or lacking of confidence that is being suffered.
I know I’m definitely going against the grain in thinking we actually have a chance today. I don’t care if Tottenham are in the form of their lives, or what record Jose Mourinho has against us.
Mikel Arteta knows exactly how important the North London derby is, and will have the team giving everything, and just like in the big games last season, I firmly expect the team to operate as they should, and Aubameyang knows exactly what to do to finish them off.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand the negativity, and the thought that we are going to be run over, but I struggle to expect that our team is going to roll over.
I believe we are going to get a result today, most likely by a 2-1 scoreline, but I wouldn’t be shocked if we had to settle for a score draw.
What are your predictions for the big game? Am I alone in believing our side is due a performance?
Patrick
We will have good results today. There is only one underdog in this fixture as they always have been.
1st goal 100% on Leno. His positioning was bush league terrible. Wow that was awful
I love my club always have but I just cant see us winning this game. A lot depends on arteta and how he sets the side up, personally I would go for it as I dont think by sitting deep and hoping to get them on the break will work. Let’s assume kane and son play let’s kick them up in the air every opportunity we have and play with some pride the sort of pride most of us would give anything to give on a NLD. Maybe we get a decent performance today and at least show some bottle.
No going hell for leather today, we need patience, sit back like they do and play on the break, like they do. Important to retain the ball in midfield that’s why I’m hoping to see AMN, Partey and Elneny play. All three have skill and pace.
OT, I bet no one got the Palace score in the League Predictor.
Nil points for me. I thought it might be a draw☹️
Would opt for that midfield too
I worry which Arsenal will turn up today. On Thursday we played some good football, one and two touch moves. We moved the ball quickly and had attempts on goal, even if the opposition were poor. I hope we don’t revert to passing the ball round the back , side to side etc. I feel if we attack today we could do well.
I believed that we can make the three point if individual can ups their games and play to their potential, we will eventually shocked the world.
Yes – got a good feeling we’ll win today.
Our team is so bad that we have to rely on elneny
yes i see arsenal take all 3points today up guners up
1-0 Arsenal.
Willian Xhaka Partey all confirmed. Only happy with one of them!
No Ndombele
Why Arteta picks xhaka over elneny and AMN, or willian ahead of Nelson, is a mystery to me. Does he not watch the same games we watch? Happy to see Partey back though.
Xhaka is the only left-footed DM we have, who’s really important for our passing flow. This is why Wenger and Emery always started him as the left pivot in 4-2-3-1
No offence GAI. But this sounds like a load of crap. How many top teams have left footed DMs
Elneny and AMN on bench!
Can’t predict, it’s upon Arteta line up.
If Luiz in defense, means we lose or draw. Same if he plays Ceballos as DM or if he plays saka as midfield, and if he also plays Willian in that combined mess, we losing in an embarrassing way.
We are 15th before game starts and people still want to see more of Arteta mess! Nuts!
Line already up on Just Arsenal. Luiz and Ceballos not in team.
I’d prefer Cedric to Belerin and Nelson to Willian (as long as he’s not taking corners)
4-4-2 with ball
And 3-4-3 without ball
So easy to understand and predictable..
Love how you feel the need to write this every single game now lol
Or it could be 4-2-3-1 as well with Lacazzet playing as Number 10 which he did on Thursday..
Not so predictable then…..
We’d likely be doomed if Aubameyang plays in front of Lacazette, since he’s not as hardworking as Nketiah
Yes but team sheet suggest these 2 possibilities…
4-4-2 with ball and 3-4-3 without ball
4-2-3-1 with ball and 3-4-3 without ball
It’d likely be 4-3-3 with ball, with Lacazette upfront
Saka is much more Productive on wings instead of middle 3
He could be the half-winger in 4-3-3 when we have ball, just like David Silva:
……………………… Leno
Bellerin . Holding . Gabriel . Tierney
…………………….. Xhaka
………… Partey …………. Saka
Willian ………………………………….. Aubameyang
……………………… Lacazette
Got no chance of winning the game.
Partey could turn out to be an expensive flop that we rushed back from injury.
Won’t say anything about the rest.
Unless they actually care about wearing our shirt for once.
“Partey could turn out to be an expensive flop that we rushed back from injury”
What in the blue hell are you talking about? How does rushing him back from injury in any way suggest he could be a flop? Give me one possible reason you have to suggest partey could be a flop!?!?
Mustafi.
When we bought him he did well for us in the games he played.
Then he got injured.
Then he struggled with form.
Basically he was never the same player after January 2017.
Two completely different players… what about the hundreds of examples of players coming back from injury being fine? That’s a massive thing to just assume.
Holding and the keeper are to blame. Holding instead of going after son he kept shifting back. Who did he expect to do it.
I love it when some fans are negative before kick off. It sometimes go our way.
I never wanted Xhaka to start but we need to support the team.
Elneny should have started along with Partey.
COYG.
What do you expect we are shit at the moment for God sake
Patience… faith…. perseverance… backbone…. because coming on here just to bash MA, the team selection or whatever, doesnt help anybody. How can we expect the team to get out of a rut if the fans cannot.
Scum will destroy us. The fall of Arsenal is unstoppable this season. We have two major drifters in Bellering and Xhaka. I won’t be surprised if we pick up a red card, won’t be surprised if they demolish us by more than 3 goals difference. I don’t think we’ll score more than one goal to be frank.
Xhaka and william, what kind of contract does this guys have…
same team that lost to villa with xhaka in for elneny … dont really think arteta has learnt very much in his year in charge … i know he has til end of season but i really cant see him moving us forward so we need to start thinking who can really turn this team around
They’ll want the money to bring in what they want, which we don’t really have after furloughing 55 staff to spend on the transfer market.
We’re beholden to an agent now, so the only managers who will want to manage us are them yes men.
Agent association isn’t for everyone, it worked for wolves but not Doncaster lol
You can’t defend against that well we cant
Pure crap
Glad Partey is back. Looks like it’s back to the 3-4-3 Arteta usually use against top teams. Or could it be 4-4-2?
Hope the lads give it their all. GOYG!
Typical.. we attack with no venom. Counter attack is on for spuds and we just stand off for the shot.. When will we learn? Typical! The Jose way!
You can say typical MA’s way and Typical this what we missed when we decided not to hire Jose for MA
What a fcking joke ,same old Jose ,counter get lucky
It’s not lucky…
It’s strategy…
He do what he does the best..
You can’t say that it’s lucky
It’s not Lucky…
It’s Jose’s way of Tactics..
One should come with better to nullify that..
Jose is not stopping anyone to do that..
It’s almost like the defense invited Son to shoot. Poor defending. Reminded me of Hoyte against Spurs in that league game drubbing!
Exactly
Holding keeping making the same mistakes every game. Shifting back rather than facing the opponent.
So given the Jose Style of play and current defensive record and our Impotence to score, game is already over..
Leno should’ve been able to deny that goal. Now Mourinho just needs to instruct his team to sit for counter-attacks
Yes…
We should accept this 1-0 loss otherwise we will be humiliated on counter by spurs..
Good god what a weak mindset. Pure loser attitude.
You can say realistic approach as well
Nope. Nothing “realistic” about giving up after 20 mins, arsenal fc would have ZERO trophies in the cabinet with that kind of talk, its embarrassing.
I hope you are right with your optimism but I afraid you are not..
It’s not about optimism dude, I have ZERO to be optimistic about, it’s about perseverance, know one is going to come, wave a wand and get us out of this terrible form, neither is giving up after 20 mins.
It’s 40 mins dude..
Still you are optimistic?
No!! I already said I am NOT OPTIMISTIC but sure lets just give up? Ok cool spurs win it’s over move on nothing to see here. Jesus christ what if Thierry henry and co had this attitude? No invincibles, no titles, no legacy.
Like I said bellerin can’t defend xhaka can’t defend .. no creativity in middle no threat with willian laca and aube .. easy for spurs so far .. Maureen has a plan arteta just trying to figure out how to keep these jokers in the team
It wasn’t Xhaka’s fault, because the right side is Bellerin’s, Holding’s and Partey’s responsibility. Leno is the main culprit
He was not expecting shot from that range at all and that was his fault..
It’s artetas fault for playing these two hopeless players and a 3 man defensive line against a very fast attack
Board’s fault not to appoint Jose instead of MA 🤣🤣
Fan’s fault for supporting this stupid club🤣🤣
That wasn’t luck Dan. It was a great goal because we gave space to attack and shoot!
True….
That wasn’t luck at all..
Do you reckon we do any preparation?
So is quick and runs at you and shoots!
Not rocket science.
We started well but the Jose tactics were obvious. We were not intelligent enough and took the bait again!
Every team in the land knows we are a sucker for a good counter..
We don’t just get hit on the counterplay. We get pressed and outpassed as well. We’ll be second best at everything.
And we’ll be celebrating victories in matches that are relegation six pointers
Until MA is getting result in Europa, his job is safe…. The day we will be out of Europa and if we are getting same kind of results at the same time then MA will be gone…
Have a bit of pride guys – we need to win this one for so many reasons
👍
Hehe. And the customary Harry Kane goal is still on it’s way.
🤬 lol
Yes… Son ti dive in box and Kane to convert penalty
Correct, QD… I hate to think what the score will be at this rate 💩
Do we actually practice crossing? Seriously!!?
What is.going on with Auba? Can’t remember the last time I saw his beaming smile? 🙁 there seems more to this than a lack of confidence.
Wonder if something may have happened in his private life?
In his private bank account I think
True something up with him, his confidence went down the drain. He doesn’t shoot anymore
Arsenal give a lot of time on the ball, when the opponents are near the box. Especially Xhaka. Wtf. Just haggle the person with possession.
OMG Bellerin!!!!!! Again?
1-0 down and arsenal playing like they are leading. I haven’t seen one offensive pass from xhaka, a walking red card with only backwards or sideways passing. I don’t see us getting anything from this game. Every defender backing off from son for his goal, what kind of crap do they learn in training?
Oh yes and Bellerin with yet another wrong throw-in. Sorry if Im negative but this season is horrible.
I wish people would give it up with the MA out rubbish.
He needs time and support to come through this tough time and ti be allowed to shape this team into his own. At least he can communicate with the players, (Emery……good ebening).
We don’t support dont press don’t move … arteta has not corrected basic weaknesses that go back years
Willian would have been just fine as a squad player, starting him every match is downright criminal.
Right 2nd half plan B bring on the target man and go long………ah we dont have one:-(
Na na na na Giroud…….!
If it wasn’t for Partey, this would be a total shambles! We have half a spine in this team! Xhaka had the heart but that is about it..
Partey was nutmegged and lost the ball that led to a dangerous situation
And he is off now..
Partey was all over the place and is now injured again..
@RW1.
He had addressed all of those.
We pressed and worked hard early on like I’ve never seen us work just not anymore. Xhaka and Auba s lack/drop of form are killing us and rippling through the team.
Fatigue? Lack of belief? Confused players?
its about how we do relative to the competition .. we didnt do any of that at a level needed for a premiership team … it was easy for spurs to absorb … at one point we had 90 per cent possession with zero consequences … i cant believe its fatigue … its lack of quality in players and manager
Willian = wtf?
As for the rest..
Stop the bs about MA can’t go … he is not up to this job
Game Over
There you got what you clearly wanted bro, now you can chat shit about how you were right, arsenal are terrible, ma out blah blah blah
I didn’t wanted this…
I am always right about what I write because I am realistic… I would love be wrong but I don’t think it will happen..
“I am always right about what I write because I am realistic” that is the most foolish statement I have read on here so thanks for that 👍
Haha.. I love your comment because you know I am right about I am writing..
So you were right about Leicester winning the title with your all knowing “realism”? I think not, your just being negative and at the moment it’s all coming up correct because were in terrible form, but realism never predicts an underdog to win so your comment was indeed foolish.
I said I am always right when I comment about something..
I never said or commented about Leicester to win tittle…
Why would I write about Leicester on Arsenal Blog..
Such a foolish argument..
Oh so your only right about something if you “write it down” and you just didnt have an opinion of who would win the league the year Leicester won it, ok gotcha 🤦♂️🤦♂️
whats your alternative … relegation? Thats the level we are playing at … smell the coffee arteta has had a year and has pushed us backwards .. he aint up to the job the sooner the club gets it the sooner we have a chance of moving on .. this game has played out as anyone with a bit of football knowledge could predict … i did and am just a jackass sitting in my sitting room .. if you are going to pay someone hundreds of thousands of quid a week to do the job theyd better know what they are doing
And I was quite happy watching Apollo 13 on ITV. I turned over for this crap when I should have known better! 🤬🤬🤬
Those crosses by Bellerin are giving me a disease.
Were they crosses? 😲
Arteta being schooled by Mourinho. Game over!
Awesome time to concede!
Wow we are nauseateingly poor this year 🙁
We don’t have the players for guardiola football, we don’t have the players for Klopp football, in fact I don’t think we have the players for allardyce football either!
They hit us on the counter twice 1st half,
2nd half we can choose to defend all half & spurs will just stroll the ball into the net instead.
We’re being rightfully bullied
And Partey is becoming an expensive failure. Subbed again.
“And Partey is becoming an expensive failure” jesus christ really? Pitiful excuse for fans honestly.
Err, I don’t think he was subbed. Went off injured as far as I could see.
So why the heck did we start him?
Arsenal medical department got a lot of explaining to do. Not that we’ll get a response that isn’t an excuse for the 10+ players we’ve already crocked permanently.
Erm because we needed him and he wanted to play? Not rocket science.
Thought the manager made these decisions … same guy who kept Luiz on last week … weak minded sadly
It was a risk.
The hype about saka is what I don’t get. He brings nothing to the team at the moment.
No one bring anything to this team..
Not a single and not even MA
I can’t believe I miss Giroud. None of our attackers have his aerial ability and strength to hold the opponents off
@BABARI
agree he can be threatening but at the end of the day Spurs a team of men Arsenal a team of talented but inconsistent kids, ageing stars and men that dont give much of a damn.
“Spurs a team of men” Is that why they have ZERO TROPHIES??
They might get EPL this year because this year league is very volatile
Sorry since when is “might” a trophy? You either win a trophy or dont and this spurs team has NOT.
You must referring about FA Cup…
I think Anthony Taylor played a big part in that for giving wrong Red to Kovacic…
In no world it was red card..
🤣
No… I’m referring to TOTTENHAM having not won a trophy since the Carling cup in 2008. What a fantastic team of “men” apparently.
Yeah But they are 2-0 ahead at now they will 11 points up in table and that’s painful reality…
We would regret not and hiring Jose and we would double regret to hire MA
A pitiful reality where they still end up TROHPYLESS as per usual so what’s your point? Yes we are terrible but jesus ya’ll are licking spurs a hole like there the best team in 50 years lol. All hype and they will buckle as always.
Are you blind??
Can’t you see in which direction Arsenal are going and which direction spurs are going??
Forget about past…
Talk about present..
@Gortan idea
Indeed I miss so many of our players.
Hey I’d take Iwobi or even Walcott today over Willian and Saka.
We kist Santi then that window came and we lost Ramsey, welbeck and Cech that was the start of the end.
Now so very little identity and link tonour success and dare I say Wenger philosophy left.
I miss Iwobi too, but we have many right-footed attackers who can play on the left wing like him. I don’t miss Walcott, Ramsey and Cech though
At the moment how can you argue I’m talking about now today!
Unprepared and naive.
With Partey off and injured again Not looking forward to the 2nd 45.
Might as well take auba off and add a midfield player, go on MA bring in AMN.
Why MA don’t give chance to ESR Otger youngsters..
Anyway we are loosing then give them a chance..
Getting serious now……
7 points from the bottom 3 and Burnkey have a game in Hand whilst 11 points from the top.
What a relief the bottom three have licked up so few points.
Why MA went to attack Jose when in world everyone knows Jose just sit back and hit on counter…
You also sit back get a point away from home..
Such a simple thinking..
I don’t think Arteta has ever let us play counterattacking football.
The victories against Liverpool, city and Chelsea in the summer were because we pounced on mistakes they made while they were in possession.
But when you know how Jose’s team play and when you know in what form they are and when you what form you are then why to attack them…
Just sit back.. Take a point away from hone and boost some confidence…
Now our confidence must be shell shot with this loss
We have the WORST fanbase in the world. In no way better than this current team. For shame
Everyone has its opinion…
You can’t give verdict about anyone’s opinion..
We can also say that you are one of horrible and terrible fan as well
So just shut you mouth if you can’t hear others opinions
Get ffing xhaka off he’s a disgrace to the shirt … arteta playing this jack ass is enough for me to want to see the back of both
@bravo Kedar
Was just thinking the same thing!
Ps to previous comment about ‘licking spurs but hole’ I’m objectively comparing today’s opponent to us they happen to be spurs.
The same applies to Villa and wolves.
Yes spurs have no trophies but considering they not long ago built the stadium they’re in good shape I dint like that as an Arsenal fan but stupid to not see it!
No trophies! you’ll be banging on about 49 unbeaten soon!