When it comes to the North London derby, form, politics, league standing etc tend to get thrown out of the window and more often than not it comes down to just a few players that make the difference.
Take the last matchup between Arsenal and Tottenham at Wembley, it could be argued that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made the difference by missing the last-minute penalty. It does not always need to be a positive contribution that decides the outcome.
Obviously, any of the players from either team can make the difference, however, I am of the opinion that there are three Arsenal stars well positioned to determine the outcome on Saturday.
David Luiz
An obvious one really, if he puts in a decent performance then he can help keep the formidable Tottenham forwards at bay, he has the capability to score from a free-kick and pass the ball long out of the danger zone with pinpoint accuracy, he is also more than capable of having a catastrophe. We have to hope for the former.
Lucas Torreira
The last time Arsenal hosted Tottenham in the Premier League at the Emirates they won 4-2 and Torreira had a blinder, in fact, we rated him a nine in our ratings and as long as Emery picks him I am confident we will see a repeat performance from the little Uruguayan. He is fresh, fit and raring to go, they had no answer for him last season and I see no reason why it will be any different this time around.
Nicolas Pepe
He is an almost certain starter and we have already seen enough to know that he will be a sensation, we saw glimpses of it against Liverpool and with the Tottenham central defenders a little pedestrian when it comes to speed and Danny Rose always out of position then I can see Pepe running the Spurs defence ragged. They have no experience playing against him and you just know they are already having sleepless nights working out how to contain him.
As I have already said, any player can be the difference but I am confident that one of these three players will be named man of the match or in the case of Luiz, the villain.
I hope we are fired up for these one even a draw I will consider it a disaster 3points and nothing less.
We need to start Pepe and Torreira as well as Ceballos, Aubameyang/Lacazette, Wilock, Guendouzi
No Xhaka
Maybe try Chambers over Luiz
Similar to Liverpool line up but Torreira instead of Xhaka
……………Leno
Niles..Chambers/Luiz..Sok..Monreal
…Torreira….Guendouzi…Wilock
………….Ceballos
…….Pepe……..Aubameyang
No narrow diamond formation again please, unless it is 4-3-3 in disguise and if you plan to assign:
– Ceballos as a false nine, which I don’t think he is tall enough to be one
– Pepe/ Aubameyang as wingers, Torreira/ Willock as half-wingers and Guendouzi as DM
Luiz is best when in a back 3. He is a sweeper when others can man mark
………….Leno
…….Chambers..Luiz..Sok
Niles…Torreira…Wilock…Monreal
………….Ceballos
…Pepe……Laca……..Aubameyang
Ah so you suggest we play we 12 men? Interesting!
If only we can play with 12 men. That would certainly give us the advantage
How nice. The 12 disciples!
I agree with u in this fomation.guners 3points only we need!!!
Agree. But for me, you need to add Ceballos to the list. Our Real Madrid loan player on song on Sunday, Tottenham are going to breathe through their rear end.
If Emery use 4-2-3-1 again, I guess our four attackers and two CBs could make a difference
Both sides have 50 possessions and 300 touches per game.
Both sides get with in the red zone 15-20 times a game.
Yet 2-1 is the most common score even between top and bottom.
57 attacks out of 60 fail.
Even Man City + Liverpool fail to convert 90% of their attacks.
I think my point is that if you score 2 goals or more
7 out of ten times you will win + 2 out of ten you will draw.
So why do teams fail to convert so many attacks?
I like our squad and I have great faith in our manager
and firmly believe 3rd is the lowest we will be in May.
It still puzzles though me as to why 11 great footballers
struggle to put the ball into the onion bag twice in 100 mins.
Interesting observation. I think it started when 4-2-3-1 became popular, when emphasis was given in retaining possession rather than having a go. Also the improvement in defence and transition means teams were caught less often than in the past.
Emery is a loser, he get nothing to offer,his crazy selection always give fan’s heart attack.we expect this kind of line up.
Leno,sok,monreal,niles, chamber,xhaka,torreira, aubameyang, pepeto, Lacazette.Dani Ceballos.
Over the past 6-7 years I have heard pleas
from millions of Gunner supporters here on JA.
If only we had a decent striker.
If only we had a decent DM.
If only we had decent winger.
Well you know what people our prayers have been answered.
We do have a decent stiker = Lacazette.
Better still we have TWO decent strikers = Aubameyang.
We also have an awesome winger = Pepe.
Hold on to your döner kebab “Gunner truckers”
because we also have a top DM = Toreira.
A world class AM = Ozil.
Ceballos Martinelli Willock Guendouzie complete the midfield.
We also have a good keeper Leno.
When Hector and Kieran are fit and firing FB’s are sorted.
Hopefully Luiz and Socratis can give us CB stability.
We are so close now. But how close?
I know game 4 on Sunday is early in the season but it will
still be a reasonable guide as to how well we are tracking.
World class Ozil? I stopped reading your post there.Can you name me one trophy the “world class” Ozil delivered in the last two seasons? Not even a league cup! “World Class” players carry the team on their back and win something or at the least go down with a fight, battered and bruised and not lay down for a 4-1 thumping in a cup finals. Sunday the points are ours to loose, we have a really good attack / midfield, that is where the battles are won. Remember for all the greatness of the Pool defense, they still conceded.
He won world cup goddamnit, and he won throphies at personal and club level too. I don’t understand if that pedigree means nothing.
Class is permanent and form is temporary, while I do agree that his performance in recent times is lacking, he is still world class.
Europa league final shows Emery defensive style of football and again we struggle home and away to win match…we don’t have pattern, you see lacazette and tomorrow u will not see him Emery is confusing our players…Emery cost us top 4 finish,a cowardice manager ever since he came to Arsenal he has been experimenting for almost a year and,simply the is not what we need……Spanish mourinho!!
Did Wenger leave us fighting for the top 4, I would like you to also admit that Emery also put us in a position to challenge for the top 4 and Europa league final, the same way you admitted he lost us top four as if he came when we are 3rd in the table
He wasn’t doing us a favor by fighting for top4, it was a job requirement, one which he gets paid handsomely for. And failure to reach it 2 consecutive seasons should see him get the sack, whether he came close or got us challenging and had another brain fart
Can you say we have better squad than those teams who we are are fighting top 4 with last season and with better paid coaches what can u say about that?
Why can’t Emery build his team around his greatest arsenals ,the front three,Lacazette,pepe and Auba?
Please Arsenal don’t cash in on Nacho. £3m might seem attractive for a 33 year old in his last season. But he is currently our only fit and decent left back option in a back 4. Even Medley and Bola are both injured. Back is also the best option on the left of a 3, though Luiz often played there for Chelsea.
Personally I would rather take 15m on kolasinac than sell nacho for 3m. Kola’s new wife has still not returned from Germany, which must be putting a strain on his state of mind
For me it has to be 433 against Spurs.
Leno
Niles Sokratis Luiz Nacho
Guendozi Torreira Ceballos
Pepe Lacazette Aubameyang
Bench from
Martinez, Chambers, Holding, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Willock, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Nelson, Martinelli
Why can’t Emery build around his greatest Arsenals;his front 3- Lacazette,pepe and Aubameyang?
Lacazette -has the ability to hold up play ,very clinical,best handler of the ballof the three and a proven 9, Pepe -quick,excellent dirbler to takes defenders out of positionwhile Aubameyang-Has greatest movement of the three around the penalty box,very pacy and a great pocher. We have seen what understading between Lacca/Auba can be in several matches and a very few matches we could have won last seasons if we had pepe to open up those defences while the other two cause expected damages.why can’t Emery let those three blend and have the perfect understanding they need to make Arsenal unplayable? beleive me or not Liverpool would never have been able to put 4-0 behind baca if they retained their messy – neymar-suarez.
As long as they’re not benched!!
Please don’t mention Ozil.
………. leno
niles… liuz… soks…. kolaz
….willock..torriera.. xjaka
………..lacazette…
….aubamayang…….. pepe
Looking forward to the day when we can field our “British” back 4
Tierney left back
Chambers/Holding centre backs
And our very own “Spickney” (Spanish/Cockney) Bellerin at Right back. That is no slant on AMN who could also be in the British back 4
leno
amn
luiz
soko
mono
toro
willo
cebello
pepo
laco
aubo
Emery has to play his best team,I accept that his idea of this differs greatly from most peoples teams but we must start with a strong lineup on sunday, and that means Lacca starting not warming the bench again,Ceballos Pepe,Auba and the Terrier must also start along with Chambers.
Please god no Xhaka.
What is Emery’s best team please.
He will only know his best team
If everyone is given a chance to
Play, even holding was not in
Anyone’s best team yet when given
The opportunity he was better than
the obvious,many would have said
Why is Nelson not given opportunity
To play, but now Emery have given him
The opportunity and we have seen how
Average he is, I would suggest you say
Emery should stop playing players out
Of position and not giving players such
As xhaka unlimited opportunity
Let’s be realistic am tired of Emery this Emery that am not his biggest fan but this moaning have gotten to my nerves please I will be happy if an article can be put up a non-biased article about last season how it started the players who adapted well to what Emery wants to do, the injury set back, how we have to revert to a back 3, ramsey’s season daunting injury and many more, am not defending his bad decisions but when this all started we were applauding him saying that a certain Wenger would have not bad a sub until the 75min even his half time sub’s where then very effective, we were conceding buckets of goals thr introduction of holding into a back 3 became a revelation and we were able to reduce the goals we conceded as of that time, after bellerin and holding got injured,we were left with very error prone Socratis, not good enough Mustafi, a below average lichstainer and out of form monreal who was fast lossing pace,
Look our midfield then torriera who clearly lost form in second half of the season,xhaka clearly average and error prone,guenduozi was too raw and wearing off because maybe because it’s his 1st season, ozil nothing to say about him mikhi we all know about him, iwobi started great but hard a poor second half of the season and many other factors Ramsey super camoa was not a mere coincidence it’s really how bad our midfield needed some form of quality on and off the ball the truth was auba and laca were the only shinning diamond we could rely on at a point in the season when they struggled, the team always struggle, all this we still managed to put on a fight for the top 4 and Europa maybe the end of the season was not managed well yes but all this negativity after 3 games with nearly a new set of players many are yet to settle is just irritating, klopp lost his europa league final as well but I didn’t see Liverpool fans calling for his head.his formation is this and that but that same formation gave us one of our best head to head results against the top six opponents the only team who were able to take maximum points from us were city, this same pragmatic coach took us to the final besting some great/good teams, this same naive coach beat some better teams that are better than us on paper, now some fans are singing allegri is allegri less pragmatic than Emery I don’t think so, I would gladly sack Emery and see how your messiah would fair maybe we would also start an endless circle of hiring and firing coaches, am not saying he is a great manager but looking at the circumstances at ground always learning with new players moving into the team, it’s rather too early to start all this negativity
Well said, Wenger with all his achievement never considered subtitution before the 75min and completely dismissed the need for a decent DM. He was often guilty of his naive approach that resulted in 8-2, 6-0 humiliation.
Luiz on the bench would increase our chances of beating Spurs.Will Emery be strong enough to leave him out?, probably not.I should imagine Kane will be relishing the prospect of facing what is arguably one of the weakest centre back partnerships in the League flanked by a makeshift RB and an aging LB.However despite our defensive woes we have enough fire power to squeeze home by one goal in what could be a high scoring match.
The same Kane that can`t score against a Newcastle shitty side? In as much as I believe we have a very porous defence,what matters more is Emery stopping with his experimentation and start our best players then it will be fire for fire. Spurs DEFENCE definitely can`t match our PAL. Lets just hope Emery starts Torrera and Lacazette
This is doing my f**king head in now
There is still so much negativity going round
Fan boys here fan boys there wtf
Tottenham are so much better than arsenal
We lost a match at anfield ??
Sack emery
When are we all gunna get behind the team again ,, the great arsenal
We’ve had ups and downs same as always but come on
Let’s unite again it’s f**king depressing on here
We had a good transfer window
We’ve got a good team especially when everyone is fit
This could be a good season for us
COYG
See our squad:
Leno
M. Niles. D. Luis. Socrates. Monreal
Torreirra. Xhaka
Pepe. Ceballos. Aubameyang
Lacazzete
With this squad, we will beat toteham to the pulp. Willock and Gwendouzi are still infants. Bring them in 70 minutes. And start them in europa, FAITH cup and EFL.
we lack creativity in the middle as we also struggle to get goals so my line up will be
leno
Niles sokratis Luiz monreal
torriera
ceballos ozil
pepe aubameyang
laccazett
guendozi lack pace and experience