To me, it genuinely feels as though the dust has barely settled on the last North London Derby in May, but here we are, traveling to the Emirates to take on our beloved neighbours this Saturday for the weekend’s early-kick off (12.30 PM BST KO).
Indeed, that encounter over 4 months ago saw us take a huge step towards securing Champions League football at the expense of our hosts, yet we find ourselves behind the Gunners after 7 games. Admittedly, Arsenal have improved since the back end of last season, and Arteta has them playing some great stuff, but I think they’ve had the “easiest” start to the season out of everyone in the top 6 – Palace (A), Leicester (H), Bournemouth (A), Fulham (H), Villa (H), United (A), and Brentford (A).
Although I’m of the school of thought that dictates there’s no “easy” game in the Premiership, every game you’d expect a top-four team to win, they’ve won, and the one match many doubted they would win (United away), they lost. Although on the balance of the 7 games they’ve played so far it’s difficult to argue that they don’t deserve to be where they presently are, I don’t think they’ll be up there for much longer.
Although this is technically a “top-of-the-table” clash, it’s worth pointing out that it is not even October yet, making it too early to jump to conclusions in calling this a “title decider” or even a “top four” decider. As much as I’d love to beat Arsenal and would hate to lose on Saturday, this is a match fraught with peril – Arsenal always turn up for this one at the Emirates, and it won’t be easy given our dreadful record at their place over the years.
Indeed, our solitary league win since they moved there in 2006 in November 2010, the iconic 3-2 triumph where we snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Moreover, the away team tends to lose this win, with the last away victory in the league being Arsenal’s 1-0 victory at WHL in March 2014.
There are some injury worries for Arsenal, with Kieran Tierney, Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomisayu all having to withdraw from their respective national teams’ squads with various injury problems of their own. Emil SMith-Rowe, Reiss Nelson, Mohamed Elneny are likely to be out, with Oleksander Zinchenko a doubt too.
Up until yesterday, we had a clean bill of health in terms of internationals, but news has come this morning that Dejan Kulusevski has picked up a hamstring injury while playing for Sweden, making him a doubt for the weekend. Hugo Lloris is also doubtful with a thigh injury he picked up before the international break. We currently await Conte’s quotes on the state of those guys along with the rest of the squad, including Lucas Moura, who has been out since August with a calf injury, and Ben Davies, who picked up a knee injury against Sporting Lisbon a few weeks back.
The derby thread is here folks – discuss away!