Tottenham vs Arsenal - The North London Derby Beckons

One of the biggest days in North London’s football calendar is upon us, once more. When Arsenal visit their arch-rivals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, it will the 196th time these two teams have faced each other in one of the fiercest derbies in world football.

Derby History and Recent Form

Arsenal have won 82 of the previous 195 across all competitions, Tottenham have won 61, and there have been 52 draws. The Gunners have won on both previous league visits, and will seek to make it three successive away wins for the first time since 1988. Spurs last won the derby in May 2022, and will want to correct their recent winless streak.

The two clubs have made contrasting starts to the 2024-25 season.

Arsenal began with two solid 2-0 wins—at home to Wolves and away at Aston Villa—and were extremely unfortunate to draw 1-1 at home against Brighton after referee Chris Kavanagh unfairly sent off Declan Rice.

Tottenham have stumbled, winning just one of their first three—4-0 at home to Everton—while drawing 1-1 away at Leicester City on the opening day and losing 2-1 away to Newcastle United.

Team News

Richarlison will certainly be absent for Tottenham while there are doubts about Yves Bissouma, Micky van der Ven, and new signing Dominic Solanke.

Declan Rice, Mikel Merino, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and Kieran Tierney are four players definitely unavailable to Mikel Arteta. Doubts remain about Riccardo Calafiori and Martin Ødegaard—both of whom picked up unfortunate knocks on international duty—but Gabriel Jesus might return to contention. Raheem Sterling could make his Arsenal debut, having signed on loan from Chelsea in the summer transfer window.

What the Managers Have Said

Arteta on North London Derby: “Probably afterwards, especially when you win at home and you celebrate with your supporters and you know how much it means. It’s something special and we have so many huge Arsenal supporters since the day that they were born and looking at our staff, we have some good examples around the first team as well. They come in after the game and you can see the emotion and what it means for them. It’s a privilege to have the power to contribute to making someone really happy.”

Arteta on Ange Postecoglou: “I admire him. I respect him. I think he’s been an inspirational coach because he’s done things in his own way in various contexts and in various countries. He has a really unique way of thinking about the game and his philosophy, and I love it. He stands by it and I think he represents himself and the club in a really good way.”

Postecoglou on Challenging Arsenal: “Well, not specifically Arsenal, we want to be a club that can challenge everyone. That’s what we are trying to aim to become and to do that you have to perform at a certain level on a consistent basis, you have to have a squad strong enough to do that and withstand challenges that inevitably come during the course of a season.”

Postecoglou on North London Derby: “I guess every derby is a bit different. You can tell it is fairly intense between the two clubs, geographically situated in the same part of town and trying to defend the same turf. There is always a bit of an edge. I thought both games last year were very entertaining. We played well at their place and really matched it with them. Here at our place we got blown away in the first-half and sort of tried to make a game of it in the second half.

We know what it means to our supporters and what it means to the club. For us, what’s really important is we have to go out and perform, play our football, play well, because irrespective of the rivalry, they are a top side so you need to do that.”

A Glance Ahead at Sunday

The match on Sunday should be, as it always is, another spectacle between two fierce rivals, both of whom play attractive football under exciting managers, and despite recent results, appear to be in excellent form.

READ MORE: Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal - Premier League: TV channel, prediction, team news and lineups

Arsenal will want to make another early statement in the title race, and two away wins at Villa and Spurs before they visit the Etihad to face Manchester City will stand them in great stead.

Tottenham, still perhaps too far behind to challenge for the league title, would still want to stake an early claim for the Champions League spots, and ruining Arsenal’s day and hopes is always high on the priority list, of course.

If nothing else, pride and bragging rights are always at stake in this fixture, and fans—even neutral ones—should be in for an exceptional treat.

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