All eyes will be on Tottenham against Arsenal this weekend in what could be a classic North London Derby clash in the Premier League, with tickets likely to be high in demand for a fixture that almost always produces a major spectacle.
Much of the focus ahead of this game has been on Arsenal’s crisis in midfield, with Declan Rice suspended after that truly bizarre red card in the game against Brighton before the international break, while Martin Odegaard’s injury now looks pretty serious as he faces at least three weeks out with an ankle problem.
Tickets are still available on livefootballtickets.com but what kind of line up can Arsenal fans expect to see from Mikel Arteta if they make it to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Sunday?
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How Arsenal could line up with reshuffled midfield against Spurs
As we covered here, the absence of Odegaard will surely mean Kai Havertz needing to drop back into an attacking midfield role, despite playing most of his best football for Arsenal as a striker, or a kind of a false nine.
The Germany international has always been a versatile talent, however, so he should have little trouble doing a job for the Gunners in the Odegaard role, even if there are arguably very few players in world football who can really contribute the kind of quality and creativity of the Norway international.
Meanwhile, Jorginho makes sense as the man to replace Rice in midfield, with summer signing Mikel Merino also out injured in this slightly nightmarish start to the season at the Emirates Stadium.
Replacing Havertz up front won’t be entirely straightforward either as Gabriel Jesus’ fitness remains somewhat uncertain, with some suggestion he might be back by now, but not much in the way of detail or anything confirmed by Arteta. If Jesus isn’t fit for this weekend, it will surely be Leandro Trossard leading the line for Arsenal, while Gabriel Martinelli and loan signing Raheem Sterling could also be options there.
Arsenal predicted line up: Raya; Saliba, Gabriel, White, Zinchenko; Jorginho, Partey, Havertz; Martinelli, Trossard, Saka
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Tottenham predicted line up to take on Arsenal
At the time of writing, Ange Postecoglou shouldn’t have too many significant injury concerns for this game as he looks to make up for a home defeat against Arsenal towards the end of last season.
Tottenham were far from at their best on that occasion as they found themselves 3-0 down at half time, though they gave their opponents a bit of a scare by clawing two back in the second period.
The main two worries for Spurs are with Micky van de Ven and Dominic Solanke, though it’s not yet been entirely confirmed that they won’t be able to make it back in time for the weekend.
Assuming the worst and that they can’t get fit in time, it’s still a pretty strong THFC line up overall.
Tottenham predicted line up: Vicario; Porro, Van de Ven, Romero, Udogie; Sarr, Bissouma, Maddison; Kulusevski, Son, Odobert.
How to buy Arsenal tickets
The Arsenal tickets page can be found here, but it’s not easy or cheap to snap up tickets to basically any Premier League or Champions League game, even if some cup ties or pre-season friendly matches might be more hopeful.
Thankfully, there’s always livefootballtickets.com as another trusted source for getting to games, which also saves you the cost of having to pay Arsenal membership fees, while there’s also a 150% money back guarantee.
BUY TICKETS FOR TOTTENHAM VS ARSENAL
How to buy Spurs tickets
Meanwhile, you can click here for the link to Spurs’ official ticket page, which will give you the option of becoming a member to unlock access.
You can save yourself that hassle by visiting livefootballtickets.com, for a cheaper and simpler chance to get to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend to see what Postecoglou’s side can do against this makeshift Arsenal side.
Tottenham vs Arsenal head to head record
Overall, it’s Arsenal with the better record in these North London Derby clashes, having won 87 of them in total, compared to just 67 for Spurs. There have also been 55 draws in total, including last season’s 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium.
Tottenham went through a good period against their rivals during the Mauricio Pochettino era, but it’s somewhat less pretty in the last few years, with Spurs winning just one of their last seven North London Derbies, with five of those ending in defeat.
We always seem to get goals galore in these games as well – there hasn’t been a 0-0 between them since all the way back in 2009, and we’ve been treated to some score-lines like 4-4, 3-3, 5-2 and 4-2 since then.
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Harry Kane is the all-time leading scorer in this fixture, but of course he left Tottenham for Bayern Munich last summer, so it’s time for this new generation of players to make history in this game that is so important for both sets of fans.
One imagines it’ll be Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Son Heung-min and James Maddison as among the main names to watch, but perhaps we’ll see a surprise hero emerge as well.