Last week, Tottenham Hotspur had the ability to create some space between themselves and Arsenal for fourth place. Their north London rivals were coming off a loss to Southampton, so all Spurs needed to do was get a win over Brighton & Hove Albion, which they failed to do, losing 1-0.
A few days have gone by and Arsenal has picked up wins over Chelsea and Manchester United while Tottenham drew 0-0 against Brentford. As a result, the Gunners move back into fourth place with a two-point buffer on Spurs.
Despite the recent form by Arsenal, central defender Eric Dier isn’t ready to begin hitting the panic button after seeing their rivals pick up six points in their last two fixtures. At the same time, Tottenham has only secured one point.
“No, we know what’s at stake,” Dier said, whose words were relayed by Football.London. “I said last week, in three games, a lot can change. We’ve got to focus on ourselves, put the blinkers on and try to win all our games. Today’s a hiccup, but we’ve got no time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
“It’s still in our hands because we still have to play them. But there’s a lot of football before that. We’ve just got to figure out why we’ve performed the way we have and try to change that.”
Spurs will be welcoming Leicester City to north London, and it’s a fixture that manager Antonio Conte’s squad needs to win, considering their next opponent will be Liverpool. Meanwhile, Arsenal will have a London Derby against West Ham United and welcome Leeds United the following week.
Both Arsenal and Tottenham are on a collision course to possibly decide fourth place on May 12th in the latest edition of the North London Derby.