The 191st North London derby between Tottenham Hotspur (W60) and Arsenal (W79) will see the two old foes face off in a crunch battle for UEFA Champions League (UCL) qualification next term.
Despite sitting in fifth place and trailing their visitors by four points, Antonio Conte’s rejuvenated ‘Spurs’ side are unbeaten in the last seven league derbies they’ve hosted (W5, D2) and will feel confident about avoiding a defeat that could spell the end of their top-four hopes and secure qualification for their adversaries.
An inspired defensive display in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool saw Tottenham become the first side to take PL points at Anfield since October 2021, and another stubborn display could see them build on an impressive run that has seen them lose once in their last eight games (W5, D2), conceding just five goals in the process.
Arsenal continued their own late-season charge with a 2-1 win over Leeds United for their fourth victory in a row, all of which witnessed both teams scoring.
It capped a good week for manager Mikel Arteta after signing a contract extension, but he knows there’s still a lot to do if they are to participate in the UCL for the first time since 2016/17.
“Winning any match is difficult. We are going to prepare as best we can,” he said ahead of his fifth North London derby as a manager (W2, L2) and the first to be held on a Thursday since 1971/72.
Despite the increased competitiveness of this rivalry in recent years, there hasn’t been an away winner in a PL H2H at any venue since Arsenal won 1-0 at Spurs in March 2014, although if anyone can inspire them to do so again almost a decade later, it’s Arteta – their captain on that day!
A result either way wouldn’t surprise though as the ‘Gunners’ last drew in league away action back in October (W8, L5).
Players to watch: Nobody has scored more PL goals in this fixture than Tottenham’s Harry Kane (11) while Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah has scored four times across his last four PL appearances, three of those coming inside the opening 15 minutes.
Hot stat: Just one of the last 17 H2H halves between these sides was goalless.
Oops, I’ve offended somebody. It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek Harry (that does have hyphens) just like the ‘Sign on’ song we’ve been discussing. Lighten up mate.
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“You are only vaguely relevant because of Levy” is absolute horse💩… He’s been in charge for 22 years… He’s won one league cup in his whole time.. Before him we averaged a pot once every three years and we held the record for most FA cup wins.. We have regressed and become less relevant in Levys tenure.
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Awful post. The team has done well against the Scouse and the Goons and we fully deserve to still be in the race. Literally everyone has played their part including Dier Davies and Jelly who is unfairly judged by fools who have never played and don’t know the game. Considering our team and squad does need some work, they are overachieving then in your opinion? They deserve a round of applause then? Even when we’ve just won the big NLD some fans are never happy… Let me guess that you would also prefer us to be playing ‘the spurs way’ with flair and grace, losing 4 or 5 nil but at least you’re entertained.
I think we weren’t brave enough in trying to create chances, that’s tactical.
Bergy is a winger but we don’t use him that way.
I like him on the pitch cos he’s always likely to get a red.
Not really.
Absolutely spot !
Lol – he makes a good point! ^
Considering where this football club was on November the 1st then i think at least some credit is due.
Some of our squad may not be world beaters, and yes there have been a few blips along the way, but Conte has got them giving 100% and regardless of all the things you consider to be “awful” Tom, the amount of points we have amassed since he took over is quite remarkable.
Love child😂
Great atmosphere, loved every minute of it. Great to see Arsenal squirm. Guardiola’s love child is a sore loser. Enjoy the victory gents.
hahaha…
Very good point it is stupid to get them on tv what are they going to say?
Don’t disagree with that, but I’ve always thought it is unfortunate that managers and players have to be dragged in front of the cameras when they’re all wound up after an important defeat. I know there’ve been games I’ve gone to where I’ve come out of the ground thinking one thing and then having got home and seen things on the box, I’ve realised things were not as I thought.
Of course, holding two thoughts in my head at the same time, the solution to that is to be cagey when replying and then really go for it the next day if there’s something to beef about.
Well I was there and enjoyed seeing us beat the Goons 3-0 in a match that actually counted. And before the usual suspects start, I’m more than capable of holding two thoughts in my head at the same time. Back to WHL, jeez.
Both have played in finals and lost, I don’t remember Levy playing….but that doesn’t fit your narrative does it?
You are simple,based on your childish responses. You are only vaguely relevant because of Levy, without him you have nothing and you most certainly don’t love Tottenham, they’re just a club you liked the look of many moons ago. Sad.
“Don’t get over-excited kids.” No hyphen and try face to face or shush.
Just papering over the cracks. Awful team, awful squad, awful owners. Levy out, ENIC out. Back to WHL, don’t endorse the shopping centre, enjoy the Kool Aid if you don’t see the truth.
Don’t get over-excited kids. They’ve got that crucial point on us. We’ve Nowrich – nothing to play for, and Burnley – relegation battle. They’ve got Newcastle – nothing to play for – and Everton, relegation battle. It all boils down to who holds their nerve, and our nerve is historically wobbly in situations like this. Our advantage is our gaffer. But we’ve very recently capitulated to ‘lower’ opposition (including Burnley) in several games regardless of his guidance. And that was before we lost several key players to injury. Fingers on lips. This is quite literally going to the wire. Let’s not scud ourselves.
Gibberish self serving nonsense.
He is a Soccer Doll.
Yep, do you reckon Levy offers a pay rise to stay in that instance?
Very Arsey indeed!
Lovely!!! They melted under pressure. Arsy!!!
I have always thought Arteta came across as slightly arrogant and full of his own self importance, his post-match confirmed it. He just couldn’t bring himself to admit that Holding had even been rash, that was someone not actually in touch with reality I’m afraid.
The pen could have been seen as a little soft but pushes in the back are always generally given now, Holding should have been off already by that point anyway. Arteta behaved like a spoiled child in that interview, a complete embarrassment…
You sound a bit simple. Everyone here loves THFC. Doesn’t mean that anyone needs to endorse ENICs abysmal record as steward of the club. We should be 4th based on the paucity of competition and the fact we have two genuinely world-class talents who routinely change games in our favor. We have never built around those two which is criminal. This team minus Son and Kane are very average as will be proven when Levy has to replace them, which he will try and do on the cheap. It isn’t long before we will be faced with that reality but more likely that Levy flogs them soon as their value is dropping. ENIC out
Sounds perfect for Levy.
You are right . We were beautiful tonight but in the morning/ afternoon when I am sober , we will still be owned by Levy
He has a string in his back ..you pull it out and a set of pre ordained answers roll out ..you know like action man .
A very Spursy situation..hahaha
I really hope he stays and manages to hold down a position next season. The boy is quality.
If we beat Burnley, I think the pressure could get to Arsenal against a Newcastle side playing their final home game of the season. The home fans will demand a performance, which they’ve being getting of late at St. James Park. Remember when we went there last game of the season 2015/16 and they thrashed us 5-1?
He was. He embarrassed himself.
Conte earned his corn tonight, Woolwich were naive and Arteta thought he and his team were better than they actually are…
The only downside is that we didnt go for the jugular and humiliate them. They are rattled now though, Arteta was a babbling idiot in his post-match interview
We battered them .Arteta’s tactics of bullying Son won us a penalty and saw AFC’s Holding sent off..Tactics in Motion .beautiful.
Just dropping all the politics out of it beating that lot 3 -0 has left me the most happybI haven been for ages.
the squad isn’t fit to fight it out on 4 fronts. Teams put there eggs in one basket. Liverpool have taken 6 or 7 years to build to be able to compete in all competitions.
just enjoy tonight’s result, it was fantastic I’m going to have another beer.
Conte won’t be sacked, he might still walk though…
Didn’t watch or listen until FT. Not bothered how we played who was good or who was bad. We beat them 3-0 that’s all that matters tonight.
We have wonderful players, good players, average players and terrible players…when we are good we are good, when we are crap we are crap…but somehow that still gets you 5th…for Son & Kane being in the same team and not to have won a trophy is down to one little man…
Too many teams outside the top three have failed to put in consistent enough performances to make 4th.place their own.You could argue we are the least inconsistent.
Yes of course. We are awful but the least awful of the rest of them (top 3 aside) Makes total sense… Levy out then! Sack Conte too!
Only because we had no real competition this season. Utd out of it and arse inferior. But we’ve made heavy going of it because of too many poor results against average teams. Son and Kane have carried us.
Judging by our performance in the Conference League our squad isn’t good enough for Europe.
You could….
This is what I find confusing. Apparently our squad is rubbish and not good enough for Europe… but we should also “walk” top 4. It’s just nonsensical
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What do the numbers say for us finishing top 4 (beating Burnley and Norwich)? You could make a pretty decent living betting on this stuff!
All the what ifs have to go to the last day for the entertainment and ratings factor.
Knee-jerker?
No we did good, though tbf helped by arse imploding and going down to 10 men. But we really should have walked top 4 if we had been more consistent.
He always seems to go on a run with purpose but then runs out of ideas.I would get rid rather than Bergwjin,who with more game time could be more productive.
Burnley fighting for survival might help us as they might come out and play a bit.
Thought it was 205th NLD. ENIC fc go 20 wins 5 draws on 205th NLD. .Conte gets 334th win 33 weeks and 4 days after James Greaves death.
Coincidence of course.
A great night where we should have guaranteed 4th ourselves, but although our average players were ok tonight they have let us down too often, otherwise we would have been 3rd not 5th.
Does Xhaka miss the last match if he’s booked against Toon?He’s on 9 yellows.
Y
Made an outstanding clearance quite early on and damn good stuff from him altogether.
great job..
I know what you are saying but if we had got one draw v Burnley, Southampton, Brighton and Brentford we’d have pretty much guaranteed 4th. The only reason that didn’t happen is down to a lack of quality from the likes of Dier, Sess, Davies, Emerson, Bergwijn, Moura, Sanchez. Hoping for Newcastle and Everton to turn up just once is not where I want us to be.
Not much recovery time…but if the atmosphere stays like this, we’ll do them.
The title of this post says it all… I’ll probably get called a “happy clapper”, “snowflake”, “ret&rd”, “moron” or a person who simply can’t hold two thoughts in his head. That seems to be the vernacular de jour on here. But you know what, I’ll take it this evening. Give me your best!
Are Spurs short of about 5 or 6 really decent players? Yes, absolutely.
Are Spurs equipped to compete in Europe? No, absolutely not.
Have the senior management failed in basic recruitment and left the fans with a squad inferior to the one we had 4/5 years ago? Yes, they did!
But you know what? I’m tired of bleating on about it. Just as I can stop reading or posting on this blog, I can also stop supporting Spurs if I’m that unhappy with them.
Newsflash! Levy isn’t going anywhere & the THST might do things that annoy you. Suck it up and move on with your lives!
I unapologetically think that we played well tonight and made an inform Arsenal look very ordinary. Some players I thought we pretty average in our squad had above average performances. I’m happy about that! I’m happy about everything I’ve seen tonight.
The problem is.. winning and playing well is kryptonite for blogs like this. Not nearly enough angry clicks after a win.
A GREAT Result. One Brilliant Night. Time for a little Celebration Drink. 🎊👍🤔🎊👍
If we win on Sunday before their Monday match who knows ?
I can carry myself with some dignity at work tomorrow
Top draw stuff. Davies has been transformed.
The most relaxing last 30 mins we will ever get in a local.derby.
Well done all of them and the crowd.
Yeah but I’m just saying credit to all the players who have responded to Conte.
Just love the meltdown Arsenal had. How many of there’s will have to miss their next game now?
How many of theirs have NOT been booked lol.
Not really. We were in the toilet until Conte arrived with these bar 2. Kulu and Bents put us back in the mix and the inconsistency of West Ham, Man Utd and even Arsenal helped (which I will take every day). If we had a bit more quality at WB and CB we’d have finished 3rd. A brilliant night, but we’re still behind Arsenal.
He’ll be having a hissy fit about the fans using the Y word so much that’s for sure.
Moura really does have that extra bit of magic, just wish he had the consistency
I bet Levy is creaming himself hearing the commentators bigging up the stadium at every opportunity.
I don’t think Emerson hasn’t put a forward pass in all night. Ok is ok, but it’s not good!
Let’s not .😳
I’d have taken Kane off.
Ha ha I also thought that🤣
Our Welsh Michael Dawson
Imagine if Kane and Son weren’t there.
Yeah good stuff.
Certainly not the threat when bergs and moura are on
Levy insisting Rodon is put in the shop window.
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How long is Romero out?
I does so
IF you mean it I agree.
We just have to solve our inconsistency, we should have walked top 4.
Really happy Rodon is coming on
These eleven or so are the players that have got us to where we are right now.
I reckon the wingbacks have been okay. Which is better than poor.
Bents, Kulu, Son and Kane are a class apart. Lloris and Hojbjerg are worthy of the shirt without being world beaters. The rest of the Spurs team are a bit ‘meh’.
A great performance from the crowd and from Holding, the muppet. Surely Newcastle can get a draw against this bunch, but I thought that of Chelsea and Wet Spam.
He’s been great
Just cruisin now, which is saving energy.
He will, just a question of time …. It’s ENIC’s fault 🙂
I’m just waiting for ‘Harry Hotspur’ to poke the holes in today’s game in his post-match write-up 😂😂😂
PEH has had his best game for ages tonight so far
Both Poch and Conte could get us wins… I just feel Conte might better at getting a win in really important ties.