Report: National team appearance spells bad news for Tottenham ahead of NLD

Tottenham will be eager for any advantage they can get when it comes to the North London derby, but one Arsenal player appears to be fit and ready to go after being included in his national team’s latest squad.

Odegaard is in for Norway

The Gunners will already be without Declan Rice for the clash with Tottenham on September 15, after the midfielder picked up a red card in controversial circumstances against Brighton last weekend.

Arsenal had feared they may be unable to call on their captain, Martin Odegaard, too, with the playmaker suffering a knock in that draw against Brighton.

However, Odegaard actually started the first of Norway’s Nations League double-header against Kazakhstan and played the full 90 minutes, suggesting he is not struggling with any potential injury.

The 25-year-old took a knock from a challenge with Yankuba Minteh and received on-field treatment before continuing with the game. However, he appeared to be off the pace and was eventually replaced by Gabriel Martinelli.

Odegaard himself insisted he is not facing any time on the sidelines, saying: “I feel good. I took a couple of knocks in the match [against Brighton], but feel better now. Yesterday I trained as normal without any problems and I am ready for the match.”

Spurs need to regain control

Tottenham have not had the best time of it in North London derbies of late. The Lilywhites have lost the last two meetings between the two sides at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and have only one point from the last four fixtures.

This early-season test will be hugely important for both sides as they look to recover from dropping points in their previous games.

Spurs Web Opinion

If Arsenal were missing both Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, that would have been a huge boost for Spurs.

As it is, we will now have to make sure we keep the latter quiet, as when he gets going he can be really dangerous at pulling the strings and making things happen for the Gunners.

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