NORTH LONDON DERBY PREVIEW
Honestly, I could not be more excited about this weekend. I am staring at a very undesirable Chelsea starting 11, hoping Burnley put a fat cold slap in early on in the first game of the day. Liverpool might have a rough afternoon against a Forest side that will try and frustrate. Then we have the big one… Man City vs Newcastle.
You just know that Eddie Howe is going to get absolutely tanked by Pep in a brutal afternoon that will show the world why you do not let managers take over the business of transfers at big clubs in 2025. Quite incredible that Carragher is running the line of, “If Newcastle do not match Howe’s ambition, he will go to a bigger club.” Come on people. Newcastle is a massive club and they have just let Howe oversee a dreadful summer with one of his relatives by his side. £55 million pounds for Antony Elanga… unbelievable stuff, just unbelievable.
The likelihood of this weekend is all our rivals will rattle the teams they are playing and our lead at the top of the table will not be winning any beauty competitions. It is tight after 12 games. It was never going to be anything but. All Arsenal can do is push through this batch of nightmare fixtures and try to maintain a lead.
Momentum is going to be key for a number of reasons, the main one being that we need confidence with a squad that is missing key talent. The biggest loss is going to be Gabriel Magalhães. He is not often hurt, but the manager is so confident of his fuckedness he is writing him off for the month. We are still not quite sure how the reconfiguration will go, but the sense is Mosquera will settle in on the right and Saliba will drop to the left. That is very much dependent on whether Calafiori is deemed fit. If he is also out, then we have to go into a NLD with a mess of a back four.
My interest is on Hincapie. We spent a small fortune to bring him into the fold. He is primarily a left-sided centre back, though he does feel a touch small for that role given Arteta’s penchant for giants. If he is passed over as cover for Big Gabi, that would indicate he is actually more of a left back prospect moving forward. Arteta does not like to disrupt multiple positions if he does not need to… here is the litmus test.
The front three feels like it picks itself. Yes, we have seen Noni tweet to the effect of “I’m ready,” but he is unlikely to be ready enough to start an intense game. Gabriel Jesus is in and around the squad but will not start. Gabriel Martinelli has a chance, I imagine, as his injury was not that bad. But I think I am settling on the idea that the most likely front three for this week will be Trossard, who is in great form… Merino, who had a poor game at Sunderland but has goals in him… and Bukayo Saka, who scored a lovely goal last week for England.
The midfield, I hope, will be Eze, Rice, and Zubimendi. That is power, control, and creativity. Odegaard will be sniffing around the squad, but he will take time to bake into the squad pie.
Spurs are winless in six against Arsenal. I do not like it when records get like that, because this fixture tends to even out in unexpected ways. I am especially worried about their away form this season. They have 13 points from 5 games on the road. They are second bottom at home. Those records remind me a little of when I was told Arsenal players, at the start of Arteta’s tenure, did not like playing at home because fans were mean towards them. Thomas Frank is a very good manager, he is implementing deep culture change, and he is trying to make them more solid at the moment. Spurs fans do not like that and the atmosphere at home has been poor.
They have also been having squad issues. We have seen some disrespect in the squad towards Frank, very familiar if you have watched a team have to transition from “do as you please” tactics to something a little smarter.
The football, for me, has flattered to deceive a little. They were dreadful against Chelsea, barely registering a shot on target. Spurs are also in a situation a little like Emery at the start… scoring more goals than they should be, and getting very lucky with the goals they are not conceding. They would be 13th if xG were the law of the land. Arsenal are top of the table for both the real league and the one I use as my back up if I need a little bump of copium.
The tactical story that will be rumbling through this game, to my mind, will be how energy levels are managed. Arsenal and Spurs have both had no time to prepare for this game. Both sides have had players away last week. Both managers have players returning from injury.
Do you start players returning from injury?
When do you sub them off?
How do you balance short term vs long term?
Do you keep powder dry on the bench?
Are you playing for a point or going for the three points?
Loads of interesting questions in an afternoon that will be fizzing with emotion and temptations.
I suspect Thomas Frank will take more chances with his starting line up because he has been so short of players, and my gut says Arteta will try and pack his bench so he can chase down the game late on if the Thomas Frank mid-block from hell has not been broken down.
Whatever happens, the most important thing for me is that we come flying out the traps with no international break hangover.
This is a week you would love to get right… give the returning players a less stressful environment to return in. Move fans back in the window off the ledge. Start December with purpose, intent, and the delivery of a BIG result.
Good intentions tend to mean nothing in sport… so let us just relax and see what happens.
Just a quick plug of a new book I’ll be reviewing. Alex Fynn, who wrote a fantastic book called Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Super-club, is back again, with a new book about last season. I am very much enjoying it so far, so if you want a little read for December, or a gift for a loved one, check it out here.
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