Key events
22 min I think I prefer Eze coming off the left. In the middle, he can be shut and buffeted out of games – he’s not a half-turn player – whereas out wide, he can drift and pick up pockets undetected. I’d also like to see him a little deeper, as his ball-carrying, especially on the counter, is very good.
20 min This game needs a goal. There’s little sense one is imminent.
18 min Saka controls an aerial pass and shields from Udogie … who can’t resist the urge to foul. Free-kick Arsenal, Saka to swing in from near the corner of the box, but his radar is off and the ball sails over the bar.
16 min Spurs win a free-kick just inside their own half so send forward the big men, Vicario looking for Danso … who wins the header, but can only plop into Raya’s arms. How do we feel about a tactic popularised by Dave Bassett’s Wimbledon? I’m quite enjoying the retro feel, and like football to be a physical test in which bodies mince.
14 min Frank probably won’t mind this opening period – the Rice chance was a goodun, but otherwise, Arsenal haven’t created anything. They don’t have the sharp, associative interplay of the Wengera – often, their goals feel forced rather than crafted.
13 min Ah, Trossard banged knees with Palhinha, a sair yin but one he’ll run off.
11 min On the touchline, Arteta is retrieving like a ball boy; he knows his team need to play quickly. Meantime, Trossard is down and looks in a bit of pain, but he’s soon back on his feet.
9 min Arsenal, on the other hand, are making it hard for Spurs to play out, and this is attack against defence.
7 min I guess that quality on the ball is one reason Frank has replaced Sarr with Bentancur, but Spurs are struggling to get on the ball. They’re not pressing, so Arsenal are able to advance unmolested and even when they lose possession, they’re able to recover it pretty swiftly because their opponents are defending deep.
6 min Spurs, of course, will have expected to spend chunks of their afternoon defending. The question is whether they’ve any quality on the ball when able to attack. So far, the portents are poor.
4 min The resultant corner comes to nothing, but Arsenal already have Spurs pinned back.
3 min Trossard drops deep and finds Saka, who slides infield to Eze … and what a pass that is! Scooped with the outside of his toe, on the edge of the box, he puts Rice in … but Viacrio blocks the eventuating shot with his shins, then Danso, running back towards his own goal, knocks the ball … past the post, just.
1 min Initially, Odobert is looking to get, er, in and around Richarlison, but it does look like he and Kudus are coming from deeper.
1 min Away we go…
Is North London Forever the worst song in football? It’s in the bottom one.
Email! “It’s the first time in ages that I’ve seen Glenn Hoddle on TV – now looking like an elder country and western star, though with a pleasingly thrown-together wardrobe look, begins Charles Antaki. “Analysis as penetrative as one might expect. He’s partnered up on TV with Ian Wright, who talks sense as ever, but rather effortlessly wins on the threads. Not sure what that augurs for the game; classy but tight?”
Not sure I can see it being classy if it’s tight – Spurs aren’t at that level yet. I’m hoping for lots of things that no one wants to see.
Out come the teams! There’s a massive tifo behind one goal, Arsenal’s tracky tops evoking this classic kit – modelled by a young Chris Whyte.
At Elland Road, Villa came from behind to beat Leeds 2-1, with Morgan Rogers scoring a deft flick and lovely free-kick. He is a player.
Talking of Kevin Danso, I saw him out recently; I say I, but it was actually my wife, who has no interest in football, but recognised him from seeing him interview Black Sherif – whose concert we were at. Well, in similar vein – Blacko’s Iron Boy album is the best I’ve heard this year – I’m currently enjoying Party for Ghana, the latest from my guy Ekow Saxx.
Frank says his team can be more aggressive in 3-5-2 and gives them greater set-piece threat – Danso has the long throw but is also helpful defending the box. He thinks the team that is better at restarts has a good chance of winning the game.
Captaining Arsenal today is Bukayo Saka. I mentioned earlier that maybe Arteta would consider three wingers when Madueke is match fit, if Gyokeres is out for much longer, but what I really wonder is if Saka might get a go as an attacking midfielder when that happens. Remember the summer before last, Arsenal tried to sign Raphinha, which presumably would’ve sent their talisman inside; I’d still love to see it.
Back to the tactical battle and as for Spurs, I’m sure Frank will want his strikers to gang up on Hincapie, with Kudus and Spence looking to get after Calafiori who, though he has many virtues, isn’t a left-back. Sky think, though he’s not playing a 3-5-2 but a 3-4-2-1; if so, that suggests he’s almost ceding midfield control and looking top penetrate on the counter with free runners from midfield.
Arteta speaks, explaining that he went for Hincapie because he thinks this is the best partnership available to him in the absence of Gabriel. Odegaard and Gyokeres aren’t far off he says, and he expected to face a back three as Frank has done it against Arsenal before and they’ve planned for it.
“It’s a massive and a beautiful day,” he concludes. “So many people you can make happy.”
Where is the game? For Arsenal, now it’s obvious. They’ll hope to dominate midfield, but the space will be behind the Spurs wing-backs and down the sides of the outside centre-backs. That’s exactly the areas in which Saka and Timber on the right, along with Calafiori and Trossard on the left, look to play in – and I’d also expect Rice and Eze to make the third point of the triangles. The question is whether Merino will give them a near-post and cut-back option.
I didn’t expect Spurs to go with a back three, but it makes sense that they have. Against the better teams, Frank’s Brentford often switched from 4-4-3- to 3-5-2 and they’ll want the safety in numbers in defence. But more than that, two central strikers gives Arsenal’s centre-halves a problem they don’t often have and, with Kudus breaking from deep, they might be able to create the overloads so painfully absent from their play last time out.
Arteta didn’t have too many decisions to make. Mosquera has been impressive so far, but in a game of this magnitude, it’s no surprise to see the more experienced Hincapie preferred. And given Merino’s scoring record when deployed as a striker, it makes sense that he continue in the role – though I wonder whether there was a temptation to try a winger through the middle. We don’t see it often, but Palace did it quite successfully in the middle of the last decade with Wilfried Zaha, Jason Puncheon and Yannick Bolasie, and when Mark Hughes was suspended for a crucial game at Norwich in 1992-93, Alex Ferguson resisted the temptation to play an extra midfielder, instead going with Lee Sharpe, Ryan Giggs and Andrei Kanchelskis – with devastating results.
Frank, meanwhile, changes his formation from 4-2-3-1 to, I think, 3-5-2. Coming in are Kevin Danso, the third centre-back andMohammed Kudus, back from injury, while Destiny Udogie, Rodrigo Bentancur and Wilson Odobert are also selected; Pedro Porro, Pape Sarr, Brennan Johnson, Xavi Simons and Randal Kolo Muani are all benched.
Arteta opts to replace Gabriel with Piero Hincapie, rather than Christhian Mosquera, while up front, Mikel Merino continues deputising for Victor Gyokeres. Gabriel Martinelli and Noni Madueke are both on the bench having been out injured.
I’ll write these down, then we can discuss what they mean.
Teams!
Arsenal (4-3-3): Raya; Timber, Saliba, Hincapie, Calafiori; Zubimendi, Rice, Eze; Saka, Merino, Trossard. Subs: Kepa, Mosquera, White, Martinelli, Norgaard, Madueke, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Tottenham Hotspur (3-5-2): Vicario; Danso, Romero, Van de Ven; Spence, Palhinha, Bentancur, Kudus, Udogie; Richarlison, Odobert. Subs: Kinsky, Gray, Porro, Sarr, Bergvall, Simons, Johnson, Tel, Kolo Muani.
Referee: Michael Oliver (Ashingtom)
Also going on:
Preamble
Mikel Arteta would make a good assassin. Reserved and meticulous, bellicose and monomaniacal, his remorseless relentlessness is exactly what you’d not want on your case if someone put out a contract on your life.
Yet, paradoxically, Arteta’s Arsenal lack killer instinct, unable to find in themselves the unbridled cruelty that wins league titles. Where champions find a way, so far they have faltered.
There are various reasons for this, insufficient verve and depth most obviously culpable. But there’a also a sense that Arteta’s intensity – the very thing that would make him such an effective contract killer – saps his team of the freedom they need to merrily mass-murder the Premier League.
And they will be feeling the pressure this afternoon, top of the table and leading Chelsea and Manchester City by three and four points respectively, with today’s game in hand. If they can win it, they will take a huge step towards claiming a first title in 22 years; if they cannot, all the old doubts will resurface.
But there is also pressure on Tottenham who, last time out, were devoid of attacking imagination, needing two deflections for their two goals before conceding a late equaliser in typically spursy fashion. There is no sense that Thomas Frank is on the cusp of something.
On the other hand, though, Tottenham have the best away record in the league and a burgeoning set-piece prowess that, especially in the absence of the injured Gabriel, makes them a threat in this match. Moreover, the North London derby is the country’s most reliably wild fixture and, just as Arteta is a precise and focused danger, so Frank is a windmilling dervish able to inspire in his players focused aggression previously considered beyond them. This is going to be good.
Kick-off: 4.30pm BST
