Sunit Thakurta makes his debut on thefirst90minutes with a look ahead to the North London derby match between rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal…
Football derby matches are always exciting spectacles across the world given the bitter local history attached to the games, but few are as exciting and enthralling as the North London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
Come Sunday evening, the Premier League and the world will sit tight to witness another humdinger between the old enemies at Spurs’ White Hart Lane stadium. Since November 1999 Tottenham have failed to beat the ‘Gunners’ in the League, yet under Harry Redknapp the side looks more than capable of breaking the league hoodoo against the masters of derby games in the form of Arsenal.
Arsene Wenger’s side has had a fairly indifferent 2008/2009 season and given their position of fifth place in the Premier League, well adrift of Aston Villa, the prospect of a place in next season’s Champions League looks dim to be honest. Speaking as an Arsenal fan, missing the bus for Champions League qualification is intolerable and to the Emirates faithful it all begins at White Hart Lane on Sunday to catch up with an ever improving Aston Villa side.
The latest North London derby takes place in the backdrop of intriguing league prospects for both sides with Tottenham trying hard to pull away from the relegation quagmire and the Gunners desperately wanting to avoid a slip up in their bid to qualify for the 2009/2010 Champions League. Well, league results and positions hardly matter on such highly charged derby games yet for the sake of matchday information it has to be said that prior to Sunday’s big match the visitors have a better league record remaining unbeaten in the last ten league games although frustratingly five of those have been draws.
Juande Ramos left Spurs under all sorts of problems yet Harry Redknapp began a revival of sorts by getting important results at the start of his tenure which included an amazing 4-4 draw against the bitter rivals at the Emirates Stadium earlier this season having been trailing 4-2 until injury time. That result kicked off a brilliant run for Tottenham as they beat Liverpool, Man City and Blackburn to steer clear of the bottom three but current form suggests otherwise with only one win in the last eight games and last week’s 3-2 loss away to Bolton suggesting that the Spurs season is still on dangerous waters. The White Hart Lane faithful would again look forward to their biggest home game to kickstart a similar revival that was on view earlier in the season.
The winter transfer window was very busy for Harry Redknapp and his decision to bring in old Spurs players as a clear indication that those players who were offloaded by Juande Ramos in the summer should not have been sold in the first place. With the return of Robbie Keane, Pascal Chimbonda and Jermaine Defoe the team looks far more solid to compete with the best in the business. The Gunners have made a big swoop in the transfer market, albeit a controversial one, by luring Russian international Andrei Arshavin to N5 right on transfer deadline day. As of now it is not confirmed whether the ‘Russian Pele’ would start the match as he needs time to adapt to the English game and going by Arsene Wenger’s history he would not throw in a new signing until the player is match fit to take on the physical demands of the English Premier League.
Reports suggest that Arshavin will not play on Sunday yet Guus Hiddink has withdrawn his name from the national squad for a four-day conditioning camp in Turkey starting on Saturday and this is one clue that the former Zenith St. Petersburg could yet figure in Arsene Wenger’s plans. As far as Tottenham Hotspur are concerned Harry Redknapp will surely start with new captain Robbie Keane partnering either Roman Pavluychenko or Darren Bent (his two goals last week against Bolton would surely help his cause) upfront and given Keane’s record against the Gunners the Irishman would straightaway relish the challenge.
As Arsenal fans will remember, in his short spell with Liverpool Keane scored earlier this season at the Emirates which earned the Reds a valuable 1-1 draw. So it won’t be any problem for the Irishman to find the target again on Sunday. New arrival Wilson Palacios could play a major role in the midfield in the absence of David Bentley who is suspended for the fixture. For Arsenal, Abou Diaby is missing and Wenger could again field Emmanuel Adebayor, who like Keane loves scoring against the bitter foe. With Robin Van Persie also available to play upfront and given that the Gunners cannot afford to lose anymore points, the French manager is likely to use his attacking options to take the steam out of Spurs right from the first whistle.
Stakes are high for the game and although this will be another entertaining game, I am putting my neck on the line by stating a draw is all that both sets of fans can hope for.
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