Arsenal – Tottenham

In the North London derby, the hosts will be coming off a solid win

The North London derby will be the main event of the next round of the Premier League. Despite the fact that the game day contains a confrontation in Nottingham between the first and third teams in the standings, the historical component of the meeting between the capital's teams is perceived in England with greater trepidation. In the first round, Arsenal and Tottenham competed on the Spurs pitch. The match was extremely hard-fought and could well have ended in a draw. However, it was the higher class of the Canaries, who scored the only goal in the second half. The 1-0 victory signalled what Arteta had been working on for the last few years, while eight yellow cards by the 49th minute underlined the principled nature of the North London "showdown". Bookmakers have identified the home team as favourites for the upcoming encounter, offering odds of 1.39 on their victory. Arsenal before the start of the season was considered the second favourite to win the championship. After the first round, the Canaries have not changed their status, but some external circumstances have changed. Instead of competing with Manchester City, the London club now competes with Liverpool and loses to the Merseyside club six points with one more match played. Arsenal drew with Brighton in the last round before losing two cup clashes in a week. However, we should not rush to talk about a crisis in the household of Mikel Arteta. Cup matches always allow the coaching staff to experiment, but against Tottenham Arsenal will come out fully armed. In the guests of the upcoming meeting the circumstances of recent weeks have been quite different. In the championship, Spurs have played to a four-match winless streak, but in the English League Cup and FA Cup beat both opponents - Liverpool and Tamworth respectively. The Spurs are approaching the match with their principal rival as the twelfth team in the division, having not beaten anyone from the top half of the table in the first half of the season. In the past four league seasons, Arsenal have won three home games against Tottenham, with one draw. There is little suggestion now that Spurs will turn the statistics in their favour.