Even though the international break has brought the Premier League to a halt, there’s a lot of anticipation from Tottenham Hotspur fans for their next fixture.
The North London derby is on the horizon, with Spurs hosting Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday 15 September.
Tottenham have an early opportunity to try and claim local bragging rights, give their top-four chances a boost and, obviously, deal a huge blow to their bitter rivals’ hopes for the season.
Admittedly, Spurs’ last game before the international break wasn’t exactly the morale-booster everyone connected with the club would’ve hoped for, but Arsenal have their own issues too.
The Gunners dropped two points to Brighton last time out. Considering Manchester City have won all three of their games, that’s already a big blow for the red half of North London.
In addition, Arsenal will be without influential midfielder Declan Rice, who was sent off after a second yellow card against the Seagulls.
With that in mind, Sky Sports pundit and former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson isn’t quite so bullish about the Gunners’ chances any more.
Paul Merson not sure about Tottenham v Arsenal outcome this time
Merson told Sky Sports News that he’s not confident about how his former side will fare, considering the absence of Rice and the early pressure on their title hopes.
“I was very bullish last time, I ain’t sure this time,” said Merson.
“Declan Rice is a big miss, it’s a big two games for Arsenal. If they don’t get four points out of their next two games, they will be right up against it, so it’s a big football match.
“I don’t think the fixtures have been kind for Arsenal at the start of the season, I know they sort of settle their way in the end, but you don’t want to be playing catch-up with Man City.
“If they don’t win this game and then they get beat by Man City, they could be seven, eight, nine points behind City, and that would be miles too many.”
Merson thinks Spurs should be doing better
Merson also spoke about how Tottenham have fared so far this season, and his opinions echo that of the Spurs fanbase – namely, that the team should’ve got more than four points.
“I think Tottenham should have more points than they do,” he said. “I thought they were outstanding against Leicester first half, if they’d got the second goal there they’d have won that.
“Then they destroyed Everton. And I thought they were bang unlucky against Newcastle, they shouldn’t have lost that game. This is a difficult game for Arsenal.”
Tottenham need to iron flaws out ahead of NLD
The thing with Spurs is that the quality is there and the potential is there. They can blow teams away on their day, but there are flaws that need ironing out.
Tottenham’s high line is risky at the best of times, and against the Gunners, they’ll need to be extra careful as they have some speedy runners in their ranks.
Spurs must also become more clinical and take their chances. They could’ve beaten Leicester and Newcastle were it not for how wasteful they were.
Should everything click for Tottenham, then Sunday 15 September could be a positive day for the Spurs faithful.
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