Arsenal start a brutal 8-day swing with a trip down the road to face Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby. The Gunners then travel to Bergamo to take on Atalanta on Thursday before a visit to the Etihad on Sunday to play Manchester City. Today’s match against arch-rivals Tottenham feels like an early-season tone-setter. A win today could propel the club to a big week and a strong month. A loss puts even more pressure to get a result at City.
Tottenham are 1-1-1 to open the Premier League season. They played to a disappointing 1-1 draw at Leicester City, smashed Everton 4-0, and lost 2-1 at Newcastle. In all three games, they’ve had the lion’s share of the ball, and I’d expect them to have a good deal of possession against Arsenal today. I really don’t know what to make of Spurs. They seem to be much the same team as last year — extremely dangerous going forward but quite open at the back because of the aggressive style and high line Ange Postecoglou plays.
Spurs were handed a big boost this week with the return to fitness of Micky Van de Ven. The Dutch centerback’s pace is critical to how Big Ange wants his side to play. His ability to recover on the break helps enable Tottenham’s high press. Tottenham also see £60M summer signing Dominic Solanke return to the lineup, which is a boost given that Richarlison is set to miss out today.
Arsenal will be without Declan Rice, who is serving a one-match suspension after receiving a (ridiculous) second yellow card against Brighton & Hove Albion. They’re also without Martin Ødegaard, who picked up an ankle injury on international duty of yet-to-be-revealed severity, and Riccardo Calafiori, who suffered a calf injury playing for Italy. Mikel Merino is out until November-ish with a shoulder fracture. Takehiro Tomiyasu is still out with the knee injury he picked up in preseason. Kieran Tierney, who Arsenal registered to both their Premier League and Champions League roster this season, is out with the hamstring tear he suffered at the Euros. Oleksandr Zinchenko is a surprise absence from the matchday squad with a calf problem.
With a whopping seven first team absences for the Gunners, Mikel Arteta has had to call in a number of academy players to fill out the matchday squad. Ayden Heaven (17), Maldini Kacurri (18), Myles Lewis-Skelly (17), Ethan Nwaneri (17), and Ismeal Kabia (18) are all on the bench for Arsenal. I can’t see Mikel Arteta making more than three subs today — Jakub Kiwior, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus are the only players I feel confident saying will come off the bench. We might see Ethan Nwaneri if Arsenal are chasing the game.
Just win, baby.
WHAT: Arsenal at Tottenham
WHERE: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
WHEN: Sunday, September 15th 6 am PT | 9 am ET | 2 pm BT
US TV: USA Network and Telemundo
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Arsenal - Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Jorginho, Trossard, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz
Tottenham - Vicario, Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Son