Mikel Arteta says that his team “cannot wait” for the first north London derby of the Premier League season, as we prepare to host Tottenham at Emirates Stadium on Sunday, November 23.
Speaking ahead of Sunday’s derby, the boss explained what makes the rivalry so special and how we’ve maintained our brilliant record in the fixture.
“It’s just different,” Mikel said at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Friday, “it’s a big city, but it’s a big rivalry; it’s a part of London that we want to conquer, and they want to do the same.
“There’s been a lot of shifts as well over the years, we’ve been more dominant and it’s just beautiful, especially when we play at home in front of our people, we know what it means to them.
“The energy that they’re going to bring, the energy that the team is going to bring in every single action, it’s just a privilege to play those kind of games. We cannot wait to get to Sunday.”
While the derby is an enormous occasion in its own right, we’ll also have the challenge of maintaining our four-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
The boss feels that channelling the emotions associated with such a big fixture will help us come away with a positive result.
“It’s about bringing the team to the table, that’s the context of the game and that’s a superpower. When you have everybody playing with that passion and with the emotion within the team in every single ball, it makes a difference.
“We’re very privileged the way that the fans have been with us at Emirates Stadium, especially against our rivals, and on Sunday, I’m sure that the team is going to behave and make them very proud.
Victory on Sunday would be our fourth consecutive success against Tottenham, and would mark Mikel’s eighth win in 12 north London derbies as a player or manager.
Asked how we’ve kept such a good record against our rivals, the boss again pointed to how we’ve handled the emotions of the big games.
“That emotion requires something else; you cannot be too high, but at the same time, that game demands that in every ball and every action, you have to be at it a bit more than in any other game.
“We have found a really good balance, we played well, some days we have won, some days we’ve been a bit lucky as well to win, that’s fair as well to say.
“So on Sunday we need a really, really good performance to beat them."