With international football done for 2025, club football can take centre-stage again, and for us it returns in the form of derby day when Tottenham come to town on Sunday (4.30pm).
We’ll look to maintain our lead at the top of the table and our 14-game unbeaten run at the expense of our north London neighbours, who have only tasted victory once in N5 in the last 33 league meetings on our turf.
In fact, Spurs have lost seven of their last nine Premier League games against us, as many defeats as they’d suffered in their previous 25, but this is the first under the management of Thomas Frank, who has returned a side that finished 17th last term back into the upper echelons of the division.
Home discomforts
Frank’s first few months in charge have seen a mixture of positives and negatives. On the plus side, they enter this weekend fifth in the table and in the top 10 in the Champions League with two wins and two draws from their opening four matches.
They are also the only side still unbeaten away from home in the Premier League this season, and have the joint-most points (13), the joint-most goals (12) and the fewest goals conceded (3) of any side on the road this term.
However since beating Burnley on the opening day, Spurs have failed to win at home in four attempts, including each of their last two games against Chelsea and Manchester United, the latter seeing them score and then concede in stoppage time. They also meekly exited the Carabao Cup in the fourth round at Newcastle United, and lost the UEFA Super Cup on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain - their next Champions League opponents on Wednesday.
What the managers say
Arteta: "It’s just different. 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 and the energy that they're going to bring, the energy that the team is going to bring in every single action and it's just a privilege to play those kind of games, we cannot wait to get to Sunday.
"It's about bringing everything 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 and we're very privileged the way that the fans have been with us at Emirates Stadium and especially against our rivals and on Sunday, I'm sure that the team is going to behave and make them very proud."
- read every word of Mikel’s pre-match press conference
Frank: "The interesting thing is that probably both Mikel and I would like a little bit more of a controlled game, but it will probably end up absolutely madhouse. Very, very enjoyable to watch for the outside people or fans. I expect a difficult game of course, but a game that can go anywhere.
Everything can happen in that game. In games like that everything also evens out a little bit more because it's so competitive. The atmosphere in the stadium, it doesn't matter if we play away or home, is intense. We're just really looking forward to it. I know we'll be ready and we're looking forward to it."
Team news
Gabriel limped off with a thigh injury playing for Brazil against Senegal at Emirates Stadium last weekend, while Riccardo Calafiori missed both of Italy’s games with a hip complaint and did not train on Friday.
Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Martinelli missed matches before the international break with hamstring and muscle injuries respectively, while Gabriel Jesus has returned to training after his 11-month layoff with a knee injury, the same issue that is still causing concern for Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz.
Spurs had doubts over Pape Sarr, who was also injured in the Brazil v Senegal match and wasn’t selected for the subsequent game against Kenya, but he is now available for the weekend, while the same goes for Lucas Bergvall, who returned prematurely from international duty with concussion. Ben Davies also trained on Friday as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Mohammed Kudus is expected to return after missing two matches before the international break with a knock, as could Radu Dragusin who is back in training after an ACL tear, but Dominic Solanke, who has struggled with an ankle injury, is not ready yet.
Dejan Kulusevski is also recovering well from a knee problem, but he’ll be sidelined alongside Yves Bissouma (ankle) and James Maddison (knee).
Kolo Muani (jaw) is available to play with a mask, while Archie Gray (calf) and Kota Takai (quad) have been involved in training.
Talking tactics
Adrian Clarke, writing in the official matchday programme: Frank has flitted between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1, but a desire to see summer signing Xavi Simons in his preferred No.10 role has seen the Dane veer towards the latter recently.
In that framework both full-backs are encouraged to push forward, but the central midfield pairing often sit deep to protect the defenders. However, in 11 matches, they have committed a league-high 14 errors that have led to a shot, and three of those have cost them goals.
A little creativity has been sacrificed under Frank in a bid to increase steeliness out of possession, and put under consistent duress, Spurs’ opponents average just 10.1 passes per defensive action, the second-lowest tally in the division.
When they have the ball, their ratio of long passes has risen from 7.3% to 10.7%, indicating a clear tactical shift. Mohammed Kudus has been in superb form down their right, however only he (15) and Pedro Porro (13) have created more than six chances from open play.
Facts and stats
We have lost just one of our last 20 Premier League London derbies (a 0-1 loss to West Ham in February), while Tottenham have won just four of their last 18 league capital clashes.
We have won five of our last six Premier League games against Tottenham, including the last three in a row. It’s our longest winning run against Spurs since a five-game stretch between January 1987 and January 1989.
Tottenham have lost 48 points from winning positions against us in the Premier League, the most one side has thrown away against another in the competition’s history.
Tottenham have scored an own goal in four of their last five Premier League games against us, while they’ve put through their own net more often against us (6) than they have against any other club in the competition.
We have only conceded once in eight home games in all competitions, and have won our last five at Emirates Stadium. We last won six in a row without conceding between April and September 2008.
We have scored more goals from set pieces than any other Premier League team (10), while no side have conceded fewer set-piece goals than Spurs (2).
Thomas Frank won his first-ever Premier League game in charge against us in August 2021 but is since winless in seven against us.
Bukayo Saka has either scored (2) or assisted (2) in each of his last four north London derby appearances. Only Robert Pires (7), Emmanuel Adebayor (6) and Harry Kane (5) have either scored or assisted in more consecutive appearances in this fixture in the Premier League.
Leandro Trossard has more goal involvements than any other Arsenal player in all competitions in 2025 (20 - 10 goals, 10 assists), one of only three Premier League players to reach double figures for both goals and assists in all competitions this calendar year alongside Bruno Fernandes (15G, 11A) and Enzo Fernandez (10G, 10A).
Micky van de Ven has scored more goals in all competitions (6) than any other centre-back for a big five European league side this season.
Match officials
Michael Oliver has been appointed to this match, his first Gunners game since January when he dismissed Myles Lewis-Skelly in our 1-0 win at Wolves, a decision which was later rescinded. He also sent off Leandro Trossard against Manchester City last season, but we still managed to earn two wins and two draws in the four matches of ours he took charge of last term.
We have won 31 of the 62 games he has refereed of ours since September 2010. This will be the sixth north London derby held under his watch, the last of which saw us triumph 3-2 at Spurs back in April 2024 when he awarded a penalty.
Recent visits from Spurs
We have lost just one of our last 32 Premier League home games against Tottenham, going down 3-2 in November 2010, but last season we had to come from behind to secure all three points when a Dominic Solanke own goal was followed by a Trossard strike to snatch the points.
The season before saw the sides play out a 2-2 draw in September 2023 when Son Heung-min twice pegged us back after we netted through a Christian Romero own goal and a Bukayo Saka penalty, while in October 2022 efforts from Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Granit Xhaka saw us triumph 3-1.
Live coverage
For all the best built-up any Gooner could want on derby day, tune into Live From N5 to get hyped for the big showdown.
Nicole Holliday and Jeremie Aliadiere are live in the studio at 3.15pm and we’ll bring you the team news as soon as it's announced. Frimmy will be greeting our players ats they arrive at Emirates Stadium.
We’ll crown our Live from N5 Hero of the Week, and the latest battle between Nicole and Jeremie takes place to induct an Emirates Stadium moment in to our Live from N5 Hall of Fame.
Rapper Chip is back in the studio and there will be another round of Arsenal Mastermind for our studio audience. Legendary filmmaker Spike Lee is also with us.
Adrian Clarke will be pitchside with Frimmy to bring you everything you need to know about Spurs, and we'll catch up with Noni Madueke at the Sobha Realty Training Centre.
All the pre-match atmosphere and build-up begins from 4.20pm with our commentary team of Dan Roebuck and Adrian Clarke, who will be on hand with live commentary to guide you through the on-field action on what we hope is another memorable afternoon in north London.