Tottenham Hotspur fans complaining about the scheduling of the upcoming north London derby appear to have forgotten what happened with the last one.
The Premier League announced the remaining fixture amendments for December on Monday, including Arsenal’s games against Brentford, Tottenham Hotspur, Bournemouth, and Manchester United.
Arsenal will travel away to Brentford on Wednesday, December 2nd at 20:15 GMT, then play Spurs on Sunday, December 6th at 16:30. The Gunners will face Bournemouth on Sunday, December 13th at 14:00, before playing Manchester United on Sunday, December 20th at 16:30.
In the midweeks between those matches, Arsenal will play Real Madrid on Wednesday, December 9th, and they might be involved in the League Cup fifth round in the week commencing December 14th.
It’s a packed schedule, but Tottenham Hotspur fans have been complaining on social media that they have it worse. Whilst Arsenal face Brentford on the Wednesday, Spurs are scheduled to play Fulham on the Thursday, giving them a day less to prepare for Sunday’s derby match.
Of course, this overlooks a couple of key details. Most significantly, that Spurs solely have the Premier League to worry about.
Whilst Arsenal will have one eye on their following game against Real Madrid, Spurs have no European football. They also don’t have any League Cup games filling their schedule before or after the derby.
So Spurs might have to rest a player or two against Fulham if they want them fresh for Arsenal, but their squad is hardly going to be on its last legs going into the game.
The Spurs fans complaining also must have short memories, as Arsenal had it far worse earlier this year.
Whilst Spurs had a 12-day break in the lead-up to February’s derby, Arsenal played three matches in that time, and they had just four days to prepare for the trip to Tottenham.
Rather than making excuses, the Gunners won that match 4-1. Spurs fans clearly don’t back their team to deal with their current ‘adversity’ in the same way.