Daily Cannon

Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League survival hopes suffered multiple blows over the weekend, beyond just their defeat to Sunderland.

It’s fair to say the last few days haven’t boosted Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of remaining in the Premier League whatsoever.

Defeat to Sunderland in Roberto De Zerbi’s first game in charge was certainly not great, but it was made worse by West Ham United’s 4-0 win over Wolves, Nottingham Forest picking up a big point against Aston Villa, and Leeds United beating Manchester United at Old Trafford.

All of Spurs’ relegation rivals gained on them, with Leeds now six points ahead, Forest three ahead and West Ham two ahead.

Even before all of those games were played, Spurs had suffered a blow to morale with the news that Mohammed Kudus has suffered an injury setback and may require surgery.

But it only got worse on Sunday, as Cristian Romero also picked up an injury against Sunderland, and Sami Mokbel has since reported for the BBC that the defender is out for the rest of the season with knee injury.

Romero has a high-grade partial tear of his medial cruciate ligament, and he’ll miss up to eight weeks of action.

Spurs will now prepare for a game against Brighton, who closed the gap to the European places over the weekend with a win over Burnley. As it stands, Brighton are six points off the Champions League places, two points off the Europa League spot, and one point off the Europa Conference League.

Fabian Hurzeler’s side are unlikely to come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium looking for anything other than their fourth Premier League win in a row.

Meanwhile, Leeds will play bottom club Wolves and Nottingham Forest will play 19th-placed Burnley. West Ham have to play away to Crystal Palace, but the Hammers will be riding a high after that 4-0 victory last week.

Nothing seems to be going Spurs’ way at the moment. What a shame.

Tottenham Hotspur have become the laughing stock of English football this week, with Jack Wilshere and Lincoln City joining in with the jokes in recent days.

Tottenham Hotspur’s latest defeat to Crystal Palace has left them at serious risk of relegation, sitting just one point clear of the relegation zone with nine games to play.

It didn’t help that relegation rivals Nottingham Forest picked up a surprising point away to Manchester City on Wednesday, nor that West Ham United are on the rise after four wins and two draws in their last eight league games.

Spurs will also have to do without Micky van de Ven for their upcoming trip away to Champions League hopefuls Liverpool, as the Dutch centre-back picked up a red card in the Palace defeat.

Cristian Romero will return from his four-match ban, but he himself is only two yellow cards away from another two-match suspension.

Like Spurs, League One leaders Lincoln City look increasingly likely to be in the Championship next season, 10 points clear of third place having played a game less.

With promotion seriously on the cards, their fans took to singing “Tottenham away, olé, olé” on Saturday.

Former Gunner Jack Wilshere was also involved in the banter in a press conference on Friday, saying: “I watched a little bit of Tottenham last night…believe it or not a lot of my family are Tottenham fans, and over the years we had some really good banter about it.

“At the moment my dream is to manage Luton in the Championship, and it might be against Tottenham.”

Looking at the games Spurs have left to play doesn’t really help their case.

There are trips to Liverpool, Sunderland, Aston Villa, and Chelsea, as well as an away game against Wolves that doesn’t look nearly as straightforward as it might have a couple of months ago.

The home games are against relegation rivals Nottingham Forest and Leeds United, a Brighton side showing recent signs of improvement, and an Everton clash on the final day.

But whilst most of those home fixtures look winnable, they’ll all be doubly damaging should Spurs slip up. And there’s hardly one guaranteed result in the away schedule.

Even the Champions League run, a rare positive in Spurs’ campaign so far, could end up being a distraction. The upcoming games away to Liverpool and at home to Forest will both come after fixtures against Atletico Madrid, and a quarter-final would mean more games against Barcelona or Newcastle.

Tottenham Hotspur are unimpressed and considering taking action against their new academy scout Neros Coachman, following comments by the Arsenal fan on social media.

New Tottenham Hotspur academy scout Neros Coachman recently posted on social media to share that he’d been hired by the north London club, admitting that he’d always been an Arsenal fan prior to the appointment.

“You know the project’s good when you’re a boyhood Arsenal fan and you switch sides,” Coachman joked in the caption.

Perhaps the Spurs fanbase would have let that bit of humour slide, but the scout’s subsequent comments ended up going viral on social media.

When one commenter responded “do not let that badge touch your skin”, Coachman wrote back “I’ve already got the base layer”.

In response to an Arsenal fan saying “we need someone on the inside”, Coachman replied “shhhhhh”. And replying to a question about how he brought himself to wear Spurs merchandise, Coachman answered “it was tough”.

Unfortunately, Mike Keegan reports for the Daily Mail that Spurs are deeply unimpressed by the jokes, taking a dim view and considering further action. They’re planning to take care of the matter in-house.

You wouldn’t think Spurs fans would be so upset by having an Arsenal fan on the scouting team, considering they recently had ‘silver member’ Thomas Frank as a manager, and the likes of Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke have openly admitted to supporting the Gunners in the past.

All joking aside, most players, coaches, and staff are able to put aside their fan allegiances to do their job.

The Daily Cannon understands that there’s a high percentage of Arsenal fans on the Spurs staff behind the scenes, but that’s just the way it goes. They can’t all work for Arsenal, and the clubs are so close together geographically that switching to Spurs means not needing to relocate.

That said, it’s probably smart to keep the jokes to the private group chats.

Arsenal achieved the earliest ‘St. Totteringham’s Day’ in history on Sunday, but the Gunners still have one more record to try and break in the final nine games.

As covered early last week, Arsenal had the opportunity to confirm their earliest-ever finish over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, excluding seasons where the two clubs didn’t play in the same division.

The Gunners needed either a win over Chelsea, or for Spurs to fail to beat Fulham. In the end, Arsenal didn’t need to wait until their 16:30 kick-off, with Spurs themselves losing to confirm their failure to finish above the Gunners.

That result made March 1st the new record earliest date of ‘St. Totteringham’s Day’, the day invented by Arsenal fans for when they confirm a finish above their north London rivals.

But it also meant the Gunners achieved the feat with 10 games to play, a joint record shared with the 2003/04 ‘Invincibles’ side. Sky Sports rounded up the previous earliest dates in the graphic below:

Arsenal still have one more north London rivalry record in their sights, with the Gunners having the chance to achieve their greatest-ever points difference over Spurs at the conclusion of the season.

The current record stands at 45 points, again achieved by the 2003/04 team playing under Arsene Wenger.

Mikel Arteta’s side sit 35 points clear of Spurs, having played a game more. So it’s still possible for Arsenal to finish 46+ points ahead of Igor Tudor’s side, but both teams will need to keep picking up the same kinds of results they have been for the remainder of the campaign.

Arsenal’s primary focus is obviously on winning trophies, and they’ll value a Premier League title far more than a record-breaking finish above Spurs.

But given the way to achieve those two ends is just to keep winning matches, there’s no harm in hoping for both.

The referee at the centre of Sunday’s north London derby ‘controversy’ has publicly explained why Tottenham’s goal against Arsenal was ruled out, standing firmly by his decision.

Peter Bankes has defended his decision to disallow Tottenham Hotspur striker Randal Kolo Muani’s goal against Arsenal, insisting the on-field call in Sunday’s north London derby was correct after reviewing the incident again.

The moment arrived during the second half with Arsenal leading 2-1, before going on to secure a 4-1 win, and quickly became one of the main talking points of the match after some pundits suggested Gabriel had ‘exaggerated the contact’.

Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, Bankes explained why he immediately viewed the challenge as a foul.

“I see two hands from the Tottenham player into the back of the Arsenal player and that is going to be my main focus,” he said. “Once you see two hands in live play, it looks like a push, a clear push.

“I delayed the whistle so that the play could continue, then obviously gave my final decision once the ball had gone into the goal and that allows the VAR then to potentially check if I’ve misread something or if it doesn’t quite look right.

“But on field it looked a very, very clear offence.”

The VAR reviewed the incident and upheld the referee’s original decision, with Bankes confirming he remained satisfied after subsequently watching replays.

“Obviously, different speeds can make things look different. In slow motion, it can look different to what you see live,” he added.

“I get one look at it, and I was more than happy that the two hands on the back had enough impact and was an offence.

“I understand there’s going to be split opinions on it, but for me I’m still comfortable that is enough for a free kick.”

Mikel Arteta joked after Arsenal’s win over Tottenham Hotspur that the match officials should be in line for a big fine.

In what was generally a good afternoon for Arsenal fans, one frustrating element of the 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur was the lengthy delay caused by communication issues between the match officials.

After an excellent Arsenal start to the first half, the game was held up by a number of minutes as the officials tried to fix their issue. They then had the same problem in the second half, delaying kick-off to resolve the problem again.

Mikel Arteta shared a joke with reporters about the issue afterwards, suggesting the officials should be in line for a fine.

“Every time we are [late] out of the dressing room, we get huge fines, so I said to them, who’s going to get this fine?” Arteta joked.

“Because that’s six, seven, eight, nine minutes, so someone is going to get a big fine.

“I’m sure that everyone is going to look at Sky, Sky probably to the Premier League, the Premier League to Sky, so, yeah, we’ve got one in the bag now.”

Given the result, Arteta probably wasn’t genuinely angry about the delays. But if the game had gone the other way, you could understand if the Arsenal manager was unhappy about it.

Arsenal had started the game so well, only to have that early momentum killed. But the second-half delay was arguably even more frustrating, as the officials had the entire half-time break to work on the problem, yet they only started fixing it when the game was meant to be getting underway.

For the fans, that meant leaving the ground much later than expected. For the players, that meant needing to stay warm and alert for around 15 minutes longer than in a normal match.

It’s just fortunate that in this particular case, Arsenal won the game comfortably and have a week off to rest before the next one.

Viktor Gyokeres scored a brace at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, and he rubbed salt in the wound by refusing to say the home team’s name.

Viktor Gyokeres put in a Player of the Match performance away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon, scoring two goals in a 4-1 win and playing a key role in the build-up to Arsenal’s third goal of the game with a clever lay-off.

When asked about his goals after the game, Gyokeres was quick to credit his teammate Eberechi Eze for showing him how to score against Spurs, but he wasn’t so keen to use the name of Arsenal’s north London rivals.

“Yeah, we do that a few times in training, I think,” Gyokeres explained. “And then obviously I watch [Eze’s] goals against these [lot] last game. So yeah, try to replicate it a little bit and yeah, it works. It was a nice goal.”

Gyokeres’ reference to Spurs as “these” was the only time he referenced the team in the Sky Sports interview, otherwise choosing to ignore their existence.

But the striker’s performance against Arsenal’s rivals will certainly be remembered for all the right reasons, and the interviewer asked if he thought it was his best display for the club.

“In some aspects I think yeah, it was a good one,” Gyokeres began. “Then in some other I think I could have done a few bits better. But yeah, it was a tough game, but I think we showed much better things on the pitch today.”

Gyokeres is now up to 15 goals in all competitions for Arsenal this season, as well as a couple of assists.

The striker will want to keep pushing on and racking up the goals in the final few months of the campaign, but he’s increasingly finding his feet in his new team after last year’s summer transfer.

Igor Tudor insists Spurs will go for the three points against Arsenal on Sunday, despite only having 13 senior players guaranteed to be fit.

As covered earlier this week, Tottenham Hotspur will have a number of injury and suspension absentees for Sunday’s visit from Arsenal for the north London derby.

At least 10 players are guaranteed to miss the match, with Cristian Romero suspended and Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, and Kevin Danso all injured.

There’s also some doubt around Richarlison and Pedro Porro, both of whom have hamstring injuries. One or both could return, but there’s no certainty there.

To make matters worse for Spurs, they’ve been sweating on Dominic Solanke this week after he had an issue with his throat, though he’s since returned to training.

Speaking to the media, Spurs boss Igor Tudor admitted they’ve been holding training sessions with just 13 players, but he believes that’s enough to get the win this weekend.

“We made training with 13 players, so it is how it is,” Tudor said. “It’s not fantastic, beautiful, but in this case it’s an even bigger challenge to succeed.

“13 we will have for sure, and it’s quite enough to achieve what we want on Sunday, and that’s the first goal. Of course I understand the importance of this game. This is a derby, north London derby.

“Everybody expects the points, three points from us, and we are aware of this.”

Arsenal have had their own problems over the last week or so, and the pressure is definitely on in the Premier League title race.

But with Spurs sitting 16th in the table and struggling with so many injuries, the Gunners themselves need to be thinking that three points is the bare minimum to take away from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Tottenham Hotspur will be without at least 10 players for the north London derby on Sunday, with two more potential starters considered doubts.

Following a damaging draw away to Wolves on Wednesday, Arsenal need to get back to winning ways against Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.

Spurs are in poor form, sitting 16th in the Premier League table and just five points clear of the relegation zone. But a change in manager and Arsenal’s own recent slip-ups has given the hosts hope that they can pull off a result in the derby.

Yet one major problem for new manager Igor Tudor ahead of the game is that he’ll be without at least 10 players.

Cristian Romero is suspended after his recent red card, whilst Wilson Odobert, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Ben Davies, Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, and Kevin Danso have all been ruled out through injuries until March at the earliest.

None of those ten players will be involved against Arsenal, but there’s a little more hope in the cases of Richarlison and Pedro Porro, both of whom have hamstring injuries.

Richarlison has been out for Spurs’ last seven games, whilst Porro has missed four, but prior to his sacking ex-Spurs boss Thomas Frank suggested it was a possibility both could return against Arsenal.

“That could be a dream scenario, and it just could happen,” Frank said on January 30th. “We will know a little bit more when we get closer – but it’s in that bracket.”

Arsenal certainly can’t take anything for granted, despite all the Spurs absentees.

The Gunners themselves are likely to be without at least a few players for the game, derby matches often bring surprise results, and after screwing up a 2-0 lead against the worst team in the Premier League on Wednesday, it’s clear that anything can happen if you aren’t up to the task on the day.

Tottenham Hotspur captain, Cristian Romero, will be suspended for the North London derby after a straight red against Manchester United.

With less than half an hour on the clock, Cristian Romero picked up his second red card of the season after a shocking tackle on Manchester United’s Casimero, leaving the midfielder writhing in pain and referee Michael Oliver with no choice but to send the Spurs captain off.

The red, Romero’s sixth of his Spurs’ career, will see him suspended for the next three games meaning he will miss Tottenham’s games against Newcastle, Arsenal and Fulham.

The suspension compounds what was already going to be a difficult tie for Thomas Frank, who is also set to be without James Maddison, out for the season with an ACL injury, Mohammed Kudus, sidelined until March with a tendon problem, Rodrigo Bentancur, facing around three months out after hamstring surgery, Richarlison, ruled out for up to seven weeks with a hamstring setback, Ben Davies, who requires surgery on an ankle fracture, and Lucas Bergvall, sidelined for an estimated two to three months with a high ankle sprain.