Arsene Wenger vs. Mauricio Pochettino: Breaking Down Arsenal-Spurs Dugout Battle
Despite the attempts of some moronic Arsenal fans to ransack White Hart Lane, September's Capital One Cup meeting between the Gunners and Tottenham Hotspur felt less major conflict and more phoney war.
The first north London derby of the season was almost too big for such an early stage of the competition, a feeling reinforced by both teams gaining a better idea of themselves since then and Arsenal's win losing a little of its lustre when they lost to second-tier Sheffield Wednesday in the fourth round.
Sunday's Premier League clash comes 12 matches into the season, more satisfactorily at a point where we can get a truer measure of these rivals' current standing. Naturally, the dugout battle between bosses Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino is going to have a big influence on how this one unfolds.
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Recent History
The aforementioned 2-1 cup win was Wenger's first victory over Pochettino since he became Tottenham manager in 2014. Last season, Arsenal were held 1-1 at home before Harry Kane's double overturned Mesut Ozil's opener in February.
The earlier result came at a point when the recently installed Pochettino was very much getting to know his new team, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain cancelling out Nacer Chadli's opener the only blight on a what was a rare, strong Spurs defensive showing in an autumn of rotation-created discontent.
Containing Arsenal was at the heart of the visitors' game plan that day, absorbing them as best they could before looking to strike back suddenly. They would enjoy some success going forward either side of half-time, but Spurs spent most of the evening trying to keep the marauding red shirts away from their goal.
Back at the Emirates Stadium, Spurs could again utilise a cautious approach. At least partly.
Arsenal have scored 18 goals in seven Premier League games since the start of September, their potent attacking threat evident even in the midst of Wednesday's 5-1 Champions League thrashing by Bayern Munich. They will be keen to get the latter result out of their system by putting a few past their neighbours.
Spurs are a different prospect to just over a year ago, though. Over a year of working with Pochettino has them more confident, albeit not yet fluent, in applying the all-round fearlessness demanded by his system.
Even accounting for the home advantage that informed it, a more preferable template to aspire to in taking on the Gunners may be that seen in Spurs' February win.
Despite going a goal down, they refused to yield. Going toe-to-toe with Arsenal in the first half, they were eventually able to force them into conceding territory. From there, Kane and company were able to take advantage.
Disappointed as he was that his side lost the most recent derby, per his club's website, Pochettino does not believe that 2-1 defeat will have any influence on Sunday's resumption of hostilities.
"It’s a different competition—I think it is impossible to use this game to learn or to prepare the Sunday game," the Argentinian said after Tottenham's midweek Europa League defeat of Anderlecht.
Wenger will probably not be so quick to dismiss the win secured by Mathieu Flamini's brace, keen as he will be for any evidence of Arsenal's superiority. But the veteran coach will also be aware this fixture arrives amid different circumstances
Wenger's Crocked vs. Pochettino's Kids
For one thing, Arsenal will be without at least three players to have featured in that Capital One Cup win. Oxlade-Chamberlain, Aaron Ramsey and Theo Walcott are definitely out, while Mikel Arteta and David Ospina are only now close to recovering from their own injuries (though the latter would not have displaced Petr Cech anyway).
Yet even with an injury list that has got progressively worse, on-song Arsenal have not missed a beat in what is shaping up to be a formidable Premier League title challenge.
Joint-top on points heading into the weekend and unbeaten in the league since losing 2-0 at Chelsea on Sep. 19, the earlier mentioned scoring run is all the more impressive for the clubs they have beat.
Decent Watford, Everton and Swansea City sides have all been dispatched. Lofty Leicester City suffered their only defeat prior to November to the Gunners, while an otherwise solid-looking Manchester United were also torn apart at the Emirates.
Wenger's team is performing with a carefully calculated ease. Santi Cazorla, Ozil and Alexis Sanchez orchestrating with freedom fine-tuned to long held stylistic parameters that have become second nature to those recruited to play for this manager.
There is a toughness about this Arsenal team too. Surviving with a bare-bones squad and looking plenty confident in their ability to stop league opponents scoring against them, they also have more bite in combat than the Bayern defeat suggested.
Their 54 per cent average duels won is more than the 46 per cent managed by a Spurs team for whom Eric Dier's midfield dominance has been one of their more eye-catching attributes, per Squawka.
Bar the two Manchester clubs and Arsenal, the only other team to have conceded under 10 goals in the division is Tottenham—just nine so far.
Unlike the last time Spurs crossed the north London divide, Pochettino has been able to find some consistency in his defence. Right-back Kyle Walker and the centre-back pairing of Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen have started every league game, backed well by goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
They have only four clean sheets compared to Arsenal's six, but their settling on a back four has left Spurs less prone to conceding poorly. A commendable, mature improvement given the general youth of the team as a whole.
Save for their 4-1 thrashing of Manchester City, their resume so far in 2015-16 is not as impressive as Arsenal's. But you can only beat the team in front of you, and recent wins over Bournemouth and Aston Villa are games the unsure-of-itself Spurs of Pochettino's first season may have lost.
Something's Got to Give
"I think always it’s to have the right balance with and without the ball," Pochettino said of the performances underpinning his side's ascent to fifth in the league post-Anderlecht. "I think that this season the balance is nearly, nearly perfect, but always we need to improve."
"Perfect" is a strong word. One you suspect even the not-fully fluent in English Pochettino well understood the meaning of as he deployed it.
It is a bold assessment to make of his youthful team heading into the north London derby. Even if he did precede it with "nearly" and had earlier looked to delay talking about a top-four place and finishing above Arsenal to a more relevant late-season juncture.
It is a show of faith in his defence's ability to deal with the penalty-box presence of the in-form Olivier Giroud (see below) and that his central-midfield duo of England call-ups Dele Alli and Dier can stifle Ozil and Sanchez and also play their part in forcing their counterparts, Cazorla and Francis Coquelin, onto the back foot.
It is understanding his attacking midfield is not a perfect unit but that he trusts them to work as hard as they have in recent wins, participating in the hunt to win the ball back off Arsenal's own creative stars. To give striker Kane the best possible opportunity to punish a defence Wenger will hope contains linchpin Laurent Koscielny, much missed out in Germany on Wednesday.
What makes this derby as fascinating as any in its recent, top-four consequence-laden history, is the senior Frenchman holds just as much faith in his own group.
It is telling he regrets Arsenal made things so easy for Bayern Munich. "I believe that we created a high number of chances for a game of that stature and offensively, I was quite impressed by the number of chances we created," Wenger said at his pre-Spurs press conference, per Arsenal's website.
Indeed, a bit more confidence from the Gunners might have given the Bundesliga champions more to worry about. When the Premier League side did up the tempo, their exemplary movement and passing combined to unsettle Pep Guardiola's team.
Wenger continued, recalling October's 2-0 win over the Bavarians:
"We had not our usual defensive performance, especially for the first two goals, where we gave them the goals basically, that is when it is difficult because Bayern is maybe the best team at the moment in Europe. If we had our usual defensive performance, we could have repeated what we had done in the first game.
"
Spurs are no Bayern Munich. If Wenger can be that positive about a 5-1 loss, he will believe his team can rectify the defensive laxness and offensive timidity that informed it against an inferior opponent.
A Battle of Heart and Nerves
"I believe that in the Premier League we have a strong confidence and focus and that is what we want to reproduce on Sunday against Tottenham and, as always, it is a derby," Wenger offered in regard to Sunday's renewal of hostilities. "It is always a game where the commitment and nervous force will be important."
"The derby is always a different game," agreed Pochettino. "You need to play with your heart, with passion—I know what it means for our supporters."
The result with not strictly define either club's season. Spurs especially have bounced back from autumn derby defeats in previous years and also have failed to push on after winning later-campaign meetings, such as last season.
However, both coaches know it is much more preferable to win a match that means so much to their supporters. One that will make heroes and create bragging rights to be recalled for years to come.
With both clubs in the ascendancy, it could provide a useful boost heading toward the crowded winter schedule. One way or another, the character of their teams' respective displays will be a reflection on the jobs being done by Wenger and Pochettino.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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