Arsenal Can Use Athletic Advantage to Press and Harry Tottenham
This weekend’s headline game in the Premier League is, without doubt, the north London derby.
It’s always a special occasion, a game even the most neutral of fans hate to miss. While many rivalry matches descend into chaos and leave the qualitative element by the door, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur somehow retain the ability to intertwine both, creating a spectacle of epic proportions.
The history of this fixture is littered with brilliant encounters and superb performances. Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Harry Kane and more have made themselves heroes for the day with winning goals or legendary moments; conversely, there have been villains on both sides, too, with red cards and howlers earning the likes of Wojciech Szczesny and Emmanuel Adebayor a black mark for the day.
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This season’s first iteration of the derby pits the two together when separated by only three points in the table, but scratch beneath the surface and they’re trending in different directions. Tottenham are winless in six since beating Manchester City, losing most recently against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday evening in the Champions League, while Arsenal have lost just once all season and have won five of their last six.
But the form book often counts for little in this fixture; it tends to take a course of its own, regardless of recent performances. Arsenal look great, but can you implicitly trust them? Meanwhile, Spurs have been very stubborn and tough to beat.
It’s all set up rather nicely for Sunday’s encounter, which promises to be another epic.
Arsenal
As always, Arsene Wenger’s central-midfield selection stands very difficult to project. The Gunners boss has used five different combinations in the last six games, featuring five different players, and every combination has worked.
Francis Coquelin has started four of the last six, missing the EFL Cup game against Reading and entering the fray from the bench against Swansea City. Wenger trusts his French destroyer, and his steely, combative edge will be required for the derby—so long as he exhibits controlled aggression. It’s likely he starts.
Ideally, Wenger might start Santi Cazorla alongside him, but he hasn’t featured since the same Swansea game Coquelin ducked out of. He’s an injury doubt, so perhaps Granit Xhaka, who returns from suspension and scored against Ludogorets Razgrad, partners him.
Olivier Giroud is being nursed back to fitness and seems unlikely to start two games in four days, so Alexis Sanchez could move back up front. If Theo Walcott’s fit, he’ll operate from the right, while Alex Iwobi could be reinstalled on the left.
Kieran Gibbs vs. Nacho Monreal could come down to who is fitter, while Hector Bellerin was withheld midweek with the hope he’s passed fit for the derby.
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham’s potential absences seem far more profound than Arsenal’s, though that’s partially due to the recent nature of most of them. Erik Lamela and Mousa Dembele both suffered injuries in midweek, with the former confirmed as out and the latter a doubt, while Moussa Sissoko will be suspended.
Of course, Kane’s injury isn’t recent news; he has been out for over a month. He might play some part in the game on Sunday, but Mauricio Pochettino may not risk him from the start.
In an ideal world, Pochettino would clone Eric Dier so he can cover two positions at once. Toby Alderweireld cannot make the game, so Dier will continue alongside Jan Vertonghen in defence, but if Dembele misses it too, Dier will be missed in midfield. What’s the solution?
Pressure point 1: Dial up the press
Arsenal are well capable of dialling up a pressing game and setting themselves loose; we’ve seen it sporadically in the past, and they notably utilised it in last season’s north London derby at home.
Wenger will have no doubt witnessed Roger Schmidt’s Bayer Leverkusen cause Tottenham all sorts of issues on Wednesday at Wembley, pressing relentlessly and thoroughly unnerving the “home” side. Leverkusen went one-on-one in a man-orientated pressing scheme and played absurdly high up the pitch, harrying and forcing errors with frequency.
Vertonghen, Dier, Hugo Lloris and Ben Davies all struggled; they were affected early by the pressure and never recovered, resulting in sloppy buildup play from deep areas and a general disconnect between Spurs’ front four and back six. Three of those four will contest the derby, and it’s imperative Wenger tests their resolve by placing them under the microscope early.
With the athleticism available in Arsenal’s squad, there’s no excuse not to. Giroud may struggle in a pressing system but if Alexis leads a line consisting of himself, Iwobi and Walcott, that’s about as mobile as it gets.
They have the tools to scare Spurs into the same jittery stance they played from against Leverkusen—a stance from which they were thoroughly and easily bested—and they’d be foolish not to try to replicate Schmidt’s plan to an extent.
Further back, it requires mobile, alert performances from the central midfielders in order to effectively follow up the forward line’s first effort, and the defence must be comfortable high up the pitch—which they are (particularly Shkodran Mustafi).
Pressure point 2: Janssen cohesion
Despite participating in pre-season and logging more than 800 competitive minutes in a Tottenham shirt, Vincent Janssen appears no closer to developing any form of chemistry with his midfielders. It's a big concern.
His colleagues have, at times, appeared shellshocked that he simply does not do everything Kane usually would. When you're so used to having the same man up top every game, change does become difficult to stomach, but we're getting to the point where you'd expect some things to have clicked.
For Spurs' attacking unit, Wednesday's game was another you can file under "must do better." The defence and midfield's struggles made things very tough, but Janssen and Heung-Min Son were quite poor when they did manage to latch on to the ball.
Kane's absence has perhaps hurt Dele Alli the most, as the connection they fostered last season was one of the most profitable in Europe. No midfielder seems to have developed a link with Janssen, and while he does grind away at defences with his back to goal, edging his team nearer to the box, nothing's coming off inside it, and that's a big reason why Pochettino's men have scored just three in six.
Against Laurent Koscielny and Mustafi, it's going to be really, really tough to gain ground. Alli and Christian Eriksen need to rediscover their rhythm and revert to snappy, instinctive football if they're to have any joy in the middle, and they've got to surround and support Janssen in order to help him settle into the game.
If they don't, it's hard to see where any sort of goal is coming from.
