Arsenal's David Luiz Excited for 'Special' North London Derby vs. Tottenham

Arsenal defender David Luiz is eager to feature in his first north London derby on Sunday.

The Gunners centre-back has experienced plenty of London derbies against Tottenham Hotspur from his seven seasons with Chelsea, but this weekend's match will have an extra element when he turns out in an Arsenal shirt at the Emirates Stadium.

Per Goal's Charles Watts, he said: "It's going to be special for me, for sure. It's always special to play football. I play football because I love football. That's why I'm still playing; that's why I still have ambition and try to do big things in football."

Arsenal will come into the match after a 3-1 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield last Saturday.

Luiz is keen to get back into action, even though he is anticipating another difficult match for his side: "It's going to be a tough game. But I'm looking forward to that. When you lose a game, you want to play a game tomorrow if it's possible. So we are going to work hard. It's going to be another tough, tough game against a fantastic team, who have signed new players...amazing players."

Arsenal were 1-0 down at half-time after Joel Matip's opener on Saturday, but Football.London's James Benge singled out the Brazilian for praise:

It all went wrong for Luiz in the second half, though.

Minutes after the restart, he gave away a penalty by pulling Mohamed Salah's shirt, per This Is Anfield's Jack Lusby:

Soon after, a reckless attempt to close down Salah allowed the Egyptian to get past him with ease and advance on goal before finding the net again:

Football writer Daniel Storey enjoyed the irony of the situation:

After such a performance, Spurs may well be looking to target the 32-year-old in the hopes of capitalising on more errors.

Tottenham will be similarly eager to bounce back from their last result, a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United.

Mauricio Pochettino's side have already got arguably their toughest match of the season out of the way—away to Manchester City, where they drew 2-2—but the loss to the Magpies means they're five points behind leaders Liverpool after just three games.

If Arsenal can compound their misery with another defeat, they can deal a significant early blow to their rivals' ambitions this season.

Luiz and the rest of the Gunners' back line will need to be more assured if that is to happen, though, because the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son are more than capable of punishing any vulnerabilities.