🕟 Kick Off: 16:30 GMT

🚽 Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

📺 UK Broadcaster: Sky Sports

🙎🏻‍♂️ Referee: Peter Bankes

📹 VAR: Darren England

🔴 Arsenal Team News:

• Martin Ødegaard (Knee): Arteta says there is a “big possibility” he returns on Sunday.
• Kai Havertz (Muscle): Also has a “big possibility” of being in the squad for the derby.
• Mikel Merino (Foot): The only major senior absentee; ruled out long-term (months).

⚽ Arsenal Form: 🟧🟩🟧🟩🟩

💩 Spurs Team News:

• Cristian Romero: Suspended; serving the second of a four-match ban.
• Wilson Odobert (ACL): Ruled out; season-ending injury.
• James Maddison (ACL): Ruled out; season-ending injury.
• Richarlison (Hamstring): Major doubt; facing a late fitness test.
• Pedro Porro (Hamstring): Major doubt; also facing a late fitness test.
• Dejan Kulusevski (Knee): Ruled out; return targeted for March.
• Destiny Udogie (Hamstring): Ruled out; return targeted for mid-March.
• Kevin Danso (Toe): Ruled out; return targeted for mid-March.
• Rodrigo Bentancur (Hamstring): Ruled out; expected back in April.
• Mohammed Kudus (Quad): Ruled out; expected back in April.
• Lucas Bergvall & Ben Davies: Both ruled out long-term (April/May).

⚽ Spurs Form: 🟥🟥🟧🟩🟧

⚔️ Head-to-Head:

• Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham (November 23, 2025, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham (January 15, 2025, Premier League)
• Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal (September 15, 2024, Premier League)
• Tottenham 2-3 Arsenal (April 28, 2024, Premier League)
• Arsenal 2-2 Tottenham (September 24, 2023, Premier League)

📖 Match Facts:

• Arsenal are currently on a 7-match unbeaten streak in the North London Derby. They have won their last four visits to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – or Three Point Lane as we like to call it.
• Interim Tottenham Head Coach Igor Tudor has managed 28 derbies in his career, winning just 4 of them with 17 losses.
• Igor Tudor has won his first game in charge of his last 6 clubs.
• A win for Arsenal would mean we have won 5 games in a row at Spurs, potentially beating a record we set in 1955.

📸 Previously in this fixture…

Our last outing against Spurs was at the Emirates back in November which saw an Eze hattrick and a goal from Trossard give us a 4-1 victory over our rivals.

✍🏼 Pre-Match Ramblings

This is it now. We have blown our cushion against City with the horrible form we have been in of late. The blown 0-2 advantage at relegated Wolves has to have been the floor of our performances this season. It simply cannot get any worse than that. Well, it can, but it can’t if we want to end 22 years of hurt and underachievement.

And where better to go than up the road to Three Point Lane? If the lads can’t get up for this match, then they don’t have it in them to win this league. Tottenham Hotspur are facing a very real chance of relegation. They sacked their manager and brought in a three at the back specialist to save their club from doom. Tudor teams aggresively mark man to man and typically play a high defensive line. If he goes with this it is an incredible risk, and may play right into our hands, but a new manager bounce is a special thing as we found out against Man United.

As for us.. where to start? I can’t imagine we’ll see Saka in the #10 again anytime soon. It was a fun little experiment and showed flashes of excellence, but we can’t be experimenting like that at this point when the stakes are so high. For all the criticism he has faced this season, if fit, Odegaard has to start this game. If there is any chance that our captain can find the form we know he has in his locker, we need to go for it. There have been calls for Timber and Zubimendi to get a rest, and the Wolves game would have been the perfect game for it, but I would still like to see White get a start in the derby. White thrives under pressure and loves a scrap, if anyone can wind up the opponent or get the crowd nice and pissed off, it’s our Benny Blanco.

Zubimendi looks exhausted. We can all see it. He is a quality player and has slotted in seemlessly next to Rice, but he can’t keep playing 90 minutes twice a week. Why did we sign Norgaard if not to play him? He has shown his quality every time he has played; surely a player with his level of experience in the Premier League can step in for Zubimendi more often?

Our last game against Spurs saw Eze make his biggest impact at Arsenal so far. We all thought it would kickstart his career, but it didn’t. He has hardly featured and has even hardlier (is that a word?) contributed anything to our attack since his heroics at the Emirates in November. Eze is another one that we have to find a place for in our team. He has so much quality, and so many qualities that we need him to bring to this team. With Odegaard and Havertz close to returning, it’s hard to see him getting many minutes in attacking midfield. Could we see him make more appearances on the left wing? Can he contribute defensively enough to please Arteta in the same way Gabi and Trossard do? We haven’t seen that from him yet, which might explain his lack of minutes out wide.

This really is squeaky bum time now. City face Newcastle on Saturday night, and although we have a game in hand over them, the gap could be reduced to just two points before our game. If we fail to win, then City only have to win their game in hand to take the lead.