League title chase adds spice to Spurs-Arsenal London derby
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TOTTENHAM Hotspur and Arsenal have the perfect opportunity to bounce back immediately from disappointing midweek defeats when they meet in the most significant north London derby for years at White Hart Lane tomorrow.
While matches between the arch-rivals are always tense, highly-charged occasions, tomorrow’s English Premier League game has added spice because both are heavily involved in the title race and both lost ground on leader Leicester City on Wednesday.
Spurs’ six-match winning league run ended in a 0-1 defeat at West Ham United while Arsenal suffered a second straight league loss, and a third in all competitions, surprisingly beaten 2-1 at home by relegation-threatened Swansea City.
Leicester, which drew 2-2 with West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday and plays at Watford tomorrow, leads the table with 57 points with Spurs second on 54, Arsenal third on 51 and Manchester City fourth on 47 with a game in hand.
City, which went down 0-3 at Liverpool on Wednesday, is level on points with fifth-placed Manchester United, which beat Watford 1-0.
Spurs have not been this high in the table this late in the season since 1985 which is why tomorrow’s game has more at stake for both teams than any since the 1991 FA Cup semifinal at Wembley which Spurs won 3-1.
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has seen his side respond well to defeats this season and will be hoping for the same reaction when he also hopes to have Mousa Dembele back after injury and Dele Alli fully fit again.
“We need to be positive, why not?,” he told reporters after the defeat at Upton Park. “The players are very disappointed and feel bad but the way we fought back tonight in the second half was fantastic, except we could not score.”
Including last week’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona, Arsenal has now lost three matches in a row for the first time since April 2010 and manager Arsene Wenger is worried his team has lost confidence. “I am worrying about our results. The players are very down but we have to respond. We have to focus on our job and remind ourselves that we’ve some quality as well.”
Wenger also faces the prospect of being without first choice goalkeeper Petr Cech who aggravated a groin injury in bizarre circumstances on Wednesday, pulling up running back to his own goal after going up for an Arsenal corner in the dying seconds.
Defender Laurent Koscielny also looks set to miss out with a calf injury.
Leicester will be seeking three more points at Watford to continue its almost unbelievable assault on a first ever title while City faces bottom club and virtually-doomed Aston Villa at the Etihad.
United is at West Brom on Sunday, while champion Chelsea will be hoping to prolong its recent improvement with a home win over Stoke City tomorrow.
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