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Tottenham v Arsenal: Key man fit, Elneny/Wilshere to start + score prediction

By on February 10, 2018

Arsenal desperately need a win when we take on Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley in the North London Derby at lunchtime.

This game is pretty-much make or break for our hopes of finishing in the top four this season as we head in to the match sitting four points behind Spurs in sixth position and five points off fourth-placed Chelsea.

Defeat today would see Tottenham open-up a seven point advantage which would be extremely difficult to overturn with just 11 games remaining while Chelsea would be a further point ahead if they beat West Brom at home on Monday.

However, if we could come away with a win from Wembley we’d be just one point behind Spurs and right in the mix for the top four. A draw means we could still finish above Tottenham but we’d be relying on Chelsea/Liverpool to implode if we’re to snatch a Champions League place.

After a disastrous January, we got back to winning ways in style with a 5-1 demolition of Everton last week and it’s safe to say our new signings hit the ground running as Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were excellent.

Team News

We’ve been handed a boost as Petr Cech was able to return to full training yesterday after making a swift recovery from a calf injury that forced him off against Everton last weekend.

Nacho Monreal is also expected to be available as recovering from the illness that forced him off against the Toffees so he should keep his place at left-back this afternoon.

Danny Welbeck is back in contention after recovering from a hip injury that kept him out for a month but a place on the bench is the best he can hope for while Alexandre Lacazette is also pushing for a recall.

As for Spurs, they have virtually a fully-fit squad to choose from as Toby Alderweireld made his comeback in midweek while January signing Lucas Moura is hoping to make his debut.

Preferred line-up

I think the back five picks itself. Cech is clearly past his best but he’s still the best keeper we have while the back four is fairly straight-forward to select as Monreal is well ahead of Kolasinac these days.

The one big change I’d love to see is Wenger to have the balls to drop Granit Xhaka as he’s become a liability. I’d give Mohamed Elneny a go in the defensive midfield position and tell him to sit in front of the defence and he can also drop in to the back-line when we’re not in possession – as he did against Chelsea in the cup recently.

I’d also drop Alex Iwobi as that would make room for Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey to start together in midfield with Mesut Ozil and Mkhitaryan supporting Aubameyang in attack.

Here would be my line-up:

Prediction

I hate predicting NLD’s as virtually anything can happen but we should be confident today as we have a superb record at Wembley – winning on each of our last nine visits. We’re due an away win at Tottenham and I think our new signings can inspire us to a vital victory. Aubameyang has scored 4 goals in his 4 games against Spurs so hopefully we can keep things tight at the back and we’re sure to create chance at the other end. I’m going with a 2-1 away win.

Spurs 1-2 Arsenal


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