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PREVIEW: Arsenal v Tottenham, Team News, Line-Up + Prediction

By on September 26, 2014

arsene-wenger-and-crowd

It’s the big one this weekend as Arsenal take on fierce rivals Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates on Saturday night.

We head into the game off the back of Tuesday’s Capital One Cup disappointment, which saw us slump to a 2-1 defeat to Southampton to crash out at the third round stage for the first time in 10 years. But it was a weakened side we put out and the Saints were superb on the night, and fully deserved their win in the end.

After a pretty average opening four games in the Premier League, we finally clicked into gear with a 3-0 win over Aston Villa last weekend, with Mesut Ozil inspiring the victory with the opening goal and an assist for Danny Welbeck.

The win leaves us in fourth place in the table on 9 points, so hopefully we can secure another victory tomorrow to not only widen the gap on the likes of Spurs and Liverpool, but also close in on run-away leaders Chelsea.

We beat our North London rivals three times last season, with Olivier Giroud kicking things off to secure a 1-0 win at the Emirates back on September the 1st 2013. We then went on to knock them out the FA Cup before completing the league double with another 1-0 win at the Lane, so we certainly hold the local bragging right going into this game.

Team News

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Kieran Gibbs and Per Mertesacker have been passed fit to start despite both carrying minor knocks this week.

Mathieu Flamini is also back in the squad after missing the last two games with a dead leg.

However, Nacho Monreal is still out with a back injury so he joins the likes of Walcott, Giroud and Debuchy on the sidelines.

As for Spurs, they have virtually a fully-fit squad to choose form with only Kyle Walker missing.

Preferred Team

This is the side I’d go with. The back four almost picks itself, the only real contentious selection is whether to go with Wilshere or Ramsey, or perhaps both. For me, we can’t get both in the team and keep Ozil central so Arsene has to leave someone out. Rambo hasn’t been in top form yet this season so I’d go with him.

In reality, I have a horrible feeling the boss might revert back to playing Ozil out wide just so he can start with Jack and Aaron in front of Arteta in the middle. I don’t think it works, but lets see how things go tomorrow….

Prediction

We haven’t really hit our stride yet but there were signs we are finding our form last week. Spurs have been very poor of late and if we can find out rhythm early on in the game, I can see us winning this one pretty comfortably. Arsenal 2-0 Spurs.

COYG!!!! 

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