Tottenham Hotspur vs Arsenal
This Premier League season has just been blown wide open, and leaders Arsenal are about to face the team that would like to beat them more than any other.
Yes, folks, it’s the North London Derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, and Arsenal will turn up having just opened the door to Manchester City. Mikel Arteta’s team, runners-up for the last four campaigns, drew 2-2 with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night, and that result left the Gunners open to attack.
Manchester City, currently five points adrift and with a game in hand, will take the league title if they win their last 12 games, and the Sky Blues have put that kind of run together before.
This match is stacked full of peril for Arteta and his team, not least because it is a local derby, but also because Arsenal’s fierce rivals have just had a change at the helm, appointing Igor Tudor as head coach.
And Spurs too are in desperate need for a result, as they sit just five points above the drop zone in 16th place. To be fair, this is a place higher than the Whites finished last season.
Talking Points
New manager, new Spurs?
Tottenham’s performances over the past couple of seasons have been a real head-scratcher. Under Ange Postecoglou, they won the Europa League while finishing just one place above the drop zone. The Spurs board sacked the charismatic Aussie and replaced him with Thomas Frank, who had worked wonders at Brentford. But it didn’t work out for the highly-rated Danish coach, and he left at the beginning of the month to be replaced by Tudor.
The Croatian coach has managed at Hellas Verona, Marseille, Lazio, and Juventus, all within four years, and now he’s rocked up in London to manage a team of talented players who have struggled to reach the heights expected. He’ll probably stick with the excellent Micky van de Ven as captain and will try to get the best out of an attacking lineup of Dominic Solanke, Xavi Simons, and Randal Kolo Muani, which has been misfiring in recent weeks.
Tudor has certainly endeared himself to the Spurs fans in his first interview, saying: “Big week, important game, we know this derby is a fantastic game to play. We want to play this game in a way that our fans will like, giving everything we have in the right way, brave, but in the same way intelligent, smart to achieve what we want and that’s the victory.”
“Football in 2026 has changed a lot, it’s more physical. If you can run 115km as a team, it’s better than 105. It’s always about motivating players to understand this about running, the physical aspect of football, but that without quality is nothing.”
If the Spurs players deliver on their new coach’s vision, then the fans will be happy especially if they win.
The Sky Blues are in Arsenal’s head
Make no mistake, this Premier League title run-in will be played out as much in the players’ heads as they are on the grass; and the way Arsenal lost two points away to bottom club Wolves must have alarmed Arteta. It was Wolves’ 10th point of the campaign, having lost 19 of their 27 games and winning only once. And the result was a huge and unexpected bonus for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, and the Premier League 2026 betting odds took a sharp shift towards the north.
The Sky Blues looked dead and gone a couple of weeks ago when they trailed Liverpool with a few minutes to go at Anfield, but late goals from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland gave City a win and sent shudders down the spines at the Emirates. There is no denying that was a serious blow to Arsenal, which was compounded when they let a 2-0 lead go at Molineux.
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa are not out of the race, but they would need to put together another remarkable set of Premier League 2026 results to beat both Arsenal and Manchester City. So it is the Sky Blues who Arsenal need to get out of their minds when they meet Tottenham.
History
Arsenal have won 31 to 16 of these derbies, and there have been 24 draws. At Spurs’ home ground, the Whites have won 13 to the Gunners’ nine, and there have been 13 draws. When the two teams met at the Emirates in November, the Gunners ran out 4-1 winners, as Eberechi Eze scored a hat-trick, and Arteta’s men also won 1-0 on their last visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
In terms of recent form, the Gunners are stronger with four wins and two draws, both away from the Emirates, while Spurs have won two, both in the Champions League, lost two, and drawn two.
Betting Tip
The Gunners are odds on to win this clash at a SBOTOP price of 1.65 with the draw at 3.90, and Arsenal certainly have the better squad by some distance.
But this is a derby and Arteta’s men looked jittery in Wolverhampton. I have a sneaky feeling the Spurs, who will play out of their skins, might just give their fans a treat.
A SHORT EXPLANATION ON HOW OUR (⭐) BETS ARE WORTH:
⭐⭐⭐= €20 (HIGHLY CONFIDENT)
⭐⭐= €10 (CONFIDENT)
⭐= €5 (SOMEWHAT CONFIDENT)
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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