On Thursday evening, Tottenham Hotspur takes on Arsenal in a potentially season-defining north London derby at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Arsenal currently sit one place and four points above Tottenham in the Premier League table, and victory would see them all but secure Champions League qualification.
On Sunday, victory over Leeds put Arsenal in their strongest position of the whole season to clinch that elusive fourth place. Eddie Nketiah‘s brace set them up for a breeze of a victory, only to allow their commanding hold on the game to become one of weakness.
The Gunners start the day one place and four points better off than their opponents, whose Champions League dreams will be shattered with defeat on their own turf.
Antonio Conte’s side arguably prepare to welcome the Gunners to their headquarters in a better position than they were four months ago, with the club’s January arrivals beginning to flourish and the confidence in the camp slowly building up again.
While dissatisfactory results in April have harmed their top-four charge, Tottenham got right back on track by beating Leicester City before managing to end Liverpool’s 12-game Premier League winning run at Anfield – only conceding to a deflected Luis Diaz effort after Son Heung-min’s opener.
A penny for Conte’s thoughts on the touchline when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg tried to head the ball across for Harry Kane in the dying embers instead of going for goal himself, but Tottenham have kept their top-four dreams alive and will finish fifth at the very worst.
Team News:
Tottenham Hotspur:
For this match, Antonio Conte will be without Sergio Reguilon, Japhet Tanganga, Oliver Skipp, and Matt Doherty.
Harry Kane heads into Thursday’s battle, aiming to build on a derby record of 11 strikes in 16 games against the Gunners, although he has now failed to make the net ripple in back-to-back North London clashes.
Arsenal:
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta is hopeful that Ben White will have shaken off the tight hamstring that has kept him out of the past two games to start. Thomas Partey and Kieran Tierney remain out for Arsenal.
Tottenham vs Arsenal predicted line-ups:
Tottenham’s predicted line-up (4-3-3): Hugo Lloris; Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Ben Davies; Emerson Royal, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Rodrigo Bentancur, Ryan Sessegnon; Dejan Kulusevsk, Harry Kane, Son Heung-min.
Arsenal’s predicted line-up (4-2-3-1): Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, Rob Holding, Gabriel, Takehiro Tomiyasu; Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny; Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli; Eddie Nketiah.
Kick-off Time:
Thursday’s match between Tottenham and Arsenal kicks off at 19:45 BST, the local time in London.
