So far he hasn’t done too well against the rest of the top six after losing the opening two games of the season at home to City and away to Chelsea. We did better at home to Liverpool with a well deserved draw, but a win against one of those top six today would be the boost the team needs ahead of a very busy December. Of course his first win against one of the other top six teams coming against Spurs would ingratiate him further with the Arsenal fans.
He has a few decisions to make ahead of the game, but the players should be well rested at least after a team made up mostly of the youngsters and fringe players won 3-0 away to Vorskla on Thursday evening. It was a long trip to a game which had to be moved to Kiev and a very good result and performance too. That win meant we will top our group and we can look forward to a favourable draw in the last 32 despite having one group game left to play.
We played three central defenders against Bournemouth last week and the manager may be tempted to do so again today. If he goes with two it has to be Rob Holding plus one other despite Holding playing on Thursday night. I know we have been more than a bit dodgy in defence at times this season, but Holding has been our best central defender for me.
In midfield the axis of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka is sure to continue and I can’t wait to see Torreira get stuck into Spurs. The boss has to decide what other players he will play in the advanced roles ahead of those two and those choices could make or break the game for us. I’d be very surprised if Mesut Ozil wasn’t back in the team and I’d like to see Alex Iwobi play too.
If Iwobi plays it has to be on the left and the inclusion of both Pierre-Emireck Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette would prevent that. Lacazette missed out through injury last week and the chances are he will play if he’s fit today. It wouldn’t surprise me Aubameyang started today though with Lacazette maybe getting the nod at United on Wednesday night.
If we play Aubameyang centrally today and leave Lacazette on the bench it would mean Ozil could play his preferred and best role behind him, but the question is who plays on the right then. Henrikh Mkhitaryan has played there at times this season, but with little success and it’s a position we don’t really have a player to fit at the moment. Mkhitaryan has the ability to take any team apart, but I don’t think he’s best suited to playing wide on the right.
That still leaves Aaron Ramsey on the fringes and it looks like it could increasingly become his role as the season progresses. His contract negotiations seem to have finished and it looks like he will be on his way at the end of the season. Maybe that’s why the manager is keeping him in the fringes at the moment or maybe he thinks others have more to offer to the team.
With Aubameyang up front we have the ability to hit Spurs on the break, but we have to be very aware of their ability to do the same to us. Heung-Min Son is very quick and we have proved to be far more vulnerable on the break than I would like this season. We have to be aware of that threat and do all we can to cut it out wherever and however we can.
We’re 13 games into the season and we still haven’t led a game at half time, but thankfully our second half performances have been a lot better. It would be great to get that first half statistic out of the way today of all days and to do it in some style too. If the first half doesn’t go our way it’s good to know we can and have done so well in the second half of so many games.
I won’t say three points are a must have today, but they would be a huge boost to a team starting to find it’s feet under the manager. We have the ultimate goal poacher in Aubameyang and given the chances he can be the player to beat Spurs today. We need the right tempo and commitment from first minute to last and the players need to understand how much this game means to the fans. If the players can do just that then they will have those fans right behind them and it could be the catalyst we need ahead of a month with so many games.
Iwobi, Ozil, Miki, Ramsey
Aubameyang, Lacazette
Them on the break
Set pieces
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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