Important events
The final score is Tottenham Hotspur 9:1 Arsenal. In a way, yes.
Team news: Van de Ven and Solanke return, Trossard starts
Great news for Spurs: Micky van de Ven And Dominic Solanke are fit enough to start. Big Ange has set up an extremely offensive team, with Rodrigo Bentancur play Colin Calderwood in a tribute to Ossie Ardile’s XI. Brennan Johnson also returns to the team. The four players who are absent are Radu Dragusin, Wilson Odobert, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr.
Georginho replaces the suspended Declan Rice and will captain Arsenal in the absence of Martin Odegaard. Gabriel Martinelli replaces him, giving Mikel Arteta some options. Trossard or Havertz could drop back into midfield, or Arsenal could play with a penalty box. Raheem Sterling is one of the substitutes.
⚫️ 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 🔴
©️ Jorginho is captain of the team
🪄 Trossard pulls the strings
⚡️ Martinelli on the wingLet’s make it count, Gunners ✊ pic.twitter.com/5P7oGVRnUc
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) 15 September 2024
David Hytner meets Pedro Porro
Since I was little, I had to fight for everything. At home, you had to be tough. Often there was nothing to eat. I know that other people feel the same way, but that’s how it was. So I had to be tough. That spirit is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s also a winning spirit. It can be positive in the game. It’s been a part of me since I started. If you want to reach the absolute top level, you have to be mentally strong.
Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and now Arsenal. Raheem Sterling has had an unusual career.
preamble
The calendar never lies, and today is September 15. That’s right, September. Not May, April or even December. You wouldn’t know that from some of the previews of tonight’s north London derby, which almost suggest that world peace depends on Team X getting a result.
All North London derbies are important and usually great fun for neutral spectators. And both teams Do need a result for various reasons. But it is still September and it is probably more conducive to the sanity of the world if we try to remember that.
So why it matters: Spurs need to improve their performance-to-points ratio after picking up just ten points from their last ten league games, and Arsenal may be without their entire first-choice midfield for the first time in years. That’s not ideal when you’re a) playing Tottenham and b) watching Erling Haaland stumble towards the horizon. If Arsenal draw today and lose at the Etihad next Sunday, for example, they’ll already be eight points behind Manchester City.
If they win both games they’ll be a point clear of City and at least six ahead of Spurs. And whatever happens, there are still 32 league games left. It’s September, stupid.
Start 14 o’clock.
