Premier League leaders Arsenal are set to resume their domestic campaign with a mouth-watering North London derby clash against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday following the conclusion of the international break.
The Gunners will come into this fixture off the back of cruising to a comfortable 3-0 victory over Brentford before the international break. In-form trio William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira all struck to hand Arsenal the three points.
Spurs secured their second straight win after they secure an entertaining 6-2 victory over a struggling Leicester City side. A hat-trick by Son Heung-min ended his barren start to the season. Harry Kane, Eric Dier and Rodrigo Bentancur were all on the scoresheet for Tottenham Hotspur.
BET ON THE LONDON DERBY – LATEST ODDS
Arsenal have 18 points from their first seven matches, while Spurs are not far behind them in third position on the table a point behind the log leaders with 17 points.
“You can ask me every day,” Mikel Arteta said when asked if his team could be classified as title contenders.
“Today we are top of the league, I am so happy. Yesterday I was so annoyed because we lost it and we used that to want to get back there and show that we want to be there. That is what we are going to do – push to be the best we can be. That is the aim. The table won’t lie after 38 games, normally.”
When the two sides met in the Premier League last season, both teams walked away with three points each after Arsenal secured a 3-1 win in the first leg at the Emirates Stadium before Tottenham cruised to a 3-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the second leg.
Mikel Arteta is expected to be without two key players in Emile Smith Rowe and Mohamed Elneny, who both have major injuries, while the likes of Oleksandr Zinchenko, Reiss Nelson, Thomas Partey, Cedric Soares and Kieran Tierney could make their return from injury.
Spurs manager Antonio Conte is only expected to have Lucas Moura on the sidelines as he continues to recover from his calf injury.
Gabriel Jesus will be relishing the chance to secure his first North London derby goal and extend his record of never being on the losing side in his last 61 goalscoring games, with 59 wins and two draws.
Harry Kane will be looking to extend his goal tally in the derby as he tops the charts for the most goals in the derby with 13 to his name.
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Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League Form:
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