White Hart Lane will be absolutely rocking on Saturday as Tottenham face off against their North London rivals Arsenal in Spurs biggest match of the season.
Tottenham currently are in second place in the Premier League while Arsenal sit in third. Both squads lost their previous matches. Arsenal lost to Swansea while Tottenham lost to West Ham.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said earlier that they will be without goalie Petr Cech and centre-back Laurent Koscielny. Santi Carzola, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jack Wilshere, and Tomas Rosicky are unavailable for selection also.
Tottenham will be without Jan Vertoghen and Clinton N’Jie, while Mousa Dembélé could be set to return after missing a couple matches.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino will be sticking with a similar lineup that was displayed against Swansea on Sunday. Arsenal have been struggling to find the back of the net lately losing their last two matches and this is an excellent chance for Spurs to pull away from them in the Premier League table.
Here’s the lineup I think manager Mauricio Pochettino will be rolling with on Saturday
Goalie
Hugo Lloris will get the start again in net on Saturday.
Defence
Kyle Walker will get the start for Kieran Trippier while Danny Rose will start for Ben Davies. Rose was fantastic in his last match against the Swans where he netted the game winner. Walker was great also assisting Nacer Chadli’s first goal.
Walker will have his hands full with Alexis Sanchez this match, and it should be a good matchup. Toby Alderweireld and Kevin Wimmer will once again be the starting centre-backs and will look to stop the likes of Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott from finding the back of the net.
Midfield
Eric Dier will start as the holding midfielder. The Englishman has really come into his own as a holding midfielder, but will be tested going up against Mesut Ozil. As for the centre midfielder, I think Pochettino will start with Dele Alli there. However just like in the match against Swansea, Christian Eriksen will drop back deeper into the pivot.
Eriksen was fantastic in the centre-midfield against the Swans and looked very much like Luka Modríc when he was in a Spurs uniform. If Dembélé is declared fit to play on Saturday this could change things up though.
Attacking midfield – Christian Eriksen will start as the centre-attacking midfielder but look for him to switch with Dele Alli early in the match. Erik Lamela will be on the right side, and Son Heung-min will be replacing Chadli, who didn’t have a great match against West Ham, on the left.
Striker
Harry Kane will be the lone striker and will look to recover his form after a poor match against West Ham. With Cech injured, David Ospina will be the Gunners starting goalie. Ospina is no slouch, but he’s no Cech and Spurs need to capitalize on that.
Arsenal have been struggling lately but when it comes to the North London Derby anything can happen. With the possibility of the Premier League title on the line for both squads expect this match to be even more heated than it usually is with a decent amount of cards being thrown.
Since Arsenal have to go into White Hart Lane, without Cech and Koscielny, and they’re struggling to find the net, I think Tottenham will grab all three points and will be one step closer to capturing the Premier League title.
Who do you think will win the North London Derby?
(4-2-3-1)
Via – Lineup Builder
