Sunday night football and the North London derby is like a match made in heaven. Arsenal host Tottenham on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium on matchweek 6 of the Premier League.
We look at a few stats to predict the match.
Arsenal are currently trying to stabilise themselves after an awful start to the campaign. They have won their last two fixtures against Norwich City and Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur bring them the biggest challenge on their path of a revamp. After spending years on the red side of north London as a player and now as a manager, Mikel Arteta knows how historically and momentarily significant this match is going to be.
The Gunners sit 12th in the league with two consecutive wins after three straight defeats. Things are starting to look bright and Sunday they would love to beat Spurs at home to extend their winning streak.
Arsenal are still way behind their xG of 7.19 still and have just scored two goals, the least in the league. But the Gunners would be satisfied to some extent as they have managed to finally score after three goalless defeats at the start. The positive to take away from these will obviously be the two clean-sheets they have kept since the arrival of Ramsdale, Gabriel and White in the team. 
The rivalry is just meant to be as arch-rivals Tottenham look like the mirror image of the Gunners. Spurs started the season in a scintillating fashion with a win over Manchester City and saw them at the top of the table after three consecutive wins at the end of matchweek 3. Since then Nuno’s men have lost both their matches against London counterparts Crystal Palace and Chelsea.
It is going to be a huge game for Tottenham as they would desperately want to get back to winning ways and a win over Arsenal would make them that just 100 times better.
Spurs currently sit seventh in the league and have failed to score in both their last two matches. They have even underperformed their low xG of 5.54 scoring just three goals. Their defence kept three clean-sheets in the first three matches and did hide the struggle in front of goal but since conceding six goals in two games the flaws have been super exposed to everyone.
Arsenal love to have the ball and create attacks. They have the seventh most positional attacks in the league(141) and Tottenham’s biggest challenge is to stop the Arsenal players to create movements and play passes near their box. They have to press higher up the pitch to win the ball back. Nuno and his men have already witnessed what havoc can happen if they let the opponents spend too much time on the ball in their defensive third and they are most certainly not fully ready to deal with that for 90 minutes.
Tottenham have the third-lowest positional attacks in the league(109) as they like to hit the opponent on fast breaks and counters. They have had 18 counterattacks till now and it would be the biggest challenge the Arsenal defence have to put up with. Gabriel likes to stay back and Tomiyasu has been impressive since his debut, their battles with Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane are going to shape up the match.
Granit Xhaka returns for the derby after serving a three-match suspension and Arteta will have a full squad available for selection. However, Kieran Tierney did pick up a muscle cramp and is slightly doubtful.
Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwjin are doubtful to start for the derby, except that Nuno has all other players available for the match.
Arsenal lost the first three matches, won the next two and kept clean sheets in each. Spurs won the first three games, kept clean sheets in each and lost the last two games. Looking at the circumstances, there cannot be any better backdrop for a North-London derby to be played on.
We predict a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 victory for Tottenham.
Predicted Lineups :
Arsenal (4-2-3-1) : Aaron Ramsdale, Kieran Tierney, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Nicolas Pepe, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-3) : Hugo Lloris, Sergio Reguilon, Eric Dier, Cristian Romero, Emerson, Oliver Skipp, Pierre-Emile Hojberg, Dele Alli, Heung-Min Son, Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso.
