Still the only team with their unbeaten Premier League home record intact this season, Arsenal are on a mission to right their recent knockout wrongs in Wednesday's mouthwatering North London derby with Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates.
While the Gunners' FA Cup run ended at the hands of holders Manchester United at the weekend, Ange Postecoglou's men put three past Tamworth without reply, albeit only after being taken to an additional 30 minutes.
Match preview
© Imago
The walls of the Emirates have fallen down if Arsenal's last two home horror shows are anything to go by, as Mikel Arteta's troops have already ceded their hopes of FA Cup glory and will surely do the same in the EFL Cup after a pair of alarmingly toothless attacking displays.
Five days on from their gut-wrenching home loss to Newcastle United in the latter competition - where they were taught a harsh lesson in attacking ruthlessness - Arsenal were left to lament another pitiful performance in front of goal against 10-man Man United, who defied the odds to keep their FA Cup title defence going.
Altay Bayindir was the hero with two penalty saves, and Kai Havertz was the villain with a catalogue of shocking misses on a day where Gabriel Jesus was carried off on a stretcher with an all-too familiar knee injury, strengthening Gooners' arguments for a shiny new attacker in January.
However, the defiant Arteta has publicly backed his existing players to dig themselves out of their hole as they endeavour to avoid losing three games in a row for the first time since January 2024; defeat in the derby could see them sit nine points below Liverpool having played a game more depending on how the Reds fare at Nottingham Forest.
The second-placed Gunners may now be without a clean sheet in their last four games in all tournaments, but none of their last four Premier League contests at the Emirates has seen Arsenal concede, and they could do worse than ask Tamworth for pointers on how to keep Spurs at bay for 90 minutes.
© Imago
The Tottenham faithful may have enjoyed Sunday evening's viewing, but their side's sorry performance against National League opposition would have been an extremely painful watch, at least until their Premier League quality finally showed in extra time at the Lamb Ground.
Minnows Tamworth more than earned their brief reprieve against Postecoglou's outfit and were not starved of chances to pull off a monumental cup upset, but Nathan Tshikuna's own goal, Dejan Kulusevski's effort and Brennan Johnson's strike spared Tottenham an extraordinary embarrassment.
Sticking to their Jekyll and Hyde theme, Spurs could not break down Tamworth in 90 minutes despite conquering Premier League leaders Liverpool in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final, and Postecoglou's men are now chasing three straight wins for the first time since early October.
However, the visitors to the Emirates have only taken one point from the last 12 on offer in the top flight and remain in the bottom half of the Premier League standings, mathematically closer to the relegation zone than the top seven despite their praiseworthy tally of 42 goals.
The Lilywhites were stunted in September's 1-0 home defeat to their bitter rivals, though, and they head to the Emirates having conceded in a staggering 25 consecutive Premier League games away to Arsenal, offering the home crowd hope of derby delirium even in their side's current attacking state.
Team News
© Iconsport
Just as he was starting to find his feet in North London again, the extremely unfortunate Jesus damaged his knee yet again in the loss to Man United, and there are fears that the South American has ruptured his ACL.
While the official prognosis has not yet been confirmed, Jesus is guaranteed to miss the derby alongside Ethan Nwaneri (muscle), Bukayo Saka (hamstring), Ben White (knee) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee), while Riccardo Calafiori is also a serious doubt after missing the FA Cup loss with a muscular injury.
After 120 minutes of gruelling and fruitless efforts on Sunday, it would not be a shock to see Arteta change just under half of his team for Wednesday's crunch clash, although he may have no other option but to persist with the increasingly wasteful Havertz up front.
As for Postecoglou's men, Destiny Udogie (hamstring), Ben Davies (hamstring), Micky van de Ven (hamstring), Guglielmo Vicario (ankle), Wilson Odobert (hamstring), Cristian Romero (thigh) and Rodrigo Bentancur (head) are still out, and the septet have been joined in the medical bay by Timo Werner, who hurt his hamstring in the FA Cup.
However, Richarlison is now back from his latest hamstring problem, while Fraser Forster is pushing to return from illness, but January signing Antonin Kinsky has quickly won Postecoglou over and should make his Premier League debut in the North London derby; a true baptism of fire.
Similarly to their hosts, a handful of changes should be on the cards for the Lilywhites, as Son Heung-min, Kulusevski, Dominic Solanke and EFL Cup match-winner Lucas Bergvall step back into the fray.
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Sterling, Havertz, Trossard
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Kinsky; Porro, Gray, Dragusin, Spence; Bergvall, Sarr, Maddison; Kulusevski, Solanke, Son
We say: Arsenal 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
The eagerly-anticipated North London derby seldom fails to deliver on the ferocity front, but as both sets of players completed two-hour FA Cup marathons after their EFL Cup exertions, this one may not be a classic quality-wise.
Confidently predicting which version of Spurs will show up is an impossible ask, but their struggles at Tamworth - even with a second-string attack starting the clash - are a serious cause for concern.
Arsenal are hardly firing on all cylinders up front either, but the Gunners are never short of chances to put the ball in the back of the net, and they may just need to take one of them on Wednesday to complete a morale-boosting derby double.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ben Knapton
