Tottenham vs. Arsenal
Venue: Wembley Stadium
Kick off: 1:30PM
Wembley plays host to the 198th North London derby at lunchtime as Tottenham Hotspur take on Arsenal looking to arrest an alarming dip in form.
Back-to-back defeats have threatened to drag Spurs into the top-four race, and their fiercest rivals could inflict more misery on them by moving to within one point with victory at the national stadium.
Following last weekend’s shock defeat to Burnley, Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino claimed that it could be up to 10 years before his team are able to win the Premier League title.
If that seems like a lengthy wait the past seven days will have felt almost as long, with Tottenham following that Burnley loss up with a 2-0 defeat at the hands of London rivals Chelsea on Wednesday.
The only team Spurs dislike more than Chelsea is Arsenal, so the prospect of suffering three league defeats in a row for the first time since November 2012 at the hands of the Gunners – who were also responsible for the third defeat in that run, incidentally – will be a difficult one for them to stomach.
It is more than just their pride which could be damaged this weekend, though, as Spurs are in serious danger of being dragged into a tightly-contested top-four battle when just seven days ago they were regarded as outsiders for the title.
Arsenal, United and Chelsea all gained three points on Tottenham in midweek and the big matches keep on coming for the Lilywhites with Borussia Dortmund to follow this derby next Tuesday.
Pochettino can afford to push that match to the back of his mind for now, although if the current slump continues beyond the visit of Arsenal then even their 3-0 first-leg lead in that Champions League last-16 tie may not be safe.
One of the more surprising elements of Tottenham’s two recent defeats is that they have both come away from home, where Spurs had the best record in Europe’s top five leagues beforehand. The return to Wembley may be a welcome one, then, despite having still picked up more points on the road than they have in front of their own fans.
Tottenham have won their last four home games across all competitions, and another victory on Saturday would see them become the first team to beat Arsenal on three separate occasions at Wembley.
Pochettino has also never lost a home Premier League game against the Gunners, and the pattern of home advantage proving important in this fixture continues in that only one of the last 16 league meetings have been won by the away team.
There are still plenty of signs pointing towards a Tottenham win, then, but they may not be relishing the visit of their closest enemies quite as much as they were just a week or so ago.
Tottenham possible XI: Lloris, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Trippier, Sissoko, Winks, Davies, Son, Kane, Eriksen.
Arsenal possible XI: Leno, Sokratis, Mustafi, Koscielny, Lichtsteiner, Torreira, Xhaka, Monreal, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang.