Tottenham vs Arsenal: 3 Things To Watch For

Most of us no longer have faith in Arsenal, but will a positive result at the North London Derby make all of us dream again?

Venue: White Hart Lane

Date: Mar 5 (EST)

It’s painful to see all of this happen to Arsenal, yet I have been expecting a downfall similar to this for some time. Arsenal looks like a team hiding behind a few quality pieces, and two of those pieces will be missing for this game. Cech and Koscielny will be out, Sanchez hasn’t found his form since his injury. It has been a painful few weeks and I am very sorry to write that I don’t expect things to suddenly turn around.

Prediction: Spurs 1-1 Arsenal

1) If Arsenal lacked confidence before then what now?

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The first thing all of you should watch for is what level of intensity is Arsenal going to bring to the pitch. Cech and Sanchez have lamented previously that Arsenal suffer end of season losses because they lack confidence in themselves. I hate to say it but Wenger has a lot of great qualities but his ability to motivate and inspire is not on the top of the list.

If Arsenal do not score within the first 20 minutes of this game, or worse yet if they concede a goal or more within that time frame, look for the Gunners to struggle throughout the rest of the game. Look for Ramsey, Sanchez, and Ozil (in his own way) to inspire the team to push harder and play better. However, without Cech and Koscielny at the back, look for the defense to look unorganized and worse than it has been lately.

2) Calum Chambers will try to step up

Koscielny’s absence may actually turn out to be a blessing. Hear me out, as Koscielny’s absence also means Calum Chambers will get a chance to play a full game. Chambers may not give you any confidence when you see him lined up in front of Ospina. However, the young defender has shown glimpses of an amazing feel for the position. Although these moments are rare and occur around times of complete stupidity it does mean that Chambers can surprise all of us at any point.

The following may surprise people but Squawka.com shows that Chambers is not that much worse than Koscielny. Per 90 minutes, Koscielny makes 3.85 interceptions to 2.69 from Chambers, 0.88 blocks to 2.15 from Chambers and 6.28 clearances to 5.24 from Chambers. The statistics show that if we are patient with Chambers he may be a hero and not a laughing stock. So give the man a chance and look out for him to stop Tottenham!

3) Picking between Giroud and Walcott

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Remember when earlier this season we had a difficult time choosing between Giroud and Walcott because both of them played well? We here at PainintheArsenal constantly argued about the benefits of having speed to get behind the opponent vs a physical presence up front. Nowadays, I think we just hope for someone who could get a shot off. You read that right, I’m not even hoping they score, I just want someone other than Ozil to be scoring more often. Let that digest a bit everyone, when Ozil is the first player I think of when I think of Arsenal players scoring goals, isn’t that just a huge problem?

I don’t see how either of them will make a difference and if it was up to me I would rather have Wenger play the No. 9 role for the rest of the season. Sadly we have to pick one of these guys to play up front and against Tottenham look for Giroud to get the nod. His physical presence is always welcomed because he gives Arsenal a chance to hold play further up the pitch and that’s about it. But I guess it is a better narrative than Walcott’s which will be something like so:

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Walcott can give us speed upfront but never latch on to a pass while being onside and even when he does the lead up to the shot may result in the ball going the other way.