Arsenal vs Tottenham: 5 key players in second North London Derby

Arsenal will have to bounce back from their first defeat since August to face Tottenham yet again. Here are the five key players in this one.

It’s a bummer that Arsenal lost to Southampton, but let’s approach this realistically – it was going to happen at some point, so now that it is out of the way, let’s stop whinging about it and move on with life. Because we kind of have to.

Tottenham Hotspur are up next (again), and nothing would be a rejuvenation to the confidence quite like taking the second North London Derby of the season on the way to progressing in the League Cup, further eliminating another opportunity for Tottenham to actually win something.

But we know it won’t be easy. Tottenham will be hungry for vengeance, especially after the Gunners had the audacity to celebrate the win. But Arsenal have their own added impetus, as they have just lost for the first time since August, and if that doesn’t inject some life into them, I don’t know what will.

Not to mention it will be at the Emirates in front of a rabid fan base and, chances are, it will get ugly at some point, just like last time.

All we can do is prepare ourselves for a win, and thankfully, that’s going to be made easier following the Southampton match, and we will talk about why as we move into the five key players. So let’s do that, starting with No. 5.

5. Granit Xhaka

It is remarkable to me that Granit Xhaka can be played out of position in central defense, recover from his mistakes, settle in, play two positions at once with relative effectiveness, all things considered, and still be forced to weather hate from this fanbase.

And by remarkable, I mean disgusting.

Xhaka will be back in the midfield for this one. Or at last he better be. And guess what? He is going to have fantastic match because of it. Spurs don’t have anyone that can match what Xhaka does for us, so he will take center stage with his care and precision.

Let’s move on to No. 4.