Arsenal vs Tottenham: 5 key players in North London Derby

Despite losing to Liverpool, Arsenal have to have a ton of confidence going into the first North London Derby of the year. Here are the five key guys.

Arsenal‘s loss to Liverpool was far from the debilitating, Achilles-heel snipping outing that the headlines would lead you to believe. All this “they haven’t changed!” crap is just… crap. There were clear improvements against Liverpool that were undone by a few missed chances and an individual mistake.

But overall, the team is improving, while Tottenham are… not so much.

The Spurs were undone by Newcastle at their new home, and while I could draw a parallel to Arsenal traveling to St. Mary’s and handling the Magpies away, I will simply point out that Spurs are struggling. Their new home is far from homely and the Gunners can take advantage by creating a raucous atmosphere of their own.

That said, we know the match won’t be easy, because no match is ever easy. Paul Merson thinks that the Gunners will slaughter the Spurs by multiple goals, and while I’d love to buy into that, and with my optimism proudly pronouncing that 4-1 is too tame, I will just segue into the five key players before this gets out of hand.

These are five guys that we will need to be at the top of their game and they aren’t the usual bunch.

We start with No. 5.

5. Alexandre Lacazette

Always No. 1 or 2 on this list, Alexandre Lacazette falls to No. 5 simply because of the importance of the guys in front of him. But it would be foolish not to include him simply because he has to be brimming with anticipation after being so woefully left out against Liverpool, taking just eight touches in his ten minutes of pitch time.

Hopefully that means Unai Emery learned his lesson and will get Lacazette out there from the start, not least of all because he’s our best player. Any time Lacazette doesn’t get involved, this attack is missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. A piece that we need to have out there against Spurs for maximum effectiveness.

That said, we’ll move on to No. 4.