Tottenham vs Arsenal preview: How to watch, Champions League, prediction, lineups, live stream

Arsenal face a defining moment in their season on Thursday as they make the shortest journey in the Premier League calendar to face Tottenham in the North London Derby. Here is the match preview.

Can it just be Friday already, please?

Victory over Leeds on Sunday put Arsenal in their strongest position of the whole season to clinch that elusive fourth place. Eddie Nketiah’s brace set them up for a breeze of a victory, only to allow their commanding hold on the game to become one of weakness.

It’s not a match that anyone will want to watch back aside from the opening half purely due to the amount of stress is induced, but the points were secured and that is all that matters.

https://twitter.com/OficialCedric/status/1523353010134474757

Tottenham vs Arsenal Premier League preview: How to watch, Champions League decider, score prediction, team lineups, live stream

The North London Derby, however, is always a horrible game. Many will disagree. But the amount of stress this fixture brings, the sheer dread of defeat, is almost intolerable. Arsenal can be 3-0 up with ten minutes to go and it’s still an agonising battle of emotions with every passing second.

So, throw in the prospect of securing a Champions League place at the expense of the very team we all despise so dearly and there are no words to comprehensively describe how this feels. Absolute panic is setting in and it is not even matchday.

Winning this game would be transformative for this project. Everyone knows the team is a few top quality additions away from where it wants to be as a squad and having elite European competition to entice those players and the funding to do so is going to, as Arteta said, make this go ‘bang’. If it hasn’t already, that is.

Get the three points and top four is clinched. Draw and it’s just two points needed from the final two games to be certain of that final spot. Lose and….we don’t go there. Not in this game.

All of which is without mentioning the fact that irrespective of the circumstances, we absolutely detest Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. The lot of them. Horrible bunch. Victory in this fixture is as much about being overjoyed at your success as it is seeing them suffer. There is no better feeling than getting one over them.

Sadly, however, that hasn’t happened on the road since 2015, and not in the league since 2014. Indeed, there has been suffering aplenty.

There are colossal games, and then there are gargantuan ones. Guess which one this is.

How to Watch on TV

When Is Kick Off? Thursday 12 May
What Time Is Kick Off? 19:45 (GMT)
Where Is it Played? Toilet Bowl
TV Channel/Live Stream? Sky Sports (UK) fuboTV (USA)
Referee? Paul Tierney
Who is on VAR? Mike Dean

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Arsenal Team News vs Tottenham – White Back Fit?

Supporters across the globe will have been beaming from ear to ear to see Takehiro Tomiyasu make it through the full 90 minutes against Leeds unscathed.

His importance can’t be measured in words, only in the noises emanating from the Emirates Stadium anytime he goes down clutching his leg. Those gasps tell the full story.

Fortunately there were none on Sunday and he looks to be fine for Thursday, with Arteta also reassuringly providing an update on Benjamin White’s progress post-match.

"“I think so [White will be fit], he’s been starting to do a little bit of work now on the pitch and we want everybody available because we know that game is so important,” the boss said."

As for Saka, who was substituted early on in the second half and appeared to be hobbling, Arteta insisted he was ‘fine’ despite the Star Boy being withdrawn in each of the previous three league matches with either fatigue or injury.

In regards to the hosts, four players will definitely be unavailable to Antonio Conte.

Full-back pair Matt Doherty and Sergio Reguilon won’t be available, the latter suffering a groin problem prior to facing Liverpool, while fellow defender Japhet Tanganga is out until July. The other absentee is midfielder Oliver Skipp.

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Arsenal Predicted Lineup to Face Tottenham – White Back in With Cedric Out?

Tottenham: Lloris; Romero, Dier, Davies; Emerson, Bentancur, Hojbjerg, Sessegnon; Son, Kane, Kulusevski

Arsenal: Ramsdale; White, Holding, Gabriel, Tomiyasu; Elneny, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli; Nketiah

Tottenham vs Arsenal Score Prediction

Just don’t lose, right?

That isn’t really how it works in the derby, though. This is not a fixture where settling for a draw is acceptable. Discounting what is at stake, victory is all that should be striven for against Tottenham.

Whatever the mindset, this is not a fixture one can ever feel especially confident in. Not in recent history, anyway.

Without a win away at Spurs for a brutally painful length of time, it will be a big ask of this group to venture there, under the lights, and with this much pressure behind them, and go secure a result.

At what point do the inevitable Heung-min Son and Harry Kane goals arrive? Who loses the ball high up the pitch and Spurs counter and score with their first shot? Which of Spurs’ worst players has the best performance of his life? Etc, etc etc.

However, being four points ahead, the dynamic of this game has altered drastically. Spurs have to win and their approach of sitting back and soaking up pressure won’t be an acceptable ploy for 90 minutes. With Arsenal’s threat on the wings there will be some unhappy moments for Emerson and Sessegnon. Can the Gunners’ exploit that?

Honestly, who knows. Score predictions and predictions in general will change 380 times in the hour before kick-off alone. The heart says Arsenal, the head says heartache. Which means only one thing.

Score Prediction: Tottenham 2-2 Arsenal