EPL Preview: Iwobi plans to ignite the North London derby

The latest installment of the North London derby, one of the oldest and fiercest rivalries in the history of football, will take place at lunch time tomorrow, when Arsenal hosts Tottenham at the magnificent Emirates Stadium. This rivalry is so fierce that Arsenal fans have created a celebration day in honour of it named St. Totteringham’s day, which is the day in the season when Tottenham cannot mathematically finish above Arsenal on the league table. Unfortunately for the Spurs, this day has been celebrated more frequently than they would have liked.

Tottenham were on course to finish above Arsenal last season for the first time since the 1994/95 season and somehow contrived to capitulate on the final day to allow Arsenal finish above them. That was the closest the lilywhites had come to finishing above Arsenal in a season since the 2005/06 season, when they were also above the gunners going into the final matchday only for majority of their players to come down with food poisoning the night before the game and lose 2-1 to West Ham, thus allowing Arsenal finish above them. Only eight players have played in at least one North London derby for both teams and only two have scored for both teams in the derbies (Jimmy Robertson and Emmanuel Adebayor).

Arsenal are the team in form going into tomorrow’s game and are slight favourites to win it. Since their opening day defeat to Liverpool at home, the Gunners have picked up 23 points from a possible 27, only Leicester and Middlesbrough have collected points from then in that span. In their last heavyweight London derby against Chelsea, they demolished Antonio Conte’s men at home and will be looking to doing the same to Spurs. Alex Iwobi has been a regular for Arsene Wenger this season, but the young Nigerian is yet to find the back of the net in the eight league matches he has played so far this season. Although his overall play has been impressive and he has contributed three assists to the team this season, his lack of goals might begin to worry the fans of the club, who might start clamouring for him to be dropped to the bench. Tomorrow’s high-intensity game might just be the perfect platform for him to get back among the goals.

Tottenham are just three points behind their rivals in the league, but they have been going through a rough patch recently, failing to win any of their last six matches in all competitions. Mauricio Pochettino knows that the rot has got to stop quickly if he plans to mount a title challenge this season and not let the leading pack put more distance between themselves and his team. Spurs have not won on any of their last six visits to the Emirates and on current form, that run is likely to continue. They will be without Moussa Sissoko as he serves the third of his three-match ban, while Toby Alderweireld, Harry Kane, Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela are all injury doubts for this game. Vincent Janssen, who was bought by the club this season after his exploits in the Eredivisie last season and expected to bang in the goals, has not yet started producing for Spurs. The return of Harry Kane cannot come sooner enough for the Spurs faithful. This promises to be a very exciting encounter and i would lean slightly towards the Gunners.

In today’s late kickoff, Victor Moses and his Chelsea side will welcome Everton to Stamford Bridge, aiming to make it five wins on the bounce in the league with victory over the Toffees. The home side have won their last four league games in a row and have kept a clean sheet in all of them. Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 has worked very well so far and his team now seems very hard to beat after suffering back to back losses against Liverpool and Arsenal. Chelsea have sacrificed possession for positive results with their 3-4-3 formation which sees 5 to 6 players at the back when they are not in possession. However, as long as they keep getting positive results, I don’t think you will hear much complaints from the fans.

Diego Costa is in good form and Chelsea have scored 7 goals in their last 2 home games, 4 against Manchester United and 3 against Leicester and a total of 14 in the last 5 home games. They also boast the best home record in the league. Everton got their first win in six games with a 2-0 triumph over West ham last weekend and ended their four-game winless run in the league. Maarten Stekelenburg, who was superb against Man City at the Etihad, missed their 2-0 win over West Ham through injury and it remains to be seen if he will recover in time to regain his place this evening, while drissa Gueye will miss the trip to Stamford Bridge through suspension after picking up his fifth booking of the season against the Hammers. Victor Moses has been enjoying a run in the starting line-up and with the results they are getting right now, it’s kind of hard to see him being dropped to the bench, while for Mikel Obi, he is still waiting to be named in a match-day squad this season as he recovers from a slight knock.

In other EPL matches with Nigerian interest, Kelechi Iheanacho and his Man City team, will host Middlesbrough this afternoon with the intention of getting a good win to preserve their lead at the top of the table, while Ahmed Musa would love to score for the third consecutive league game for the Foxes, when Leicester host West Brom at the King Power stadium tomorrow and the duo of Isaac Success and Odion Ighalo would need to fire on all cylinders for Watford, if the Hornets intend to sting Liverpool and come away with anything from Anfield in their encounter tomorrow.

Jose Mourinho’s woes at Manchester united were compounded earlier in the week when he was handed a one-match touchline ban for getting sent to the stands against Burnley and the Portuguese couldn’t find any joy in the Europa League either as his team was beaten by 2-1 Fenerbahce on Thursday in a game that saw Paul Pogba substituted after thirty minutes due to injury, adding him to an injury list that already has Eric Bailly, Chris Smalling and Antonio Valencia. They will travel to Wales to face a Swansea side yet to win at home this season and haven’t won a league match since their first game of the season. American coach, Bob Bradley will hope that beating a United side lacking inspiration might just be the boost his team needs to kickstart their campaign.

Burnley will host Crystal Palace, hoping to build on the back of their resilient performance against Manchester United last week, with a win at Turf Moor, while bottom placed Sunderland will be guests of Bournemouth at the Vitality stadium and West Ham will hope to bounce back from last weekend’s defeat against Everton with a win over a Stoke side that has won its last three games in the league. Southampton lost at home to Chelsea last weekend and would be looking for a win when they travel to the KC Stadium to face a Hull side on a six-game losing streak in the league. This weekend’s matches are evenly spread out over today and tomorrow with five games on each day, so it definitely promises to be full of entertainment as usual.