Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will renew their long-standing rivalry at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, but this specific fixture hasn’t been much of a contest in recent years. Spurs have not won a Premier League game at the home of their closest enemy since November 2010, when manager Harry Redknapp masterminded a recovery from 2-0 down to win 3-2, sparking his counterpart Arsene Wenger to slam a bottle of water into the ground in disbelief.
It was such an iconic moment for Tottenham that it appeared in a video montage before every home game at the old White Hart Lane. Yet, it is also a moment without much competition in recent times, not in the context of league visits to Arsenal, where they have lost on seven of their 11 outings since, conceding 27 goals in the process.
There are undoubtedly questions for Arsenal to answer — more of that later — but this record is indicative of a fragile Tottenham mentality that Antonio Conte is aiming to alter.
Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, Spurs have won just nine of 61 away league games at Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea. They were beaten 37 times. Conte secured a notable win at City last term but this season, their sole visit to a traditional Big Six side came against Chelsea in August and they were lucky to escape Stamford Bridge with a 2-2 draw as Harry Kane equalised deep into added time.
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The best thing about third-placed Spurs at the moment is their points tally: 17 from a possible 21. It is difficult to highlight a performance in which they were authoritative throughout; even in putting six past Leicester City just before the international break, they required a hat trick from Son Heung-Min in the final 17 minutes to make the points safe against a team rooted to the bottom of the table.
They have, however, found a way to stay in matches and, for the most part, go on to win — signs of a trend that has been credited to Conte’s increased demands and a deeper squad. They can make a real statement of growth in that area on Saturday by finding a way to beat an in-form Arsenal side, who are top of the table with 18 points, and it bodes well for Spurs that Son has shown further indications of a personal revival — scoring in both South Korea‘s matches during the international break against Costa Rica and Cameroon — given the likely pattern of the game.
Spurs have averaged 49.4% possession in their seven Premier League matches so far, notably less than Arsenal’s 57.2%. At Chelsea in August, perhaps the most comparable test to Arsenal, Spurs had just 36.5% of the ball and a counter-attacking approach is highly likely this weekend.
Before the teams met at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in May, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta conveyed what he believed was the key component of their tactical plan, as revealed in the Amazon “All or Nothing” documentary.
“We have to counter-press and put the ball under pressure as quick as possible,” Arteta told his players during a training session. “In two passes, they don’t manage the ball well, we can kill them because we are 20 metres away from goal. And that’s the game we have to play. It’s clear.”
