Premier League is back in action this weekend. And the highlight of the matchday 4 will be the North London derby on Sunday, 15th of September. The Gunners will not be very pleased about their current situation.
After Rice’s red card offence against the Seagulls in matchday 3, he will not be able to take part in the derby due to his suspension. And to complex the situation even more, captain Odegard is also very likely to be out of the squad against the Spurs. As he got his ankle sprained against Austria in the Nations League fixture earlier this week.
New signings Mikel Merino and Riccardo Calafirori is also out of the squad ahead of the derby. The Spaniard has fractured his shoulder and he is out for at least 6-8 weeks. And the Italian has took a blow against France in the Nations League fixture. He is rested for 1-2 weeks as it seems.
In the absence of such important players, Arsenal will definitely struggle to get all the three points. Whereas, the Spurs will never be this ready to face their rivals in this emergency state at the Gunners camp. However, Tottenham is still suspicious about the situation regarding Odegard’s unavailability ahead of the derby.
Is Odegard fit to feature in the derby?
After taking a blow on Tuesday, Odegard came back to England for further assessment. The Norwegian was captured on crutches in the airport, few days ago. Norway’s manager Solbakken claimed, “The injury of Martin looked bad in the dressing room too.” Rumors claims that the Norwegian could miss around 3-4 weeks of action.
However, according to The Independent, Tottenham are not so sure about that. Some figures in the Spurs camp are doubting the condition of his injury. They believe he will be available for the Sunday’s clash. Suspicions were raised because the Gunners were delaying to provide further details of the injury. All the scans including MRI was done as soon as the player landed in London. So, they would have got the results by now.
When Arteta was asked about Odegard’s situation in the pre-match press conference, he replied,
“We need some more tests, let’s see what happens, what is the extent of the injury and how quickly we can get him back. He wants to be there every single day but we have to wait and see.”
However, Arteta raised the concerns for the Spurs fan when he refused to rule Odegard out of the squad list. He said, “Let’s see what happens in the next day or so. Martin is super positive about everything. He wants to be present in every game and obviously in a big game like this one, but we need to make sure how good he can be or not.”
Arteta even added that players with 48 hours to go are always available. Spurs fans will surely be hoping for Odegard to miss the game.
History of the North London derby
The North London has been always one of the most important fixtures of the Premier League. Since the league started in 1992, Arsenal have been the dominant side in the league derbies. In 64 meetings the Gunners have got the better of the Spurs 25 times. Whereas, the Spurs beaten Arsenal 15 times and 24 matches ended up as a draw.
For overall record 195 games have been played between Arsenal and Tottenham as of now since 1909. Out of which the Gunners won 82 times, the Spurs won 61 times and 52 games were ended without any results.
Arsenal are getting the better of Tottenham in the recent meetings. The Gunners have won last 5 of the 7 Premier League derbies where one match ended up as a draw and another was won by Tottenham. They will be looking forward to do the same this weekend as Arteta’s men are hungry for the silverware this season.
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