Tottenham: Season on the Line for Spurs versus Arsenal

Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal both have their fading hopes

Tottenham Hotspur plays what could be their most important match of the season versus Arsenal Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where the winner holds the upper hand on bragging rights in north London.

While neither group of fans is excited to admit it, this has been a down year for both teams from north London as upstarts – including newly-promoted Sheffield United – have Spurs and Gunners firmly fighting to stay above a midtable finish.

After dropping their first two – to Manchester City and Brighton – by a combined score of 5 to 1m Arsenal has managed to get their act together and find some ways to win. Since that loss in mid-. June to Brighton Arsenal managed four straight wins – 3 in the Premier League and 1 in the FA Cup – by a combined scored of 10-1. Those wins included beating Wolves 2-0 at Molineux and taking down Sheffield at Bramall Lane. If not for a 1-1 draw this past Tuesday, one could argue Arsenal is the hottest side in the league.

Tottenham must deliver when it matters most

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Whereas Arsenal has scored 11 goals with only 2 against in their last 5 matches in all competitions, things have not quite gone as well for Tottenham.

In five matches since the re-start Spurs have scored only 5 goals scoring more than 1 only once – a 2-0 victory over West Ham – and even being shut out by relegation bound Bournemouth 0-0 midweek.

And while the Spurs defense has been improved since the re-start, Tottenham has given up four goals, but have managed three defensive shutouts since the re-start, so maybe it is just about perspective.

The bottom line is that Arsenal is the hot team and Tottenham is not. Which is the opposite of what it appeared to be when Tottenham lost to Sheffield and drew at Bournemouth, where it looked like Spurs were set to kick a couple of teams while there were down.

The only problem was no one told Tottenham the intensity was too low and instead of finishing off a couple of inferior teams, Spurs let them hang around and got punched in the face.

Of course, thinking Arsenal is going to overlook Spurs because of form is foolhardy, because reality says form does not matter, this is the North London Derby. What matters is heart and effort and want too. The team that displays more of that – because we all know the football is going to be crap – is going to win the game. Come on we know Derby’s are typically slugfests where the last man standing wins. Maybe it is time for Spurs to buck up and for the first time in a while be that last man. If not, it is going to be a long year of a midtable finish below our rivals.