Matchday 9 of 38: The North London Derby
The Premier League returns, and the first match of the weekend takes us to the Emirates, where league leaders Arsenal take on unbeaten Tottenham in the North London Derby.
For the first time in a long time, the North is on fire. The stakes are higher than ever as the top spot is up for grabs. Only one point separates the leaders, Arsenal (18 points 10GD) and Third Tottenham (17 points 11GD).
The previous encounter between the two London giants saw Tottenham crush Arsenal (3-0) at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Denying Arsenal a Champions League spot. At that time, The Gunners were a defensively shaky team.
Since then, Arsenal has matured defensively, A backline consisting of William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães & right back Ben White has restored calm in the back for the Gunners. While they have only recorded three clean sheets so far this season, they have clearly improved defensively as a team. In their last outing, a 3-0 win away to Brentford, they limited their opponents to just five attempts – Brentford’s lowest ever return in a Premier League home game. However, this game puts forth a higher calibre attack and it will be an uphill task for the Gunners to cope with the likes of Harry Kane, Son & Dejan Kulusevski.
Clearly, Antonio Conte and his men have Premier League and Champions League ambitions. The Lilywhites are unbeaten in the English game and their main man Harry Kane has netted six times in the Premier League already this season, and scored in England’s draw with Germany on Monday, whereas Son put questions about his form to bed with a stunning 13-minute hat-trick off the bench against Leicester before the International break.
Harry Kane is also the joint top scorer in The North London derby (13 Goals) and I can put my money on him scoring once again.
Counter-attacking football Vs free-flowing football. Arsenal's only loss in the Premier League occurred against Manchester United. A team that played on the counter, will Arteta be a victim of this tactic once again?, or will the Spurs take back with them the top spot or will the fairy tale start to the season continue for The Gunners?
The Manchester Derby
The Noisy neighbours on the blue side of Manchester host the Red Devils at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. Both teams have been a great run in the English game.
Since beating Liverpool (2-1) at Old Trafford, Manchester United has won 3 consecutive games, racking 12 out of 15 points in the last five games. The death and state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II means that the Red Devils will be taking part in their first Premier League fixture for nearly a month this weekend, having lost to Real Sociedad and overcome Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League since that 3-1 success over Arsenal.
It comes as no surprise to learn that Man City are the Premier League's leading scorers on home turf this season - racking up 14 in just three such games and conceding a joint-low two - and all seven of their last top-flight wins at home have been accompanied by at least three goals.
Their top man, Erling Braut Haaland is now sitting on the top of The Premier League top scorers list with a remarkable 11 goals in 7 games, could also become the first player ever to score a hat-trick in three successive Premier League home matches this weekend.
Erik ten Hag was handed the Premier League's Manager of the Month award for September after leading his side to fifth in the table - five points adrift of Man City with a game in hand.
Over at Old Trafford, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have made strong progress in their recoveries from injury and have been training with the squad this week, which could see both strikers return for the derby.
Man City will expect to be boosted by the long-awaited return of Aymeric Laporte from a knee injury for the Manchester derby, and the centre-back's comeback will be timely after John Stones went off with a tight hamstring in England's draw with Germany.
It will be an enthralling match at The Etihad and City are favourites to clinch all three points, but The Red Devils will fancy their chances of stealing the glory from their noisy neighbours, especially with Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez at the back
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