Wenger - Why derby is full of goals now

Arsene Wenger believes the attacking mindset of both teams is behind the free-scoring nature of recent north London derbies.

In the last seven games between Arsenal and Tottenham, there have been 36 goals - an average of more than five per match.

 Wenger also says the unique atmosphere these games generate make them a special occasion, and is looking forward to facing Andre Villas-Boas’ side.

“It is because the two teams go [into the match] with an offensive mind, with a desire to win,” he told Arsenal Player.

“Once you have scored first of course it opens the game up. We will again go into the game with that mind.

“It is two good teams against each other, on top of that it is a derby and on top of that there is a lot of passion there, so there is always uncertainty around these games.

“You want to focus on your football, the way you want to play and that is the best way of dealing with it.”

Wenger believes his side will take great confidence from the fact they managed to overhaul Tottenham last season to take a top-four spot.

“We had a big battle with Tottenham last year, let's not forget that,” he said. “At one point we were seven points behind, we lost there and we still bounced back and managed to [make up] eight points in 10 games. That was quite remarkable.

“We needed absolutely to be consistent because you could not say Tottenham dropped off dramatically but we were so good in the last 10 games that we got 26 points and that made the difference.”