Arsenal host Tottenham in the Premier League at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
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KEY BATTLE - CAZORLA v WALKER
Santi Cazorla has started this season in the same vein as he finished the last: orchestrating Arsenal attacks with his vision, quick feet and passing range. However, on Sunday he is expected to be moved out of his usual No 10 role to fill in on the left flank due to the absence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski though injury.
It is a role Cazorla has filled to great effect, but this weekend it will put him up against Kyle Walker. The England international is known for his explosive pace and willingness to offer a real attacking outlet from right back, so Cazorla will have to be on his guard defensively. That is something he has always been willing to do, and the 247 recoveries (when a player wins the ball back) he made last season show just how adept he is at this side of the game.
Cazorla will also hope to push Walker back naturally through his own attacking prowess. No player has made more assists for his team-mates than the Spaniard since his arrival in the Premier League and he will be hoping for a repeat of the corresponding fixture last season, when he scored one and claimed two assists. He may be stationed out wide, but he will swap fluidly with Tomas Rosicky and Arsenal fans will hope he can be influential again this weekend.
ARSENAL v TOTTENHAM - MATCH FACTS
- Arsenal have failed to score in just one of their last 29 Premier League meetings with Tottenham
- Spurs have not kept four clean sheets in a row in the Premier League since January 2010
- There has been a Tottenham player sent off on each of their last two Premier League visits to the Emirates
- Tottenham have failed to hold on to a lead on each of their last two trips across north London, losing 5-2 on both occasions
- Thirteen of the last 14 league matches between Tottenham and Arsenal have gone over 2.5 goals
- There have been 124 goals scored in Premier League meetings between Tottenham and Arsenal; more than any other fixture
- Olivier Giroud has scored in both of Arsenal's league games so far this season and has bagged three goals in his last four Premier League appearances at the Emirates
- All 13 of Giroud's Premier League goals have come in London: 11 at the Emirates, one at West Ham and one at Fulham
- Gareth Bale has scored more goals against Arsenal in the Premier League than any other opposition, five in 10 appearances
- The Welshman scored in both meetings between the teams last season
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