We’re set to play our third north London derby of the season on Saturday when we travel to Wembley Stadium. Read on for five things to keep an eye out for.
TIGHT AT THE TOP
The race for the top four has suddenly developed into a battle for the top three.
Victory on Saturday would take us within a single point of Tottenham in third place – at the start of last week the difference was 10 points.
We are also looking to do the league double over our north London rivals for the first time since 2013/14, and only the fourth time in the Premier League.
So, as usual, there is plenty at stake in a north London derby, in what is the 185th meeting of the two teams.
The overall record currently stands at W77, D49 L58, and we have scored 284 to their 246. In the league the record is W66 D45 L52 F254 A222.
In Premier League history we have finished above Tottenham 22 seasons out of 26, earning an average of 14 points more than them each term.
However Tottenham have reversed that trend lately, finishing higher in the past two seasons, after 21 consecutive years in which we were on top.
AUBA'S 50
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored twice in November's derby at Emirates Stadium, will make his 50th Gunners appearance if he features at Wembley.
The striker has started 42 of his previous 49 outings, netting 29 goals and adding 10 assists.
He goes into this game on 19 goals for the season (16 in the Premier League) and has scored more London derby goals than any other player in the league in 2018/19 (six).
Since making his debut in February last year, Auba has played more games than anyone else for the club, and missed just one Premier League match in that time – that was our last away game in the league, against Huddersfield on February 9.
BUSY GOALKEEPERS
Arsenal and Tottenham each boast two players in the top 10 of this season's Premier League scoring charts - Aubameyang has 16, Harry Kane 15, Alexandre Lacazette 12 and Son Heung-min 11.
There hasn't been a goalless draw in this fixture since 2009 and we haven't kept an away clean sheet in the league all season.
So it all points to an entertaining game, and Michael Cox of zonalmarking.net says we should be wary of the hosts' shooting from long range on Saturday: "Tottenham have proved particularly adept at shooting from long-range this season. Kane, Son and Christian Eriksen are all capable of pulling the trigger from outside the box - notably, all three can shoot with both feet. Both Kane and Son have scored fine left-footed curlers having cut inside from the right, while Eriksen is a master of creating space and firing low shots into the bottom corner."
Cox adds: "Kane is something of a north London derby specialist, having scored eight goals in eight starts. He’s also improved his link play this season and is excellent at whipping passes around the corner to the right flank."
EARLY RISERS
This game comes less than 72 hours after our 5-1 win over Bournemouth, while Tottenham were losing 2-0 to Chelsea at the same time on Wednesday night.
For both sides it's the third game in a week, and will be followed by European trips next midweek - Tottenham travel to Dortmund on Tuesday night while we visit Rennes on Thursday. So it will be interesting to see how both sides cope with the early kick-off time.
This is our third 12.30pm start so far this season, we beat Burnley 3-1 in December, though lost 1-0 at West Ham the following month. Our 5-1 win over Fulham in October kicked off at midday.
Unai Emery made six changes for the Southampton game last Sunday, and six more against Bournemouth. Expect further changes this weekend.
'HOME' ADVANTAGE
When the fixtures were announced this summer, this game was earmarked as Arsenal fans' first trip to Tottenham's new stadium.
However delays in the building work means that we will take on Spurs at Wembley for the second season running.
It will be our fifth overall north London derby at the national stadium – Tottenham won the 1991 FA Cup semi-final, the 1992 Charity Shield was drawn, while we triumphed in the 1993 FA Cup final.
We have a good recent record at Wembley generally though – since 2014 we have won nine out of 11 trips there.
This is a fixture that has been heavily weighted in the home team's favour in recent Premier League history – the away side have won just one of the last 16 fixtures. That was in March 2014, courtesy of an unforgettable early Tomas Rosicky strike at White Hart Lane.
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