The North-London derby. A couple weeks ago the Manchester derby was on Picklive and it produced a pretty tame goalless draw with both teams playing very negative football. I can’t see that happening here. The four PL matches at the Emirates between the two have produced 17 goals (4.25 per game) – Arsenal scoring 12 of these. It’s not really in either sides nature to sit back, so I think there will be goals again today.
Tottenham have a pretty miserable record at Arsenal recently (and the rest of the ‘big four). They have not won in their last 17 at Arsenal (losing three of their last four) since a 3-1 win in May 1993 and last 68 visits to the big four teams (drawn 20 and lost 48). Surely sometime this run has to end?!
Arsenal are a good picklive team, they keep possession well and pass the ball plenty. Sagna top scored last week’s match against Everton (77) including a goal followed by Fabregas (75). In total they have had 19 of the top five places in their last five. In their 2-0 defeat at Chelsea they still managed to get Clichy (66), Nasri (64) and Wilshere (62) in the top 5. Nasri put in 75 points against England mid-week and Sagna put in a respectable 64. Nasri has had a very good recent picklive record averaging 70pts in his last six for Arsenal including an amazing 141 in the Carling Cup match against Spurs. I think Nasri is a must for your BG team.
Song and Sagna have also been putting in good numbers and I think they will have a good day against Tottenham. I like Fabregas for this match, can see him scoring and he puts good numbers together anyways. Wilshere might not play in the match so you may want to look at Clichy instead or Rosicky if you want 5 Arsenal players. You may be tempted to go with Clichy over Sagna as he didn’t play mid-week against England?
It’s hard to say how many Spurs players you should go with. When they went to Old Trafford they still put together some good numbers. Gomes was the best player for them (73) followed by Van der Vaart (63) and Assou-Ekotto (56). Modric would have scored 60 if it wasn’t for a yellow card. Bale is their top player with an average of 62pts from 8 matches and I wonder whether he will go past Sagna as easily as Maicon? He only got 35pts against Bolton but did score twice against Blackburn. Huddlestone is out with an ankle injury. Gallas could be an interesting pick, he got 71 against Bolton and returning to his old club – a gamble but could pay off. Assou-Ekotto is pretty consistent when it comes to picklive – his last seven matches scoring 57, 63, 56, 62, 65, 78 (vs Arsenal), and 67.
I can’t really recommend picking any of the strikers. Even though RvP has scored in last three starts against Spurs and Crouch has scored four against Arsenal. If you want to go attacking-minded go with Fabregas and Van der Vaart.
I think I will go with four Arsenal players – Nasri, Song, Fabregas, Sagna. For my Spurs player I am undecided between Assou-Ekotto and Modric. If you don’t like those I would go with Clichy, Rosicky (if he starts) or Van der Vaart if you think Spurs will do well.
I will probably play only the first couple of games in this match with the Man United match being a 3pm k.o! So I will give you a few stats now….
· Arsène Wenger has drawn three of his last five PL meetings with Harry Redknapp – winning only once. Over the last nine years Wenger has won only three of his three of his 13 PL matches against him, drawing on nine occasions.
· Wenger is unbeaten in all 10 PL home matches against Redknapp – winning seven and drawing three.
· If Arsenal lose today it will be the first time they have lost consecutive PL matches at the Emirates Stadium, and first time at home in almost 13 years – since losing 1-0 to Liverpool (November 1997) and 3-1 to Blackburn Rovers (December 1997).
· Tottenham have lost their last two PL away matches. If they lose today it will be the first time since in almost two years they have lost three consecutive away matches – since a four-match streak from December 2008 to January 2009.
Enjoy!
Simon G (grunny27)
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