Key events
Jonathan Wilson
“When did the reality dawn? Perhaps it was towards the end of the first half of West Ham’s game at Chelsea at the end of January with the away side leading 2-0. Or perhaps it was when West Ham took the lead against Manchester United 10 days later. As it turned out, West Ham won neither fixture; had they done so they would have had five points more and so been level with Tottenham going into this weekend. And then Tottenham’s proximity to relegation could not have been denied.
West Ham’s revival means this isn’t like last season, when a win at Ipswich at the end of February took Tottenham to 33 points and as good as confirmed their continued presence in the Premier League, allowing Ange Postecoglou to focus on Europe. Were Spurs to pull off something extremely unlikely and beat Arsenal on Sunday, they would move to 32 and, for all the glee their fans would feel, nobody would feel secure…”
Igor Tudor has said Tottenham are in “an emergency situation” but issued a guarantee that his new team would escape relegation.
Tudor is a veteran of short-term appointments and has performed rescue jobs at Udinese, Verona and Juventus. He offered a curt “100%” in response to questions on his confidence in Spurs’s survival. The Croat’s tenure begins on Sunday with a north London derby at home to the wobbling Premier League leaders, though a lengthy injury list leaves him with only 13 fit senior players.
“What I saw this week was the quality of the players,” said Tudor. “We have enormous quality in the squad.”
A coach presiding over 12 remaining league matches, the Champions League being a lower priority with Spurs five points off the relegation zone, made no promises of living up to the club’s attacking traditions.
“When you start pre-season and then you have 50 days in pre-season and you have 20 players, of course then we see the style. This is an emergency, an emergency situation, when you need to find fast what suits the 10 plus three players and it’s totally different.”
Mikel Arteta has insisted the word “bottlers” is not in his vocabulary and that Arsenal must take criticism “on the chin” after surrendering a 2-0 lead against the bottom side, Wolves, in midweek.
It’s North London Derby day! Always a huge occasion for both teams but it feels even more so today. For Arsenal, today marks a fantastic opportunity to bounce back from their midweek 2-2 draw at Wolves. The result on Wednesday sparked an all too familiar feeling among Arsenal fans as the Gunners lost ground in the title race once again. It meant that Manchester City were able to move within two points following their 2-1 win over Newcastle last night (more on that later). But victory today could spark a much-needed resurgence going into the most important part of the season.
Meanwhile, for Tottenham it presents an opportunity to get their first Premier League win of the year. Spurs have endured a run of poor form and now begin a new – albeit likely small – era with new interim head coach Igor Tudor, who was appointed until the end of the season last week following the dismissal of Thomas Frank.
It is also a chance for Spurs to get their revenge following their humiliating 4-1 defeat in November.
Today’s Premier League games (2pm GMT unless stated otherwise)
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another Matchday live! We’ve got some huge games to look forward to this afternoon, including the North London Derby and the Steel City Derby.
Arsenal need a win at Tottenham later to restore their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table. It comes after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Wolves on Wednesday, having squandered a two-goal advantage.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday need a victory against their local rivals to delay relegation to League One.
We’ll also be looking ahead to plenty more games across the UK and Europe as the day goes on, so join us!
