Tottenham vs Arsenal LIVE: Premier League team news, line-ups and more ahead of north London derby

If there wasn’t so much tension around this game, and between these clubs, Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou might be able to settle in and discuss a few shared ideas. Both have worked in the City Football Group structure, which reflects how much the Abu Dhabi-owned champions shape the wider game. You can even look at how a former Manchester City player is joint top scorer with a current Manchester City player. There probably hasn’t been this extent of pure football influence since Barcelona fostered an entire generation of coaches from the early 2000s on. That is no coincidence since the City project directly sought to appropriate the entire Camp Nou ideology. This was one of the points of pursuing Pep Guardiola for so long.

A core of that philosophy, which seems so standard now but was once revolutionary, is persisting with the system regardless of what happens around you – or to you. You keep the faith. You trust the process. Arteta and Postecoglou have exemplified this, if from alternative interpretations of the tactics.

In his difficult first two years, the Arsenal manager insisted on playing through a possession game, even amid so many frustrating spells. Meanwhile, Postecoglou’s commitment to attack has been one of the themes of the season. “It’s just who we are, mate” has almost become a meme.

You keep going through the process until you reach a point of end product. You don’t actively think about it but internalise it. The idea is that it becomes second nature, and teams can play on instinct. A problem for both teams in this north London derby, however, is they can’t but think about what all of this means. It’s just the latest version of this fixture described as maybe the most important ever. Whatever the truth of that, it is certainly one where both have to produce. This is a game beyond theory or process. It’s to do, or die.

Miguel Delaney’s North London Derby preview:

But Spurs would love nothing more than to knock their rivals out of the title race, but it’s a must-win for Ange Postecoglou’s side anyway as they must win to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Premier League fixture.

Tottenham Hotspur’s top-four prospects have been dealt a blow after full-back Destiny Udogie was ruled out for the rest of the season.

Udogie has flourished in his first campaign in the Premier League and made 30 appearances in all competitions for Spurs.

The Italian defender has caught the eye with his ventures into midfield under Ange Postecoglou, but revealed in a post on Instagram that he had surgery on an unspecified injury and would not play again in the 2023-24 season.

“An injury brings my season to an early end,” Udogie wrote.

“It doesn’t take away from how grateful I am to every person that has supported me this year.”

The 24-year-old, who struggled in his early appearances after swapping Stamford Bridge for north London in the summer, gave a superb display against his former side as the leaders heaped more misery on visiting manager Mauricio Pochettino, who saw his ninth-place team slump to a worst-ever league defeat against Arsenal.

Havertz struck twice as part of an 18-minute blitz in the second half as Arteta’s team won for the second time in four days, continuing their recovery from successive losses to Aston Villa and Bayern Munich.

“He (Havertz) was unbelievable, in all departments,” said Arteta.

“For a nine to score two goals the way he scored, his contribution was great. It’s a question for him but I’m sure he’s very pleased.”

Mikel Arteta was Arsene Wenger’s captain and Pep Guardiola’s assistant. In the managerial family tree, he has no links to Sir Alex Ferguson. And yet part of his ethos appears to have been borrowed from the great Scot. “Attack wins you games, defence wins you titles,” was one of Ferguson’s maxims; his attacks and wins could loom larger in the imagination.

Arsenal’s season could be an extended experiment in the second half of Ferguson’s theory. It looks ever likelier Arteta’s side will end the campaign with the finest defence: in some measures, far and away the best. Defence could win David Raya a Golden Glove and the Gunners records, but perhaps only a second consecutive finish as runners-up. And yet, if there are times this season when it has seemed Liverpool have appeared intent on rebuffing Ferguson’s truism – forever conceding first and looking to their attack to win both games and then titles – Arsenal are taking a more parsimonious path.

When the final whistle blew at Molineux on Saturday, it was with a historic first. No previous Arsenal team, not even with George Graham’s famously frugal back four, had kept six consecutive clean sheets away from home in the league. Arteta has spent 20 years in England and marvelled at the feat. “It is very difficult,” he said. “I don’t know when it was last done. I imagine not recently because it’s extremely difficult to do that.” Only Chelsea in 2008 and Manchester United in 2009 have mustered longer runs of clean sheets on their travels in the Premier League; Arsenal could equal each if they can make it a magnificent seventh on their shortest journey, to Tottenham, on Sunday.

So much for this being one of Arsenal’s awkward remaining fixtures, not to mention the idea the title race was over. Chelsea had other plans for all that, precisely because they couldn’t implement any kind of gameplan of their own. They couldn’t do much at all.

It means that, on a night when Arsenal went three points clear at the top with a 5-0 victory that is maybe Mikel Arteta’s best performance yet, it is hard not to talk about Chelsea. Focus will be back on Mauricio Pochettino’s future. Focus should be on the wider running of this club. This was the humiliation that Chelsea had looked in danger of suffering for some time. So much, too, for the players stepping up in the absence of an ill Cole Palmer.

They were instead just trodden on by an Arsenal side that were completely in the mood. It was one of those where it could have been much worse for Chelsea, given the amount of chances that were missed in the first half alone. Kai Havertz, a player that Chelsea sold to make way for more untried youth in this almost inexplicable recruitment model, enjoyed a signature performance of his own. The German scored twice, as did Ben White, the victory becoming so routine for Arsenal that a defender not usually known for his finishing could amble forward. Leandro Trossard opened it all after just five minutes, to ensure the match was barely ever a proper contest in any meaningful sense.

The Gunners will make the short trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday knowing they will remain at the summit if they leave with the three points.

It would take Arsenal a step closer to a first league crown in two decades, when Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles secured the title at White Hart Lane.

Spurs have since moved into a new home and will have a partisan crowd cheering them on against Arsenal as the hosts aim to keep their own top-four ambitions on track.

Son Heung-min has acknowledged Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world but is confident Tottenham will bounce back from their Newcastle humbling in Sunday’s north London derby.

Spurs enter the fixture after an untimely two-week break on the back of a painful 4-0 loss at St James’ Park.

Arsenal were also reeling a fortnight ago but have responded to their Champions League exit with impressive back-to-back wins to return to the Premier League summit.

This match begins a difficult final month of the campaign for Tottenham, with fixtures to come against Arsenal’s title challengers Liverpool and Manchester City as well as London rivals Chelsea.

The champions another game in hand after thrashing Brighton on Thursday night, as Guardiola’s side aim to win a fourth league title in a row – a feat that has never been achieved in the history of English football, and the title is still in their hands.