Arsenal v Tottenham

Arsenal had Thierry Henry to thank as he scored an injury time winner against Sunderland to give his side all 3 pts and crucially 4th place in the table ..it was the perfect way to say goodbye to the fans in his last Premier League game for Arsenal before his return to
mickey mouse football in the US . The season has since then gone miserably for Arsene Wenger with a 4-0 defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League and an FA Cup defeat by Sunderland ...can Arsene Wenger rally his gunners to come back against Tottenham .?


Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has had a great few weeks , cleared of tax evasion ...odds on favourite for the England managers job ...and against Newcastle seeing his side demolish them 5-0 at White Hart Lane . It all seems so easy at the moment ...could it be another win at the Emirates for Harry .

Massive match for both teams I feel, aswell as the obvious rivalry that is always there.

Spurs need to atleast avoid defeat to keep the gap with Arsenal and a win might all but seal the belief they are heading back to the bright lights of the Chamions League. A loss and the doubt might sneak in, with some more tough games coming up it could be the beginning of the slide.

Arsenal need the win. They need to close the gap on Spurs and stretch ar atleast maintain it on Chelsea. Champions League football is a must for keeping the finances ok and most of all keeping their stars such as RVP. After a couple of disapointing losses in the cup comps they will be going all out to focus on the league and pick up three points at home.

Bothe teams will be fired up for this one, I can see a lot of people on here predicting a Spurs win given the relative form of both teams but I feel this is a fixture where form goes out the window.

My prediction, maybe a little with my heart rather than head.
1-2 to Spurs.

I think this fixture is exactly what we need. We don't have much left to play for this season, but this combines the motivation of winning a north London derby with the necessity of fighting for fourth place.

2-1 Arsenal

wenger needs this win more than any other game this season. failure is simply not an option.

Arsenal will need to dig out some mental toughness to prevent this rut becoming just as bad as the one they went through last season.

Spurs who are now the new top dogs at least in North London should be able to make the Gooners suffer even more.

I imagine Emmanuel Adebayor will get a very warm reception from the locals but that will just make him play even better.

Arsenal 0-2 Tottenham (Adebayor,Bale)

yes ....it was the knocked out of every competion in a week rut ...just as bad as this one in my opinion .

A failure is not an option, I read.
Somehow, the failure will be reality, I feel.

I could see this being a draw if we turn up and play well, otherwise we could find ourselves in some trouble.

You dont think you can beat our 'pathetic' club?

Got nothing to watch this week so might as well watch this one. Not sure who i hate more though or should that be hate less? 1-1 draw and i hope they kick the living *bleep* out of each other

The only thing Arsenal might beat is their weenies.

It's certainly possible, but at the moment I think your available first team is better than ours - after all that spending and all those purchases you've finally found yourselves with a good team of players, despite Harry's revolving door transfers. We're at our lowest ebb for some time, everyone can see that and Spurs will be fired up over their chances to take advantage, if we hadn't been ravaged with injuries I'd be far more confident, our defensive line up can't get a 90 minutes together, it's ridiculous.

Arsenal has Arsene on their side, what more do you want ?
Not too long ago, I read he is on top of the heap.

The Spurs should win easily, I feel.

The excuses are coming out already. 120 million pounds a year on wages you spend and we have a better team than you? I can see why you defend Wenger so much.

Jono,

nothing to worry. The Spurs are much better team this year.
It is just a matter of how many your team will pop in.

OK, so we haven't been ravaged with injuries then? And our defensive line up hasn't changed all year? Sorry mate, but those are just facts, I make no excuses, Wenger didn't organise cover when he should so the blame falls on his shoulders, that doesn't change the fact that we have been ravaged with injuries and that our defensive line up can't get 90 minutes together - sorry that those FACTS get up your nose.

You've spent almost three times more on actual players, you should have a bloody good squad after all that investment, our wage bill is high because we pay fringe players high wages because of an internal policy, it doesn't equate to bringing in new, quality players. We can spend this rumoured £100 million this summer and still be behind you on player investment, it's that large a gap.

In conclusion, I make no excuses, we're not good enough and if we lose to Spurs it'll probably be because we deserve it.

the way i look at the wage bill vs transfer budget argument is that the two are completely linked.

Arsenal's wage bill is high BECAUSE they choose not to spend this money on players
Arsenal's transfer outlay is low BECAUSE they choose to spend a higher proportion of their money on wages.

what can not be argued is that this is a policy choice of the club and, more specifically, Mr Wenger.

for the wage over transfer fees policy to work, you need to have a squad worth spending £120m a year on. Arsenal do not and should rightly be criticised for this in the same way that Dalglish is criticised for spending £100m on average players.

the value of a contract is skewed by Arsene's policy and PREVENTS him being able to spend big. the experiment has failed.

Even then theyll still lose

I disagree, I think Arsenals wage bill is high because of the self imposed wage structure - we don't actually have to have that in place, you can get average players for cheap prices then pay them the appropriate wage. It's entirely down to Wenger, sure - but I don't see causation between the two necessary to make the situation work.

The reason we're paying such high fees for squad players is to avoid players like Fabregas leaving. Instead of waiting for Barcelona to come sniffing we give them big wages if we see enough potential in them to warrant it.

I'm not saying this renders Wenger's mistakes in this area any less embarrassing or less detrimental to the running of our club, but that is the way I see it. It's the same reason we bought Chamberlain when he looked like he wasn't quite ready for the move, to avoid the scramble for him when he got a 30-goal season in League one.