The North London derby is here, and like all other derby games, the players started their mind-games well before hand. Andre Villas Boas’ inspired Tottenham will take on Arsenal in the weekends most highly anticipated game. The game will be played at White Hart Lane on March 3, 2013 at 1600 GMT.
Gareth Bale, it is definitely very early to take his name in the same breath as Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, but this Welsh man is certainly having his best season thus far. Having netted six times in his last four Premier League games, you can bet your boots that he will get his name on the scoring sheet in the game as well.
Villas Boas has the second longest streak of unbeaten games this season standing at 11 before this game, second only to Sir Alex Fergusons, Manchester United.
His men will be certain favourites to win this game due to a number of reasons. They have hit the ground running over the last few months and will be looking to avenge the 5-2 hammering they had at the hands of the Gunners, earlier in the season. A win in this game will put them in a firm position to finish in the top four.
Jermaine Defoe is still side-lined due to his ankle injury giving Emmanuel Adebayor a chance to start in this game that which has a lot of sentimental value for this ex-Gunner, who is a scapegoat of the Arsenal fans.
Arsenal has a fully fit squad and form wise has been on the rise as well. Their premier league unbeaten streak is at a respectable five games and they will look to replicate their earlier outing against the Spurs and keep their surge for a top four spot alive, something Arsene Wenger has managed to do 12 consecutive times.
Santi Cazorla has managed to find his feet once again and has netted three times in the last two games for the Gunners. Theo Walcott will have lot to prove as he hasn’t had much of an impact in the last three premier league games.
Wenger’s men have managed to be on the positive side of a result against Spurs since 2011 and will want to come out with a win and be the team with the bragging rights in North London.
From the onset this game promises to be a ripper, fast moving, action packed thriller and predicting a result is close to impossible. Putting everything possible in retrospect, a 1-1 draw would be an apt guess.