Arsenal vs Tottenham: Laurent Koscielny return essential, Spurs can probably contain Olivier Giroud

FANS' VIEW: Supporters of the sides involved at the Emirates this weekend offer their thoughts

Staff
Friday 06 November 2015 17:59 GMT
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(2015 The Arsenal Football Club Plc)

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Ahead of the Premier League meeting between Arsenal and Tottenham this weekend, we caught up with a couple of fans for their take on the match...

Arsenal fan - Lewis Potton

The North London derby has never been more important. With Arsenal still on Manchester City’s title coattails and Champions League progress looking incredibly bleak, all the fans could do with beating our local rivals this weekend. If only to try and banish the awful Munich memories.

After a defensively shambolic performance against Bayern in midweek, it’s imperative that French centre half Laurent Koscielny retakes his place at the heart of the Arsenal defence. I’ve always liked Gabriel, but he looked woefully short against the movement and ability of Lewandowski and Muller.

Playing at home against a Spurs means only one thing – this is a must-win game. Derbies often mean that form goes out of the window, but fans will be hoping that the likes of Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud can keep up the form that has seen Arsenal propelled the league’s summit. Despite the midweek hammering in Germany, I’m backing Arsenal to bounce back and beat Spurs 2-0.

Tottenham fan - Chris Deeley

Arsenal away is one of the trickiest games of the year for any side, and it seems to be doubly so for Spurs, who have picked up just one win at the Gunners since 1993. It's a massive game for Spurs' European ambitions and Arsenal's title challenge, but nobody will care about that on Sunday afternoon. For one afternoon, everything else takes a back seat and it's all about the bragging rights in north London.

The biggest worry for Spurs will be Olivier Giroud and his brilliant run of goalscoring form, but Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld are big enough and ugly enough to deal with him. Probably.

On the Spurs side, it's all about Harry Kane coming back into a bit of goalscoring form at long last. If he can play like he did in the derby at White Hart Lane in February, it's game on.

Prediction: 2-2

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