Derby offers Spurs chance to be kings of the capital

lonDon (Reuters) – mauricio pochettino’s tottenham hotspur can cement their status as the top dogs in the capital if they end an eight-year wait and defeat Arsenal in the highly hyped north london derby on sunday.

spurs produced an outstanding display to crush Chelsea 3-1 last week and a repeat performance at the emirates on sunday would make them the leading london challengers to manchester City and liverpool in the premier league title race.

tottenham has lost just once in the last eight league clashes with the Gunners, but it has not won at Arsenal since a 3-2 victory in 2010.

spurs are third in the table, three points ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal, but unai emery’s side is unbeaten in its last 17 games across all competitions.

that run includes a 1-1 draw at home to liverpool, a performance which suggested the Gunners are making good progress under the spaniard as they seek to return to the elite status they lost in the final spell of Arsene Wenger’s reign.

“of course, when you want to win against tottenham you know you have to play at your top level,” said Arsenal defender shkodran mustafi.

“We did that against liverpool at home, so we know how to compete, we can compete with everyone and I think that we are looking forward to this game,” he said.

tottenham beat Inter milan 1-0 on Wednesday to keep alive its Champions league last-16 hopes, setting up what is almost certainly a must-win match in barcelona next month.

the games are coming thick and fast for pochettino’s side and no sooner were the points in the bag against Inter – courtesy of substitute Christian eriksen’s late winner – than he was switching his thoughts to Arsenal.

“now we have another tough game against Arsenal first, and we need to be ready again,” he said.

sunday also features another local derby, with liverpool taking on everton at Anfield.

juergen Klopp’s side will start as the favorite, but everton is coming along nicely under portuguese coach marco silva and has the advantage of no european midweek fixture.

but the toffees have not won at Anfield since 1999 when Kevin Campbell scored the only goal in the game.

Chelsea comes up against a familiar face as it looks to bounce back from a loss to spurs with former blues boss Claudio Ranieri now in charge of opponents Fulham.

Ranieri, who famously lifted the premier league title with outsiders leicester City, won his first game since taking over at Craven Cottage with last week’s success against southampton.

leader manchester City, which has a two-point advantage over liverpool, hosts bournemouth at the etihad on saturday.

On TV: English Premier League Round 14:

Friday: Cardiff City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers (live on sport 2 at 10 p.m.). Saturday: newcastle united vs West ham united (live on sport 1 at 5 p.m.); manchester City vs AFC bournemouth (live on sport 2 at 5 p.m.); southampton vs manchester united (live on sport 1 at 7:30 p.m.). Sunday: Chelsea vs Fulham (live on sport 2 at 2 p.m.); Arsenal vs tottenham hotspur (live on sport 2 at 4 p.m.); liverpool vs everton (live on sport 2 at 6:15 p.m.)