German threat on the horizon
I brought Emery to England
understood that even if was painful.
“Emery has done well. I don’t think they can win the title yet but they can challenge for the top four. Why not? He is building a new team with a new spine.
“They have found a real proper holding midfield player in Lucas Torreira.
“He is the player who was missing for ages. He’s not the most talented but he’s the best when it comes to playing like a dog.” And Petit backed it P W D L F A PTS MAN CITY 13 11 2 0 40 5 35 LIVERPOOL 13 10 3 0 26 5 TOTTENHAM 13 10 0 3 23 11 CHELSEA 13 8 4 1 28 11 ARSENAL 13 8 3 2 28 16 EVERTON 13 6 4 3 20 15 MAN UTD 13 6 3 4 20 21 BOURNEMOUTH 13 6 2 5 22 18 WATFORD 13 6 2 5 17 17 LEICESTER 13 5 3 5 18 17 WOLVES 14 4 4 6 13 17 BRIGHTON 13 4 3 6 14 19 NEWCASTLE 13 3 3 7 11 16 WEST HAM 13 3 3 7 14 22 CARDIFF 14 3 2 9 13 27 HUDDERSFIELD 13 2 4 7 8 22 C PALACE 13 2 3 8 8 17 BURNLEY 13 2 3 8 13 27 SOUTHAMPTON 13 1 5 7 10 24 FULHAM 13 2 2 9 14 33 fitter? The 90 minutes against Inter on Wednesday could have taken it out of him, but I am sure if Vertonghen is anything like fit you will definitely see him play. He is a very important player for Spurs and an excellent defender.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino will have been assessing the situation in training this week and seeing who is available. But I think Arsenal will fancy getting a few chances.
MIDFIELD BATTLE
I always look at the midfield battle as being very important in a north London derby. Lucas Torreira has made a huge difference from Arsenal’s point of view – the sort of player they have needed for years.
Also, Granit Xhaka has played better with Torreira alongside him. It has given him that little bit more licence to get forward.
I have never seen Xhaka as a holding midfielder – he is not mobile enough. But 30 28 27 22 21 20 20 18 16 15 12 12 11 10 9 9 8 8 Ozil, who has retired from international football after a spat with the German FA, to bounce back.
“I love Ozil. But only when he’s a football player,” he said.
“I don’t like him with his body language on the pitch, you can see he’s not fit physically and he does not run after the ball.
“You can’t do that, it’s impossible. Ozil has to get over what happened in the summer with the national team. But Arsenal need a very good Ozil if they want to achieve their targets this season as well.
“He has been criticised and that’s fair enough because he has not been good enough on the pitch. He has lost some motivation, anger and sometimes I can understand that. He’s only human.
“He has won the World Cup, got so much money in the bank and sometimes it’s easy to sit back and take it easier. But we will see Ozil back.”
● Emmanuel Petit is a Paddy Power ambassador. Read more of his thoughts at news.paddypower.com MAURICIO POCHETTINO has revealed he advised Arsenal boss Unai Emery to manage in England.
Any derby animosity will not be shared by the two managers and their coaching teams, as they are all good friends.
Pochettino and Emery are now neighbours in Hertfordshire and the Spurs manager, below, said: “I remember one year ago in Bilbao when we were at a managers’ conference, he asked me about England and I advised him, ‘Yes, if you have the possibility to come, I’m sure you are going to be all right’.”
Asked if he would have been quite so welcoming had he known Emery would end up at his rivals, Pochettino said: “Yes, but he was clever enough not to tell me until he signed!”
The pair’s friendship dates back to their time managing in Spain, and Pochettino almost replaced Emery at Valencia when he left for Spartak Moscow in 2012.
“The chairman called me and said, ‘I want you in Valencia’,” said Pochettino. “We were talking and he said, ‘Unai Emery advised me and told me to pick you, you are the best’. And I said no, to stay in Espanyol.”
ADRIAN KAJUMBA GARETH SOUTHGATE could get bogey team Germany in the Euro 2020 qualifying draw this weekend.
England manager Southgate will be at Sunday’s draw in Dublin when his side will discover their opponents.
They could end up facing Germany, who have a history of beating them but who have been left among the second seeds after a disappointing Nations League campaign that ended in relegation.
A potential ‘Group of Death’ for England could be Germany, Serbia, Romania and Macedonia.
That would be the worst-possible outcome for Southgate in the new-look qualifying set-up, which is designed to run in tandem with next summer’s Nations League finale.
England are one of 55 teams in tomorrow’s draw, which will be divided into 10 groups: five with five teams and five with six.
They have already been put into six pots based on Nations League ranking as part of the complex draw process for the multi-host European Championship.
The four winners of Nations League A – England, Portugal, Holland and Switzerland – will go into groups A-D for qualifying, which guarantees them a five-team group and therefore an empty week during an international break in which to contest the Nations League finals next June.
There are 12 host cities for Euro 2020 and there will be no more than two of the nations in each group, maximising the chances of every host getting through.
The draw for June’s Nations League finals in Portugal will be made on Monday, which Southgate will also attend to discover who England will meet in the semi-finals.
The options are Portugal, Holland or Switzerland.