EMERY BELIEVES A WHITE HEAT LANE OPENER FOR ARSENAL WOULD BE COOL

UNAI EMERY claims Arsenal would have no problem being Tottenham’s first opponents at the new White Hart Lane.

Spurs announced yet another delay to their new stadium this week, with the North London derby on March 2 now the first possible fixture to be played there.

The Premier League, police and local authority all have reservations about such a huge game being the first to take place at the venue.

But asked at his press conference whether he would be happy for Arsenal to be the first team to visit, Emery (above) said: “Yeah, sure. Sure, I think it’s good to play in a big stadium.”

Arsenal beat Tottenham 4-2 at the Emirates earlier this season in a game marred by a Spurs fan throwing a banana at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Dele Alli was then hit by a bottle thrown by an Arsenal fan in Tottenham’s 2-0 Carabao Cup quarterfinal win there last month.

Fears of unrest testing the new facilities mean a more realistic opening game for Tottenham’s new 62,062-capacity ground is against Crystal Palace on March 16. But facing Arsenal there has yet to be ruled out and it is clear Emery has no problem with that.

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Gunners boss revealed this week how the club cannot afford to make any permanent signings this month and are only looking for loans.

But he also admitted he will rotate players with his injury-hit squad short of bodies.

Asked whether he would consider giving his stars a break, Emery said: “We are doing that. We are thinking about that for this week and this month.

“You have to balance the players because they play a lot of matches in the next month. So we are doing that.”