Arteta: Arsenal need to ‘put rivalry aside’ against Spurs
Arteta has urged his players to put their north London rivalry with Tottenham to one side as Arsenal look to stay top of the Premier League with victory at their neighbours.
The Gunners will make the short trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tomorrow knowing they will remain at the summit if they leave with the three points. It would take Arsenal a step closer to a first league crown in two decades, when Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles secured the title at White Hart Lane.
Spurs have since moved into a new home and will have a partisan crowd cheering them on against Arsenal as the hosts aim to keep their own top-four ambitions on track.
Arteta wants to remove the emotion of derby day and focus on the job at hand.
“We played there a few times already and it’s a great place to play football,” he said.
“We have to put the rivalry aside and we have to live the game with passion and the intensity that it demands rather than anything special because the game has everything you need to enjoy it.”
Remarkably, Arsenal have played four matches since Tottenham last kicked a ball – losing to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final but beating Wolves and Chelsea to stay top, even if Manchester City have a game in hand.
However, Arteta does not want to use fixture congestion as an excuse heading into one of the most important north London derbies in recent history.
“For sure we’re going to be fully ready,” he said. “We have a bit of time to recover and prepare from the Chelsea game and I’m sure we’re going to be fully ready to go again on Sunday.
“I love the fact that we played four games. We had some great experiences. It’s been a really demanding week. We had some great results in the last two. That’s boosted the confidence of everybody. We’re in a good place.” Ange Postecoglou’s debut campaign in charge of Spurs has seen plenty of highs and the occasional low, with the 4-0 thrashing at Newcastle in their last match arguably the worst display of his reign.
It has increased the scrutiny on the visit of Arsenal with Tottenham eager to avoid back-tomikel
back painful defeats, especially with a top-four finish now seemingly unlikely. Postecoglou urged his players to double down on their attacking philosophy despite facing a team with the best defensive record in the league this season.
He said: “It’s just about making sure you embrace the challenge and try to tackle it in the way that got us into this position in the first place.
“From our perspective we’ve had some inconsistencies and
challenges this year, but when we’ve played well we’ve played a certain way and gone about things in a certain way.
“There’s no point now when you get to the most important part of the year to shy away from that or change your approach.
“You’ve got to double down on it and focus on playing our football. That’s a great measure for us because otherwise you’ll never know where you’re short or whether you can be successful in doing it our way.”