5 reasons Spurs can beat Arsenal in the north London derby

Despite Arsenal’s increasing presence in this season’s title race, there have been a couple of moments in their season that would have plastered ear-to-ear grins across the faces of Tottenham fans.

Rejoicing in the Gunners’ Sheffield Wednesday humiliation and Bayern Munich pummelling is one thing, but what Lilywhites lovers really crave is beating their local rivals themselves.

The opportunity arrives at the Emirates next time out, with the pair meeting in the Premier League for the first time this term.

Ladbrokes rate Spurs winning as a 15/4 possibility and the News team offer the below five reasons to invest in that price:

Stellar form

Spurs’ 10-game run without a league loss is the longest in the division by some distance – Liverpool are their closest rivals at six – with the north Londoners winning half of those outings.

A fitter squad

Arsenal are missing key men through injury with Theo Walcott, Hector Bellerin, Laurent Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey all a fitness doubt for the clash.

Beside a knock to Danny Rose, Spurs have nothing like those kind of concerns and have Heung-min Son back in training.

Dele Alli

Alli is showing the potential to be a serious goal-scoring threat from central midfield for Spurs, something they haven’t had since, well, ever.

The MK Dons purchase only has two top-flight strikes to his name but could add to that the Emirates where his runs from deep to join the front four could easily overpower Arsenal.

There may have been a noticeable increase in the Gunners willingness to commit to defending – the home outing against Bayern Munich being the best example – but it’s highly unlikely Arsene Wenger will adopt that mindset against Spurs, and Alli can benefit.

Sharp shooting

Over the past five games no team has fired more shots on target than Spurs’ 38. Nobody can better their 48.7 percent accuracy or 17.9 percent conversion rate either.

It’s not taking much for Spurs to find the net at the moment, which is bad news for an injury-ravaged Arsenal defence.

Timing

Those well-documented Arsenal absences are leaving question marks lingering over their squad depth.

The defeat to Wednesday proved that youth wont save the club from their injury crisis, while the 5-1 thumping suffered in Munich is hardly the best confidence booster ahead of a derby.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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