Tottenham v Arsenal: Team news, predictions & odds

The game kicks off at 1630 BST at White Hart Lane, live on Sky Sports 1.

Tottenham v Arsenal: Manager quotes

Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham)

On the title race: "I understand but my feeling is now when so close, only four points but it's massive with only five games to play, I will be very disappointed if we don't win the title.

"I will start to think of the good things that have happened this season and be realistic to analyse the season but I really don't think in which position is Arsenal.

"My challenge and my aim is not to be above Arsenal. My challenge and my aim is to be above 19 teams and be on the top. That is my challenge, my aim, my dream.

"I don't care what happens with Arsenal, with all my respect. What I care is what happens with us. That's our big, big challenge at Tottenham." 

On facing Arsenal: "Maybe it will be the last derby but we are playing from the beginning of the season as if it's the last game at White Hart Lane.

"Everyone behaves with an energy that is amazing and you can be sure Sunday is a special game and we will try altogether to win.

"We compete against a very good team like Arsenal. They have fantastic players. But all together we can give our best and try to get three points." 

Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

On a possible power shift in north London: "It's certainly one of the few times where, if you look at people's opinions, Spurs are favourites.

"It looks a bit like that but it doesn't matter too much to me. It's true that always in our press conferences we have to respond, if the worst happens what do you do?

"But let's make sure that the best happens and give absolutely everything to make sure that we finish in a very strong way our season.

"The priority for us is to finish in the top four.

"After that, for the pride and the continuity or our achievements, yes we want to fight to be in front of Spurs. We have to focus on what is really important to us at this moment, which is to finish in the top four.

"Let's be honest, I've answered that question about a shift in power over 18 consecutive years. Nothing changes in that.

"I've played 50 London derbies, so of course there were some special ones in there. I'm not in a mode to reflect on that today. Maybe one day I will write a book just about the derbies." 

Asked if Tottenham need to do more over a longer period of time to challenge Arsenal, Wenger replied: "I think so. You cannot say that the weight of one year has the weight of 20." 

On Dele Alli:"We looked at him.

"He played at Milton Keynes. It's down the road from here. You have to say that he has done extremely well, and he has developed very well into a very complete player.

"He is dangerous and scores goals - I think he's scored 16 or 17 goals this year, so it's absolutely marvellous at his age. They've done well to buy him and give him a chance. They deserve credit for that.

"We watched him a few times; many, many times because we watched Milton Keynes a lot." 

Tottenham v Arsenal: Team news

Tottenham's Mousa Dembele faces a race against time to be fit for the north London derby against Arsenal on Sunday.

Dembele is struggling with an ankle injury ahead of the clash at White Hart Lane while Danny Rose is unlikely to feature, despite returning to training after three months out with a knee problem.

Erik Lamela (hip) and Harry Winks (ankle) are both unavailable but goalkeeper Michel Vorm has recovered from a knee injury and is available again. 

Arsene Wenger could be without Laurent Koscielny.

The defender suffered a knee injury in Wednesday's win over Leicester and is rated at only having a 60 per cent chance of playing at White Hart Lane.

Fellow defender Shkodran Mustafi (thigh) is out for another two weeks while David Ospina (back), Lucas Perez (thigh) and Santi Cazorla (Achilles) are all absent. 

Teams

Tottenham (from): Lloris, Vorm, Lopez, Rose, Davies, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dier, Wimmer, Walker, Trippier, Wanyama, Dembele, Eriksen, Alli, Sissoko, Onomah, Son, Janssen, Kane. 

Arsenal (from): Cech, Martinez, Macey, Bellerin, Holding, Gabriel, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Xhaka, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Walcott, Iwobi, Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck. 

Tottenham v Arsenal: Our prediction

Our Nick Hext writes...

“Rarely are Premier League matches so difficult to predict.” 

That’s the verdict of Alex Keble in his latest Five-Star Tactics column previewing Tottenham’s clash against Arsenal and I can’t disagree with him.   

Tottenham are odds-on favourites across the board to keep their title bid on track with a three-point haul but I’m wary of Arsenal’s recent spurt of form.   

The Gunners have won all of their last three games, including defeating Manchester City in extra-time last weekend to reach the FA Cup final.  

The performance produced by Arsenal against City was the best by Arsene Wenger’s side for some time as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Rob Holding and Nacho Monreal all played rare starring roles.   

Leicester were dispatched 1-0 with a battling display in midweek and finally there is some momentum for the Gunners as they look to claw back the gap to a top-four spot.

However, this still the Arsenal side that lost 3-0 at Crystal Palace only a few weeks ago to follow on from a string of meek performances, including losses on the road against West Brom, Chelsea, Liverpool and Bayern Munich.   

That leaves one simple question: Which Arsenal will turn up?   

We can be confident that Tottenham’s attacking swagger will be out in full force. Even when losing 4-2 to Chelsea in the FA Cup last weekend, it was a display full of intent from Mauricio Pochettino’s side.   

The 1-0 win at Palace in midweek was exactly the kind of victory you need to grind out in the title battle but I just don’t see Chelsea dropping enough points to let Spurs overhaul their advantage.   

Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen have been the two stars for Tottenham in recent months, as Alex Keble talks about in more detail, and don’t be put off having a look at that duo in the anytime goalscorer odds.   

Going high on goals seems an obvious approach for this contest.   

Tottenham have won their previous 15 matches at White Hart Lane and the last six of those victories have all finished with more than 2.5 goals being scored.   

Three or more goals to be netted at White Hart Lane is heavily odds-on with all firms so that helps me decide to keep my points elsewhere on Sunday.   

This is definitely a match for the neutrals to enjoy though and watch out for the team news an hour before kick-off for any late value.    

Arsenal’s defence could be further depleted with Laurent Koscielny a big injury doubt and that could lead to a productive afternoon for Harry Kane and his Spurs team-mates.       

Prediction: Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Arsenal   

Tottenham v Arsenal: Opta facts

Tottenham are unbeaten in each of their last five league encounters with Arsenal (W1 D4); they’ve never gone six consecutive league games without defeat against the Gunners. 

Arsenal have got on the scoresheet in 22 of their last 23 visits to White Hart Lane in all competitions, only drawing a blank in a 0-0 draw in February 2009. 

Mauricio Pochettino is the first ever Tottenham manager to remain unbeaten in his first five top-flight north London Premier League derbies. 

Arsene Wenger has gone five league games without a win against Spurs for the first time in his career. 

Harry Kane has scored in four consecutive Premier League appearances against Arsenal, netting five goals in the process. No Spurs player has scored more goals versus Arsenal in the Premier League than Kane (5 – level with Gareth Bale). 

Kane is the first Englishman to score 20+ goals in three consecutive Premier League seasons since Alan Shearer (four seasons between 1993/94 and 1996/97). 

Only Liverpool v Spurs (140) has seen more Premier League goals than the north London derby (139) – Chelsea v Spurs also 139. 

This will be Arsene Wenger’s 50th north London derby in charge of Arsenal (W22 D20 L7) – the Gunners have scored more goals against Spurs than they have against any other side under the Frenchman (92). 

On 24 occasions in this Premier League clash has the team that scored first not gone on to win the game; more than in any other Premier League fixture (eight losses, 16 draws). 

Tottenham have won 74 points in the Premier League this season, their best-ever return in the competition and highest points tally in the top-flight since 1984/85 (77). 

Mauricio Pochettino’s side have now won eight consecutive league games for the first time since October 1960, when they secured 13 successive victories.      

Tottenham v Arsenal: Sky Bet odds

Tottenham are marginally odds-on at 5/6 with Sky Bet, who consider Arsenal outsiders at 29/10, the same price as the draw. Spurs head into a crucial Super Sunday with a 13/2 chance of winning the Premier League while Arsene Wenger’s men are 9/2 for a top-four finish. Harry Kane heads the first goalscorer betting at 7/2 followed by Dele Alli (5/1) and Alexis Sanchez (11/2), who is enhanced from 7/2 to 11/2 to score in a Gunners win in Sky Bet’s Price Boosts. 

Click for Sky Bet's Tottenham v Arsenal odds!

The north London derby is this weekend's Fantasy Six-a-Side fixture, with the usual £5,000 up for grabs for the highest scoring team. Pick your side for free here!