Spurs v Arsenal: The view from N17

3Mar 2013

England - Premier League

Andre Villas-Boas is a regular tinkerer, adapting the personnel to the opposition each and every week, so who does Spurs blogger Chris Miller expect to lineup against Arsenal and how does he expect the game to pan out? Read on...

Spurs are in good shape going into Sunday's North London Derby - unbeaten in 11 in the league, including seven wins in that time. At home, we are unbeaten since 3rd November and, of course, we have the league's form player in Gareth Bale.

However, singling out Bale somewhat under-sells the sterling work that André Villas-Boas has done, and our recent defensive performances have been good, despite losing one of our key players, Sandro, to injury, and persisting without Younes Kaboul, one of the stars of last season.

AVB has rotated the centre backs in recent weeks, and generally seems to pick specific defenders for specific games - an obvious example being the selection of Jan Vertonghen at left back against West Ham, who aim lots of long-balls forward. I would expect Benoit Assou-Ekotto to return at left back to deal with Theo Walcott, and it will be interesting to see whether Steven Caulker, impressive against West Ham, keeps his place over Vertonghen in the centre. Should he start, Caulker could be an interesting 'to score' selection - he attacks the ball brilliantly from set pieces and was denied three times against West Ham by good saves from Jussi Jääskeläinen.

Much has been made of the striker situation at Spurs, with the January transfer window not panning out as many fans had hoped. Defoe had not scored in six matches prior to getting injured, and Emmanuel Adebayor has been a shadow of the player he was last season, managing just three goals in 16 starts and six substitute appearances. That said, unless Jermain Defoe is fit enough, Adebayor will probably lead the line again - hopefully he will be as fired up as he was earlier in the season, ideally channelling his energy a little better this time around.

With Bale being the main goal-scoring threat, he will likely start centrally, with either Clint Dempsey, Lewis Holtby or Gylfi Sigurdsson periodically occupying the left flank - probably Sigurdsson after a very impressive cameo against West Ham. The summer signing has not had much luck in front of goal this season - hitting the woodwork on numerous occasions - but found the net for the first time in the league for Spurs on Monday. Should he start, he could be a good bet for first goalscorer.

There have been 39 goals in the last eight matches between the two sides, so it's difficult to bet against there being more. Arsenal's defence cannot be relied upon, and Spurs always go gung-ho against our nearest neighbours. Over 3.5 goals at 2.72 looks an attractive prospect.