Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has made his game plan for this weekend’s North London Derby against Arsenal very clear, according to ex-Gunners player Paul Merson.
Ange Postecoglou has insisted he will stay true to his footballing beliefs when Tottenham visit Arsenal for the north London derby this weekend.
Tottenham face their biggest game under Ange Postecoglou since his arrival in the summer when they face Arsenal in the north London derby this weekend.
Both teams go into the game on 13 points, having remained unbeaten in their first five Premier League games, with Spurs only above their bitter rivals on goal difference.
The Gunners were in action in the Champions League earlier this week, where they comfortably defeated PSV, while Spurs will have had a number of more days’ rest than their weekend opponents.
However, the early replacements of Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Bukayo Saka will likely mean all three will be fit for Sunday’s match due to injury problems.
On the other hand, Postecoglou suffered a serious injury before the match, when it was announced that Ivan Perisic had suffered a cruciate ligament injury in training and would need to undergo surgery.
The Croatia international played a crucial role off the bench in the miraculous comeback win against Sheffield United and not having his tactical knowledge or experience in the team is a huge blow.
Ahead of the highly anticipated clash, pundits and fans have been making their predictions, with former Arsenal player Paul Merson not hesitating in predicting defeat.
On his Sportskeeda prediction he wrote: “I’m very optimistic, but I think Arsenal will win this match easily. Tottenham have started the season well, there’s no doubt about that.”
“However, if they play fanatical football and want to take the game to Arsenal, the Gunners will destroy them.
If they stay calm and try to score a goal they might have a chance, but I can’t imagine that happening because they didn’t play like that under Ange Postecoglou.
“In recent seasons, Spurs have opted for a pragmatic head coach, but that is certainly not the case with Postecoglou.
In every Championship game played so far, his team have played from the back and forward and that is unlikely to change this weekend, despite the demanding task ahead of Spurs.
“Well, there’s no reason why we play this football other than to be successful. So if I didn’t think we would succeed, I wouldn’t play it,” Postecoglou replied when asked how he would approach the match during the press conference.
“From my point of view, I have often said that I wasn’t training my teams to play good football, I was preparing my team to play winning football. “You have to believe in it against all adversaries and in all possible circumstances.
There are always adjustments because the opponent forces you to adapt certain parts of your game, but the underlying principles of the type of team we want to be. “No, I’m not going to hesitate to do it now because we’re dealing with a good team to contend with.
We need to go out and challenge ourselves to play the football we have so far against one of the teams who will fight for the title.
