Football derby matches are always exciting right around the world given the bitter local history attached to the games but few are as exciting and enthralling as the North London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal. Come Sunday evening and the premier league and the world would sit tight to witness another humdinger between the old enemies at Spurs’ White Hart Lane. Since November 1999, Tottenham has failed to beat the gunners in the league yet under Harry Redknapp the side looks more than capable of breaking the league hoodoo against the masters of derby games in the form of Arsenal.

Arsene Wenger’s side has had a fairly indifferent 2008/2009 season and given its position in the fifth place in the premier league well adrift of Aston Villa, a place in next season’s Champions League looks dim to be honest. As an Arsenal fan missing the bus for Champions League qualification is intolerable and to the Emirates faithful it all begins at White Hart Lane on Sunday to catch up with an ever improving Aston Villa side.

The latest North London derby takes place in the backdrop of intriguing league prospects for both sides with Tottenham trying hard to pull away from the relegation quagmire and the Gunners desperately avoiding a slip up in their bid to qualify for the 2009/2010 Champions League. Well, league results and positions hardly matter on such highly charged derby games yet for the sake of matchday information it has to admitted that prior to Sunday’s big match the visitors have a better league record compared to Spurs having been unbeaten in the last ten league games although frustratingly of those five have been drawn games.

Juande Ramos left Spurs under all sorts of problems yet Harry Redknapp began a revival of sorts by getting important results at the start of his tenure which included an amazing 4-4 draw against the bitter rivals at the Emirates stadium earlier this season having been down 4-2 until the injury time. That result kicked off a brilliant run for Tottenham as they beat Liverpool, Man City and Blackburn to steer clear of the bottom three but current form suggests otherwise with only one win in the last eight games and last week’s 3-2 loss away to Bolton suggests that the Spurs season is still on dangerous waters and the White Hart Lane faithful would again look forward to their biggest home game to kickstart a similar revival that was on view earlier in the season.

The winter transfer window had been very active as far as Harry Redknapp was concerned and amazingly he has brought in old Spurs players in a clear indication that those players which were offloaded by Juande Ramos in the summer should not have been sold in the first place and with the arrival of Robbie Keane, Pascal Chimbonda and Jermaine Defoe the team looks far more solid to compete with the best in the business.

The Gunners have made a big swoop in the transfer market, albeit a controversial one, by luring Russian international Andrei Arshavin to N5 right on transfer deadline day. As of now it is not confirmed whether the ‘Russian Pele’ would start the game as he needs time to adapt to the English game and going by Arsene Wenger’s records he would not throw in a new signing for such a big game until the player is match fit to take in the physical demands of the English Premier League but one can never know what is in store in a football match starting with the selections of the first teams. Reports suggest that Arshavin would not play on Sunday yet Guus Hiddink has withdrawn his name from the national squad for a four-day conditioning camp in Turkey starting on Saturday and this is one clue that the former Zenith St.

Petersburg could yet figure in Arsene Wenger’s plans.
As far as Tottenham Hotspur are concerned Harry Redknapp would surely throw in Robbie Keane to partner Roman Pavluychenko or Darren Bent(his two goals last week against Bolton would surely help the cause) upfront and given Keane’s record against the gunners the Irishman would straightaway relish the challenge.

Remember Arsenal fans, in his short spell with Liverpool he had scored against Arsenal earlier this season that earned the Reds a valuable 1-1 draw at the Emirates. So it won’t be any problem for Robbie to be on target again on Sunday. New arrival Wilson Palacios would play a major role to handle the midfield in the absence of David Bentley who is suspended for the fixture.

For Arsenal, Abou Diaby is missing and Wenger would again field Emmanuel Adebayor, who like Keane loves scoring against the bitter foe, and Robin Van Persie upfront and given that the Gunners cannot afford to lose anymore points the French manager would prefer to be attacking to take the steam out of Spurs right from the first whistle. Stakes are high for the game and although this will be another entertaining game, a draw is all that the fans can hope for. Well, I am putting my neck on the line for this.