Tottenham vs Arsenal live updates: Premier League team news and ...

Ange Postecoglou is no stranger to big derbies, so he is well educated in how to prepare a team for a game of this magnitude.

He was asked if he will be telling his players to lean into the atmosphere.

"Yeah I think you have to," he responded. "You have to if you're at a big club and your ambition is to challenge for honours, you have to be prepared to embrace the big games and lean into them.

"That's the reality of it. You can't ignore it or put it in a space where it's not going to affect you, because it will if you don't embrace it. We want to be a club that is challenging for honours year in, year out and big games are consequences of that.

"You want to embrace it."

A star-studded cast discussed this weekend's Premier League action on Friday's The Athletic FC Podcast.

Adam Leventhal was joined by Tim Spiers, Charlie Eccleshare and Jay Harris as they questioned whether Tottenham will be able to halt the progress of their north London neighbours.

You can listen to the episode here.

At times this season, Tottenham have looked all at sea defensively.

In terms of preventing high-quality shots, only Emiliano Martinez and Jose Sa have had better seasons than Guglielmo Vicario.

Without him, Tottenham likely would not have any hope of a Champions League finish. He has too often not had sufficient support from his defence and Spurs are on a poor run of conceding at home.

They have kept just two Premier League clean sheets in their 16 home games — only Sheffield United and Burnley have kept fewer (one each).

And neither of those two Tottenham clean sheets have come in their last 12 league games at home.

Nervous yet, Tottenham and Arsenal fans?

Or excited?

Or both?

Well, however you are feeling, we want to know about it. Get your opinions, questions and pre-match thoughts into our matchday discussions, which you can find by clicking the 'Discuss' tab at the top of this page.

We'll feature some of the best ones here in the build up to kick-off!

The first north London derby of the season was played back in September and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Arsenal got off to a strong start and were handed the lead by Cristian Romero when his failed clearance sent Bukayo Saka's curling effort into the bottom corner.

Luckily, before half time, he was bailed out by Son Heung-min who finished brilliantly after some excellent work from James Maddison.

Romero was the villain for Spurs again in the second half when Ben White's close-range shot struck his outstretched arm. Up stepped Saka, who made no mistake from 12 yards.

That lead lasted just a minute, though, as Maddison stole the ball from Jorginho well inside the Arsenal half, teed up Son and he did the rest with another great finish.

Goals, drama and, after all that, a point apiece.

A lot can happen in a week. Seven days before the visit of Chelsea, Arsenal had just been knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich, having only just had their Premier League title chances dented by Aston Villa at the Emirates.

The external view, understandably, was that Arsenal were shot. Focus was switching to them falling short once again in April.

At that point, it was the month in which Mikel Arteta had performed worst in as Arsenal manager (with a 31.8 per cent win rate from 22 games). The manner of their tame performances at the Allianz Arena and in the second half against Villa suggested at least some fatigue.

Shades of those performances bled into the first half in the 2-0 win at Wolves, but one moment changed that.

Read more from Art de Roche below

If Tottenham's last game was disappointing, Arsenal's was the complete opposite.

Chelsea were the visitors in a must-win game for Arteta's side and that is exactly what they did, and in some style.

A fourth-minute goal for Leandro Trossard settled the nerves inside the Emirates Stadium and it set the platform for the league leaders to click fully into gear in the second half.

A brace each for Ben White and Kai Havertz — against his former club — led Arsenal to a 5-0 victory which, if nothing else, restored the fanbase's faith in their title challenge.

A memorable night for those inside the Emirates.

That trip to Newcastle would have brought up very vivid memories for Tottenham fans of their visit a year before.

Thankfully, it wasn't quite as bad as that one ended 6-1.

But, as it did last year, it showed that the club still has a long way to go to be a contender.

Jack Pitt-Brooke's piece from St James' Park reflected that — check it out here.

GO FURTHER

Tottenham still need to fix a lot

Tottenham will hope that a fortnight between games will have helped them forget about their chastening defeat to Newcastle.

Postecoglou and his players arrived at St James' Park with the aim of putting pressure on Aston Villa in the battle for the final top-four place, but they were blown away.

Two well-taken finishes in the space of two minutes on the half-hour mark from Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon gave them a mountain to climb, and it only got worse from there.

Isak scored again a few minutes after half time before Fabian Schar powered in a header to wrap up his side's emphatic victory in the closing stages.

A humbling trip to the north east and one that they have, fortunately, had two weeks to get out of their system.

This will be the 64th meeting between Tottenham and Arsenal in Premier League history.

You might not be surprised to hear that it is Arsenal who hold the edge in the head-to-head record. They have, however, only got six away wins in the north London in the league in that time.

After scoring a brilliant goal on his return to action for Arsenal Under-21s on Monday evening, a Timber update from the pre-match press conference was inevitable. As far as Arsenal fans are concerned, it could not have been much more positive.

"We will make that decision (over whether he can play) tomorrow," Arteta said on Friday.

"He’s very close but I don’t know if this will come too early."

Mikel Arteta will be ecstatic to see how his side's injuries have cleared up at the perfect time.

He goes into today's north London derby with no unavailable players.

The only player whose availability is questionable is Jurrien Timber who is close to making a first Premier League appearance since the first game of the season.

He is the final stages of his comeback from a serious knee injury.

Udogie has been one of Tottenham's stand-out players this season and his absence will be a significant blow in what remains of the season.

"(It is) a disappointing one for Destiny and for ourselves as well, because he’s been a big part of our year," said Postecoglou. "It was just an unfortunate incident in training. He’s had the operation, it’s gone well - so hopefully it gives him time to have pre-season and get back into it. We’ll miss him."

Asked how the injury happened, the Spurs boss responded: "It was non-contact. He just went to have a strike at goal by himself and got the injury."

Mixed fortunes in the latest update from Ange Postecoglou.

Firstly, he revealed that Pedro Porro and Richarlison have been back in training and will be available for today's game.

But then, he spoke about the season-ending muscular injury suffered by Destiny Udogie that has required surgery.

Elsewhere, Oliver Skipp, Ryan Sessegnon, Manor Solomon and Fraser Forster are unavailable.

Capacity: 62,850

Arguably the grandest stadium in the Premier League is where today's action comes from.

There isn't a north London derby that is not already emotionally charged but, given what is on the line, the atmosphere will be electric in there later on.

Sky Sports will be showing the north London derby in the UK.

In the US, it is USA Network that has the rights.

Kick-off in north London is at 2pm local time (BST).

That means it is an early start in the US; 9am ET and 6am PT.

Hello! And welcome along to The Athletic's live coverage of Tottenham vs Arsenal in the Premier League.

The second and final north London derby of the season and it is a huge one.

Arsenal are still going great guns in the title race, but there isn't a single team who would rather land a blow to their hopes than neighbours Tottenham.

I know it is an early start, but make sure to stick with us throughout the morning and into the afternoon as we build up to the pick of this weekend's action.