Arsenal legend Ian Wright feels that his former club will suffer against Tottenham if Jose Mourinho can take a leaf out of Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa’s book in the North London derby on Sunday.
The Gunners travel to high-flying Spurs this weekend in search of bragging rights. Tottenham are clearly the better side with respect to form and league position but, in a derby, anything can happen.
Harry Kane and Son Heung-min are in the form of their lives while Tanguy Ndombele is finally living up to the hype. The trio can cause Arsenal all sorts of problems, and Wright believes things will be very easy for them if Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos start in midfield.
He spoke on the Wrighty’s House podcast: “You’ve got (Ndombele) who can run with the ball, Bergwijn, Son – Kane can drop off. What are we going to do to contain somebody who can run with the ball? Are we going to (play) Elneny? Is it Elneny? Elneny should hold.
“It will be (Dani) Ceballos and (Granit) Xhaka. When you look at what Bielsa did to them, when he put Klich on them to push them even further back. If Tottenham do anything like that, they’re going to have all that space.”
If Tottenham find space like Leeds United did last month, they will rip Arsenal to shreds. Mourinho can use someone like Ndombele or even Kane when he drops deep to push Ceballos and Xhaka back, just like Bielsa did with Mateusz Klich two weeks ago.
That will allow Spurs to dominate the game in midfield and the Gunners can do very little about it if Arteta sticks to a Xhaka-Ceballos midfield pivot.
Elneny can stop that from happening but he hasn’t played since the start of the international break. The Egyptian was solid against Manchester United at Old Trafford last month, and he is exactly the type of player Arsenal need to keep Tottenham away from the goal.
Kane has caused teams lots of problems by dropping deep and allowing Son to exploit the space up front. Elneny has the ability to keep the England skipper quiet when he drops deep; something Xhaka and Ceballos cannot do.
The former Basel man is in line to feature in the Europa League on Thursday. Arteta should use him cautiously against Rapid Wien and make sure he starts against Spurs on Sunday. If he doesn’t, Mourinho’s men could run riot as they did against Manchester United earlier this season.
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