Tottenham go into this weekend’s clash having lost to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
The last time that Tottenham Hotspur went into a North London derby off the back of a defeat in the Champions League, fans of both Spurs and Arsenal were treated to one of their best meetings in recent memory.
Mauricio Pochettino’s men go into this Sunday’s clash having failed to win any of their last six games in all competitions, with Bayer Leverkusen claiming a 1-0 victory at Wembley in their most recent fixture.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino
And it was a defeat by the same scoreline in the same competition that proved to be Spurs’ final game before the North London derby in April 2011.
Harry Redknapp’s men had been knocked out of the Champions League on that occasion as the narrow second-leg win helped Real Madrid claim a 5-0 aggregate victory.
But they did not let the disappointment from their European adventure coming to an end get in their way against the Gunners.
Rafael van der Vaart had equalised after Theo Walcott’s opener
After Theo Walcott and Rafael van der Vaart had made the score 1-1 inside the first 10 minutes at White Hart Lane, Arsenal showed why they still boasted title hopes at that stage of the campaign as Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie put Arsene Wenger’s men 3-1 up before the break.
Tom Huddlestone (L) celebrates with Benoit Assou Ekotto after scoring Tottenham’s second goal
However, Tottenham would respond brilliantly. Tom Huddlestone would add the fifth goal of the half to leave the score 3-2 at the interval before van der Vaart bagged the equaliser from the penalty spot to leave Arsenal’s title hopes looking very bleak.
Van der Vaart scored Tottenham’s equaliser
While a repeat of the scoreline this weekend would obviously not end Tottenham’s six-game wait for a win, it would arguably be an encouraging result for Pochettino’s men.
During their winless run, they have scored just three times, so doubling that total in one game would be an extremely encouraging sign, especially if they left the ground of their bitter rivals with their unbeaten league record still in tact.
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