Rarely have Arsenal and Tottenham approached the North London derby in the unflustered manner as they will this weekend.
Arsenal have so far coped up pretty well unlike the last few seasons where they started in a dismal manner while Mauricio Pochettino’s side has let the lower-ranked teams steal their thunder. Buoyed up by an excellent transfer window, Arsenal walk-in favourites to win the game.
Both the teams rely heavily on their higher-rated and experienced players. If the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Bernd Leno have won the games for Arsenal; Harry Kane, Heung-min Son and Christian Eriksen have done their share of work for Spurs. With Luiz into the squad of Gunners, Spurs have a heavy task in hand.
I won’t be surprised to see a battle between Harry Kane and David Luiz when both the teams lock horns. If one is a brutal goal-scorer other is busty giant standing in front of goal. No doubt it will be North London derby revolving around these two giants.
Harry Kane
If there’s one guy who can settle a contest on his own, it’s Harry Kane. The king of English football, Kane loves to play against the arch-rivals and more importantly, score. This all hits from his past when only 8, Kane was rejected by the Gunners academy.
For the Spurs fans, I have a quote that will be a pleasing sight.”I dreamed of playing for Spurs since I was a boy. For a long time my motivation was simply to close my eyes and picture myself scoring against Arsenal in the Premier League. Done that a few times now, and it never gets old,” said Harry Kane.
Kane’s feeling are epitomised by the result he has against Arsenal. In almost every game that he has played against the Gunners, he has been on the score-sheet. Somehow he does bring that X-factor into the game when he plays with the neighbours.
Harry Kane is as good with his long range shots as his headers. So if anything Luiz can do is to stop him from scoring from set-pieces. The talisman can not be kept shut but what Luiz can do best is keep him quiet.
David Luiz
The onus falls on David Luiz to stop Tottenham from scoring. Stopping Kane or atleast keeping him at bay will be the major task of Luiz. The Brazilian willhave to get over his nightmarish performance from last game and bring the mighty beast back into action.
David Luiz will have to tighten up against a talent-laden attack stewarded with the very best, Harry Kane. It is David Luiz that will have to endure and ensure a good day in order to stop the goal-scoring spree of Harry Kane against Arsenal.
Perhaps, for the first time in Arsenal colours will Luiz experience a derby like never before. And a debut in North-London derby, Luiz would want it to pan out his way. The 32-year-old has marshalled another London club, Chelsea a lot of times in the past and as a Gooner one would want him to encore the past.
