Key events
The teams are out at Bramall Lane, where there’s one hell of a racket for midday. It’s win or relegation for Sheffield Wednesday.
With that, I’m handing this blog over to John Brewin, who will guide you through the first-half action at Bramall Lane.
Speaking ahead of the match about the prospect of relegation, Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen said: “We will do everything to bring a top, top performance to compete with them. Of course, we know it will happen some day. Nobody understands what this group has been through in the past many months.
“I have a group with a big belief and big motivation, and a group of senior players who are ready to do everything for our fans and stand up and perform. They know that 95% will not be enough.”
Krishnamoorthy has emailed in to say:
“We know that Spurs(y) has entered the lexicon as a verb/adjective. Even Swedish economists are using them. Has Arsenal made it too?”
Joshua Keeling has messaged in:
“I’m not an Arsenal fan, but I have to challenge Dave Estherby. I do think City will win it from here – it looks like Arsenal are, to coin a phrase, bottling it again. But the idea that the title will be gone for them if they lose today is for the birds. They would still be top if they lost, remember.”
Team news – Sheffield United v Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield United XI: Cooper, Tanganga, Bindon, Hamer, O’Hare, Brooks, Burrows, Phillips, Seriki, Peck, Bamford.
Subs: A. Davies, Arblaster, Hjelde, Cannon, Hoever, Soumaré, Campbell, Chong, McGuinness.
Sheffield Wednesday XI: Dieng, Palmer, Otegbayo, Cooper, Adaramola, Ingelsson, Heskey, McNeill, Ndala, J. Lowe, Yates.
Subs: Stretch, McGhee, Emery, Johnson, Fusire, Thornton, Grainger, Moses, Ugbo.
Bernard has messaged in with his North London Derby prediction…
“Arsenal get their mojo back and ease past an insipid Spurs.
”As a ManU fan I’d like to see Arsenal win it this season, and give us a run for our money when we win it next season. Am I being nostalgic for the 90s?”
If you’ve got some time to spare before this afternoon’s games, be sure to give the latest episode of Football Weekly a watch.
But there are also a few people who say that it’s only downhill from here…
I don’t know why but I just can’t help but shake the feeling that Spurs season can only get worse from here.
A few people in the comments are convinced that Spurs will take all three points today…
I have a feeling (and I realise this will almost certainly bite me in the bum, but there’s some method to my madness) Spurs will take all three points. They’re fresher, Arsenal have no experience of playing against Tudor’s Spurs and as a system-based team they tend to struggle when things go off script. Combine that with their mental frailty and a win might be on the cards for Spurs, hell they’re a better team (just) than Wolves and they took a point.
Eberechi Eze was the star of the show last time Arsenal faced Tottenham. The 27-year-old scored a hat-trick against Spurs in the North London Derby in November. However, his form has dipped since then.
The former Crystal Palace man can still play a crucial role going into the final months of the season as Arsenal continue to hunt down four trophies.
Elsewhere across the UK and Europe today
Championship:
Scottish Premiership:
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Celtic v Hibernian
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Livingston v Rangers
LaLiga:
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Getafe v Sevilla
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Barcelona v Levante
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Celta Vigo v Mallorca
Bundesliga:
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SC Freiburg v Borussia Mönchengladbach
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St. Pauli v Werder Bremen
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Heidenheim v VfB Stuttgart
Ligue 1
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Auxerre v Rennes
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Angers v Lille
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Nice v Lorient
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Nantes v Le Havre
Serie A
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Genoa v Torino
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Atalanta v Napoli
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AC Milan v Parma
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Roma v Cremonese
Sheffield Wednesday face Sheffield United in the Steel City Derby today. The Owls will be relegated from the Championship if they fail to beat their rivals. If that is the case, Wednesday will become the first EFL side to go down in February.
Dave Estherby has emailed in about the North London Derby…
“Don’t want to be the bearer of bad tides but anyone expecting a classic this afternoon is gonna be seriously disappointed; both sides need a win but absolutely CANNOT lose. Defeat for Arsenal means the title is as good as gone and if Forest manage to embarrass Liverpool in the earlier game then Tottenham (if they lose) will be one place and 4 – FOUR! – points off the scary zone.
“Strap yourselves in for 90 minutes, 22 players and 2 very large buses, folks.”
As always, feel free to email in with any thoughts, feelings, predictions and all that jazz ahead of today’s games. You can also leave a comment below the line.
matchday.live@theguardian.com
How things stand in the Premier League…
Hannibal Mejbri and Wesley Fofana have both been racially abused on Instagram in the wake of the former’s Burnley side drawing 1-1 at Chelsea after the latter was sent off.
Liam Rosenior has revealed that one of his Chelsea stars marked the wrong Burnley player in added time yesterday, resulting in Zian Flemming’s equaliser.
The Chelsea head coach said: “An assignment was missed. An assignment, a marking assignment wasn’t done. Flemming, we know, is their best header of the ball.
“And there was a player who I won’t… I’m not here to throw players under the bus, I will always protect my players, I will deal with it in the week. There was a player we assigned that duty who marked the wrong player.”
Elsewhere in the Premier League yesterday, Zian Flemming scored a late equaliser against Chelsea to earn a point for Burnley.
Manchester City moved within two points of Arsenal last night with a 2-0 win over Newcastle at the Etihad Stadium. Nico O’Reilly scored a first-half brace to pile the pressure on the Gunners ahead of today’s North London Derby.
Yesterday’s Premier League results
Jonathan Wilson
“When did the reality dawn? Perhaps it was towards the end of the first half of West Ham’s game at Chelsea at the end of January with the away side leading 2-0. Or perhaps it was when West Ham took the lead against Manchester United 10 days later. As it turned out, West Ham won neither fixture; had they done so they would have had five points more and so been level with Tottenham going into this weekend. And then Tottenham’s proximity to relegation could not have been denied.
West Ham’s revival means this isn’t like last season, when a win at Ipswich at the end of February took Tottenham to 33 points and as good as confirmed their continued presence in the Premier League, allowing Ange Postecoglou to focus on Europe. Were Spurs to pull off something extremely unlikely and beat Arsenal on Sunday, they would move to 32 and, for all the glee their fans would feel, nobody would feel secure…”
Igor Tudor has said Tottenham are in “an emergency situation” but issued a guarantee that his new team would escape relegation.
Tudor is a veteran of short-term appointments and has performed rescue jobs at Udinese, Verona and Juventus. He offered a curt “100%” in response to questions on his confidence in Spurs’s survival. The Croat’s tenure begins on Sunday with a north London derby at home to the wobbling Premier League leaders, though a lengthy injury list leaves him with only 13 fit senior players.
“What I saw this week was the quality of the players,” said Tudor. “We have enormous quality in the squad.”
A coach presiding over 12 remaining league matches, the Champions League being a lower priority with Spurs five points off the relegation zone, made no promises of living up to the club’s attacking traditions.
“When you start pre-season and then you have 50 days in pre-season and you have 20 players, of course then we see the style. This is an emergency, an emergency situation, when you need to find fast what suits the 10 plus three players and it’s totally different.”
Mikel Arteta has insisted the word “bottlers” is not in his vocabulary and that Arsenal must take criticism “on the chin” after surrendering a 2-0 lead against the bottom side, Wolves, in midweek.
It’s North London Derby day! Always a huge occasion for both teams but it feels even more so today. For Arsenal, today marks a fantastic opportunity to bounce back from their midweek 2-2 draw at Wolves. The result on Wednesday sparked an all too familiar feeling among Arsenal fans as the Gunners lost ground in the title race once again. It meant that Manchester City were able to move within two points following their 2-1 win over Newcastle last night (more on that later). But victory today could spark a much-needed resurgence going into the most important part of the season.
Meanwhile, for Tottenham it presents an opportunity to get their first Premier League win of the year. Spurs have endured a run of poor form and now begin a new – albeit likely small – era with new interim head coach Igor Tudor, who was appointed until the end of the season last week following the dismissal of Thomas Frank.
It is also a chance for Spurs to get their revenge following their humiliating 4-1 defeat in November.
Today’s Premier League games (2pm GMT unless stated otherwise)
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another Matchday live! We’ve got some huge games to look forward to this afternoon, including the North London Derby and the Steel City Derby.
Arsenal need a win at Tottenham later to restore their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table. It comes after they were held to a 2-2 draw by Wolves on Wednesday, having squandered a two-goal advantage.
Meanwhile, Sheffield Wednesday need a victory against their local rivals to delay relegation to League One.
We’ll also be looking ahead to plenty more games across the UK and Europe as the day goes on, so join us!