Spurs aim to damage Arsenal's weakening hold on first place in EPL

LONDON — When Arsenal walk into the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday they will carry two burdens: a shrinking lead at the Premier League summit and the memory of a mid-week collapse that invited the chasing pack to believe again. A 2-2 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday, sealed by Tom Edozie’s stoppage-time strike, saw Mikel Arteta’s side surrender a two-goal advantage for the second league match in succession and trimmed their cushion at the top to five points, with Manchester City still holding a game in hand.

Bukayo Saka and Piero Hincapie had seemingly done the hard work at Molineux, putting the Gunners 2-0 up inside 57 minutes, yet the concession of a late equaliser left Arsenal on 58 points from 17 wins, three draws and seven defeats. Despite the wobble, the north Londoners have still dropped only seven points from winning positions this term—fewer than City’s 11—and Arteta insists the pressure can be harnessed rather than feared.

“I think it’s becoming more and more exciting because that means that you are closer,” the manager said. “The more repeatedly you are in these kinds of positions, you’re going to win it … So, first of all, you have to be there, and then in April or May, it will be decided who is the best, who can get over the line.”

Standing in their way is a Tottenham side in turmoil. Spurs, 16th on 29 points, enter the derby without a permanent manager after the dismissal of Thomas Frank following back-to-back defeats to Manchester United and Newcastle United. Interim boss Igor Tudor took training this week with only 13 fit senior players and will definitely be without defender Pedro Porro, whose hamstring problem has not healed in time. There is cautious optimism that leading scorer Richarlison and striker Dominic Solanke could shake off respective hamstring and throat complaints to feature.

Tudor, overseeing his first match since arriving in the dug-out, has called on the club’s fan-base to drag the team through a fixture that offers more than local bragging rights.

“The message is, give us support,” he urged. “The players need this. It is an amazing game to restart. I heard a lot of good things about them, about the love they have for the players. I am sure they will give us support and we show them that we care and we want to switch, we want to make a change immediately.”

Victory for Arsenal would steady nerves and restore a healthy gap at the summit; three points for Spurs would haul them eight clear of the relegation zone and provide a seismic psychological lift at the start of a new era. In a season where the title race and survival fight have rarely felt so intertwined, the north London derby could tilt both narratives in a single 90-minute burst.