The North London derby is always one of the highlights of the Premier League calendar, but it is rare for Tottenham and Arsenal to meet with so much on the line at both ends of the table.

Having parted ways with Thomas Frank just eight months into his tenure, Spurs have a new man at the wheel in Igor Tudor, who has signed a contract to run until the end of the season.

Sunday's derby represents a baptism of fire for the Croatian, but given Spurs could be just two points clear of the relegation zone by kick-off, a strong start is a must.

Up at the summit, Arsenal are also glancing nervously over their shoulders. Wednesday's dramatic 2-2 draw with Wolves prevented them from going seven points clear of Manchester City, who now enter the weekend five adrift with a game in hand.

Pep Guardiola's side could be breathing down Arsenal's necks by the time this match gets underway, which would no doubt leave the Gunners' supporters with a sense of déjà vu. 

Here, we preview the game by diving into the best Opta insights surrounding the players and storylines to watch.

What's expected?

Despite Arsenal's recent wobbles, the Opta supercomputer is still firmly behind them this weekend.

They are assigned a 60.1% chance of victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the highest of any away team on matchday 27. 

Spurs only won 19.3% of our 10,000 pre-match predictions, while the remaining 20.6% finished level.

Perhaps those figures are no surprise, given Arsenal's tremendous record against their arch-rivals in recent years.

Arsenal have won six of their last seven Premier League games against Tottenham (one draw), including each of the last four, thrashing them 4-1 in November's reverse fixture. They last won five league games in a row against them from January 1987 to January 1989.

And even playing at home has not given Spurs much respite. They have lost their last three Premier League games against Arsenal on their own turf, as many defeats as they suffered in their previous 23 (W10 D10). They last lost four in a row at home to their neighbours between 1952 and 1955.

Arsenal also boast a fine record in London derbies more generally. Since their most recent league defeat against Spurs in May 2022, Arsenal have lost just one of their 21 away games against fellow London clubs in the Premier League (14 wins, six draws), going down 2-1 to Fulham on New Year's Eve 2023.

Mikel Arteta, meanwhile, has won 41 of his 68 Premier League London derbies as a manager, the best win rate (60.3%) of anyone to take charge of at least 20 such matches. 

Overall, only Arsene Wenger (106 wins in 194 games) and Jose Mourinho (42/70) have won more London derbies than the Spaniard.

New manager bounce a must for Tudor

Tudor has not exactly shown a propensity for sticking around in his last few jobs. 

He only lasted seven months at Juventus last year, and under three months at Marseille in 2024. In fact, he has not lasted a full calendar year in any of his last 10 roles, since a near-two-year stint with Hajduk Split from April 2013 to February 2015.

However, his assignment at Spurs looks to be a short-term rescue act, and he does tend to get off the mark quickly.

Tudor has started each of his last five managerial reigns with a win in his opening game, going back to his second spell at Hajduk in February 2020. Since then, he has got off to winning starts with Verona, Marseille, Lazio and Juventus.

There has only been one previous instance of a Tottenham manager facing Arsenal in their first game at the helm, though – a 2-1 defeat under Glenn Hoddle in the FA Cup semi-finals, in April 2001.

However, the Croatian has been appointed mid-season by a team in Europe's top five leagues on five previous occasions – all in Serie A. On each occasion, those teams saw their points-per-game figure increase after Tudor took the reins. 

Udinese went from 0.97 to 1.75 in 2017-18, then 0.93 to 1.64 when he returned in 2018-19. Verona were pointless when he took over in 2021-22 and picked up 1.51 points per game under him. And both Lazio (2023-24) and Juventus (2024-25) averaged exactly two points per game with Tudor in charge, having averaged 1.48 and 1.79 before him.

An attempt to play more progressive, proactive football would go down well with fans, who have seen their team rank 10th for average possession share (50.6%) and 13th for successful passes into the final third (2,117) this season. 

But Tudor is walking into an extremely tough situation, with Cristian Romero suspended and Lucas Bergvall, Mohammed Kudus, Rodrigo Bentancur, James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, Wilson Odobert and Destiny Udogie among Spurs' lengthy list of injured players.

If he is able to get up and running at the first attempt, and damage Arsenal's title hopes in the process, Tudor will earn instant cult-hero status.

Arsenal feeling the heat in title race

Arsenal looked to be home and hosed when Piero Hincapie's goal put them 2-0 up at Molineux, but instead, they were taunted to chants of "second again, ole ole" by Wolves' supporters as they trudged off the field after conceding a stoppage-time equaliser.

Tom Edozie became the fourth different player to score his first Premier League goal against the Gunners this season, and the third for Wolves. The way his 94th-minute strike came about, with David Raya flapping at Mateus Mane's cross and Riccardo Calafiori failing to block it on the line, suggested panic was in the air.

The post-match scenes, which saw Gabriel Jesus angrily shove Yerson Mosquera but avoid a straight red card, also hinted at the fact Arsenal may be feeling the pressure. 

It was the first time in Premier League history that a side starting the day top of the table had failed to win after going two goals up in a game against the bottom club.

It was also the first time Arsenal had gone two goals up away from home in the Premier League and failed to win since April 2023, in a 2-2 draw with West Ham that proved pivotal to them missing out on the title that season.

Only Crystal Palace and West Ham (both eight) have dropped more points from winning positions in the Premier League in 2026 than Arsenal (seven).

Arteta's men have now failed to win from a leading position in three of their last five league games (W2 D2 L1), having also lost to Manchester United and drawn with Brentford after scoring first.

Neither Raya nor Calafiori covered themselves in glory against Wolves, but there were plenty of other poor performances.

The midfield pairing of Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi allowed Wolves to edge the possession battle (51.3%) in the second half, while Viktor Gyokeres was anonymous up front, only having 12 touches and completing five passes.

The Opta supercomputer still makes Arsenal favourites to win the title, with a 79.7% probability, but that figure stood at 85.1% before the Wolves game.  

And another slip-up here, coupled with a win for City, would ensure that figure continues to tumble. 

PLAYERS TO WATCH 

Tottenham – Micky van de Ven 

Van de Ven will expect to be busy in defence on Sunday, with Arsenal sure to be smarting after their midweek capitulation.

However, he could also have a part to play at the other end, with only Richarlison (seven goals) outscoring him for Spurs in the Premier League this season (four for Van de Ven).

Tottenham have also scored more Premier League goals via defenders both overall (10) and as a percentage of their total goals (28%) than any other team in 2025-26.

Arsenal – Bukayo Saka

Arsenal confirmed on Thursday that Saka had penned a new long-term contract with the club, having ended his 15-game goal drought across all competitions against Wolves.

Saka has started Arsenal's last two games in a new-look number 10 position, and none of his team-mates bettered his six touches in the opposition box on Wednesday.

Saka has scored three goals in 11 Premier League appearances against Spurs, only netting more often against West Ham, Wolves (five apiece) and Liverpool (four).