Arteta wants Arsenal to prove predictions wrong
Mikel Arteta is looking to prove the Opta supercomputer wrong as Arsenal prepares for perhaps the biggest test of its Premier League title credentials in the North London derby at Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal began the weekend one point clear of Manchester City at the top of the table, a;though Pep Guardiola's men have a game in hand and have been in ominous form lately, winning their past four league matches.
Five wins for City will ensure it retains its crown and, according to the Opta supercomputer, the champion started the weekend with a 71.7 per cent chance of topping the pile, compared to 26.6 per cent for Arsenal and just 1.7 per cent for Liverpool, which may have shrunk further after the Reds' draw at West Ham United.
Arteta hopes to see Arsenal's figure boosted by a derby win, saying: "I don't know what to say, hopefully we can trick that computer and make it a bit higher.
"Maybe it needs to update the software, we need to help it or give it more tools. Hopefully we can change that.
"We are there. We have to look at ourselves and try to perform in the best possible way to win our matches and I can't wait to see what happens.
"We had a big win in the last London derby against Chelsea and now we have another big one. I'm sure if we're going to win the league, we're going to have to beat Spurs as well."
Tottenham, meanwhile, needs points if it is to overhaul Aston Villa in the battle for UEFA Champions League qualification, with fifth place now unlikely to be enough.
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou is more interested in seeing how Spurs measure up to a side they hope to challenge in the future.
"We understand the importance of the game but ultimately, it's still about us measuring ourselves against the teams we want to be challenging on a more consistent basis," Postecoglou said.
"It's a great opportunity to do that on Sunday."
Tottenham has won just one of its past six Premier League games against Arsenal – one draw, four defeats – with four losses in this span as many as it had suffered in its previous 16 matches against the Gunners – six wins, six draws.
It also lost this exact fixture 2-0 last season, meaning the Gunners could win on back-to-back league trips to Tottenham for the first time since enjoying a run of three victories there between 1987 and 1988.
Arteta's men know there is no margin for error with the title race in City's hands.
Even a draw could prove fatal to their hopes – at the end of the 2015-2016 season, the North London derby was the most drawn fixture in Premier League history, with 20 of 48 meetings finishing level (42 per cent). Since then, only four matches between these rivals have seen the points shared (27 per cent).
Arsenal has kept six straight clean sheets on its travels in the Premier League, with only two teams keeping seven in a row – Chelsea from September to December 2008 and Manchester United from November to February in 2008-2009.
