Ange Postecoglou has warned his Tottenham players that Arsenal will “punish” them if they take their foot off the gas because of the Gunners’ weakened line-up for the North London Derby.
Mikel Arteta’s side will be without Declan Rice and new signing Mikel Merino at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. Rice is serving a suspension for his controversial red card against Brighton, while Merino suffered a freak injury in Arsenal training.
Martin Odegaard suffered an ankle injury while captaining Norway against Austria on Monday night and a late call will be made on whether he can feature for Arsenal.
But Postecoglou insists his players must not get drawn into thinking the absences will give Spurs an easy ride.
“God, that’s a hell of a trap to fall into, if you think they [Arsenal] are reliant on two players [Rice and Odegaard]”, Postecoglou said. “Two important players, but we were missing key players last year as well and we still managed to give significant performances.
“A team like Arsenal have been very, very consistent over the last two years and can fill whatever gaps they have. They have quality in their squad. The key for us is to focus on our performance.
“When we’ve played well — and we certainly have played well in the first three games — [if we are] a little more clear-headed in both boxes, we’re a match for any team. That’s what we’ve got to think about at the weekend.”
The Aussie added: “If we go in there thinking they’re somehow weakened, we’re going to get punished. If we go into it thinking they’re going to be very strong, which I think they will be, then we’ve got to be at our best. We know, at our best and playing the football that we can, we can match them.”
Postecoglou was asked whether he expects his team to sure up defensively in time to face bitter rivals Arsenal.
He replied: “I don’t know. I don’t think we’ve been terrible defensively so far this year. We’ve conceded three goals and have limited the opposition to fairly few chances.
“We’ve almost been top of the league in terms of chances created by the opposition, so defensively I think we’ve been OK, we’ve just had a couple of lapses.
“It’s the nature of football. If you’re going to be more attacking, you’re going to have more gaps the other way.”
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