Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur renew hostilities in the latest instalment of the North London Derby as Premier League football returns to our screens this weekend.
A fixture that is important for both sets of supporters will have an added layer of spice for the early kick-off from the Emirates Stadium on Saturday - and not because of the current league standings or that the Gunners can end their bitter rivals' unbeaten start to the campaign.
Rather what happened during and after the last meeting between the pair back in May. Whilst Tottenham took a giant step towards Champions League qualification with a 3-0 win, the scoreline only tells half the story as it was an incident-packed night in N17 which left Mikel Arteta borrowing a classic line from Jose Mourinho.
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"If I say what I think I am suspended six months," the Arsenal manager said. "I am allowed to give my interpretation of what I thought, but I do not like to lie. I cannot say what I think, I will be suspended. I am so proud of my players, ask the referee to come here and explain his decisions. That's his decision, such a beautiful game was destroyed here."
Those comments didn't sit well with Antonio Conte, who fired back at his opposite number by telling him to stop complaining so much. "I think that Mikel Arteta is a really good coach. He's being a really good coach. He's just started to do this job and I think that I hear him complain a lot. I think that he needs to be focused more on his team and not to complain," the Italian told football.london.
"Because he has just started his work and I think he has to be calm and to try to continue to work. Because he's very good but to listen to a coach complain a lot of time is not good. But it's ok, the red card for me it was clear. I think that this is the advice if you want to accept the advice. If you don't, I don't care."
Of course, the reason Arteta was clearly frustrated with the performance of referee Paul Tierney that night boiled down to Rob Holding being sent off in the first half as well as what appeared to be a soft penalty decision that went in favour of Tottenham as Harry Kane broke the deadlock.
But with regards to Holding, the verdict from football.london was that he "tried to reprise his 'bad cop' routine to stop Diego Costa from the 2017 FA Cup final victory over Antonio Conte's Chelsea. That day he stayed the right side of the emotional line. Today he strayed over it."
On an occasion where Arsenal needed to keep their cool as a point would have been enough to remain in control of the top-four race with two games remaining, Holding was far too invested in trying to rattle Son Heung-min. Ultimately that plan backfired as he was heading back down the tunnel for an early shower after 33 minutes.
Understandably, given the form the South Korea international was in going into the game, Arteta clearly devised a plan with the hope of containing one of Spurs' biggest threats in attack. With that said, despite Holding's experience, his lack of positional awareness was brutally exposed.
Five months on and the possibility of the 27-year-old being handed a chance to atone for his error are pretty much slim to none. Unlike the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Gunners are unlikely to be facing a defensive crisis, so Arteta can name his strongest back-four.
By his own high standards, it has been a slow start to the season for Son. However, may have hit form at the worst possible time for Arsenal following his hat-trick as a substitute against Leicester City before the international break and goal for South Korea. If restored to the Tottenham starting line-up, it's likely he will play from the left.
In Takehiro Tomiyasu, Arteta has the option of repeating the trick from the corresponding fixture last season as the Japan international managed to limit Son's effectiveness in the game, whilst Ben White has performed well enough at right-back to keep his place in the starting line-up.
Although it should be pointed out that Son had a lot of joy up against Arsenal's right-sided centre-back in the last North London Derby. That night it was Holding but on Saturday it could be William Saliba, who does seem better equipped to deal with the challenge to ensure there's no recall for the Gunners' No.16.
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