View: How Tottenham ace Dejan Kulusevski can exploit Oleksandr Zinchenko during North London derby
Ange Postecoglou is preparing to take his Tottenham side to the Emirates for the North London derby against Arsenal on Sunday 24 September.
Spurs will be looking for their first Premier League win at the home of their noisy neighbours since November 2010. The Emirates has not been a happy hunting ground for the club and Postecoglou will be looking to change that.
Both sides have made undefeated starts to their league campaigns, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to the contest – as if it needed anymore. They both have four wins and a draw under their belts and are therefore level in the table with 13 points.
Many would have expected Mikel Arteta’s men to make a fast start to the season after the way they performed last time out, and the big-money signings they made during the summer transfer window. It is Sunday’s visitors, however, who have been something of a surprise package thus far.
Postecoglou is relatively unproven in European football and after Tottenham’s dismal campaign last time out, during which they missed out on European football, few knew what to expect, and even fewer would have expected the team to come through a trip to Brentford and meeting with Manchester United unscathed.
Nonetheless, they find themselves in a position of optimism ahead of the meeting with Arsenal, and one key area on the pitch could prove crucial in their chances of securing a monumental result on Sunday afternoon.
Dejan Kulusevski has had a solid if unspectacular start to the season, with the forward having scored just twice without registering an assist in five league starts. However, after his last-minute goal against Sheffield United last time out, the Swede will be full of confidence and could make the difference, especially considering his potential opponent at left-back.
Oleksandr Zinchenko is a wonderful footballer with plenty of brilliant qualities, although he is not known for his one-on-one defending ability, and his role as an inverted full-back will leave space in behind for Kulusevski to exploit.
As per fbref, last season the Ukraine international full-back was in the bottom 10 per cent of his positional peers in the Premier League for the number of tackles he won (0.76 per 90) and the bottom 14 per cent for the number of tackles he won in the defensive third (0.59 per 90).
In addition to this, the former Manchester City left-back tackled just 53.8 per cent of the dribblers he challenged, leaving him in the 42nd percentile in regard to this particular statistic. It is certainly an area of weakness within the Arsenal ranks and one that Postecoglou will demand Kulusevski exploits.
And despite his mixed form over the past 12 months, he is certainly more than capable of exploiting it.
Over the course of the past calendar year, Tottenham’s 23-year-old winger is in the top 30 per cent of his positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues for the number of take-ons completed (2.08 per 90). As well as this, he is in the top 15 per cent for the number of carries he makes into the penalty area (2.08 per 90), and with the space that Zinchenko might leave in behind, he could find more opportunities to do this and cause the Gunners problems.
This will certainly be an area to keep an eye on when the two fierce rivals meet, and one which the visiting side could really use to their advantage.
In other Tottenham news, Ange Postecoglou has set out timelines for the returns of some key players.