Tottenham and Arsenal learn about referee for the North London Derby.
Tottenham now know that Peter Bankes will be the man in the middle when Arsenal make the short trip across North London this weekend, and in a game of this magnitude, that appointment carries serious weight. Spurs are 16th in the table, five points off the relegation zone, and heading into this one after nearly two weeks without competitive football.
Igor Tudor has had about a week’s worth of time on the training pitch to try and impose something resembling structure on a squad that has spent most of the season looking like it is playing on muscle memory, but all of that work can unravel very quickly if key calls go against you in a derby of this size.
Bankes has already overseen Tottenham twice this season: once in the 2-2 draw away at Burnley back in January, a result that ultimately did little to ease the pressure that was building around Thomas Frank at the time. The other game was the 2-0 win against Manchester City in GW2 – FBRef.
High Stakes!
Arsenal are coming into this on the back of what many saw as a laughable 2-2 draw with a Wolves side currently sitting rock bottom of the league, and they cannot afford another slip in the title run-in.
Spurs, meanwhile, are in a completely different kind of fight. We can talk about chasing Europe later. This is about staying out of the bottom three and stopping the rot before it drags them into something far uglier than anyone imagined back in August.
That is what makes this game all the more important for Tudor. And as much for even the referee as well because just the minute decisions might go on to have major repercussions for either side. Mikel Arteta’s side, in their title run-in, and for Spurs, it is obviously about sustaining themselves in the league.
That is why Bankes simply has to be spot on. A dodgy decision here could derail Arsenal’s title push or shove Tottenham one step closer to the trapdoor. With both teams essentially playing for their seasons for very different reasons, the margin for error is nonexistent.