Arsenal will be relying on north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur to do them a huge favour when they face title contenders Manchester City on Tuesday. If Spurs manage to win or draw against Pep Guardiola’s side in midweek, it will put the Gunners in the driving seat to win their first Premier League title since 2004. Arsenal defender William Saliba says the whole squad will be supporting Spurs. Arsenal defender William Saliba has said the whole squad will be supporting fierce north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur when the latter face Manchester City on Tuesday.
The Gunners kept their dreams of claiming a first Premier League trophy since 2004 alive when they secured a 1-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The win means that Mikel Arteta’s side are top of the league, but title contenders City will be crowned champions for an unprecedented fourth time in a row if they win their remaining two matches. Pep Guardiola’s men face a tricky trip to Spurs on Tuesday and Saliba says that his team-mates will put their derby rivalries to one side and back Ange Postecoglou’s team.
“They [Spurs] will try to win,” Saliba told reporters. “Their fans don’t want them to win against City, but they are good competitors, so they will try their best to win.
“I don’t think [it changes anything for the Tottenham players], because they want to play in the Champions League next season.
“Tottenham is a very good team. Our games with them were not easy. I hope they will be at their best. All the [Arsenal] team will be Tottenham fans on Tuesday. Let’s pray for Tuesday.
“I hope it will be a good week. We did our job today. We have another job next week and let’s see what happens.”
The last time that Arsenal sought help from their bitter rivals in a league title bid came in 1999, when Spurs travelled to Old Trafford on the final day of the season.
Despite scoring the opening goal, Spurs were defeated 2-1 by United as Sir Alex Ferguson’s team won the league on their way to a historic Treble that campaign.
Although United are a different outfit from those title-winning days, Arsenal still needed to deliver on Sunday to claim their first away win at Old Trafford in front of supporters since 2006.
Leandro Trossard grabbed the winning goal, but it was the defensive work led by Saliba that enabled The Gunners to claim all three points and the Frenchman was delighted with the efforts of his team-mates.
“We are happy because it wasn’t easy to come here and to take the points,” Saliba added. “It was a long time that we hadn’t taken the three points here.
“We weren’t so good, we suffer a lot. But we took the three points and let’s move to next week. When we are not at our best, we have to stay compact and suffer until the end. We did well.
“It was another strong performance defensively. It’s not only the defence, it’s everyone, the midfield and the attackers.
“We defend all together and we have to be happy to keep a clean sheet, because it’s not every time they don’t score here. We are so happy and we need to keep going.” Speaking in his post-match interview, Kai Havertz also stressed that Arsenal will backing Spurs by saying: “I am going to be the biggest fan of Tottenham ever. Let’s hope for the best.”