Spursvs.Arsenal

The Lilywhites sit four points and 17 places worse off than their league-leading counterparts, whom they fought back against twice to come away with a 2-2 draw from the last scrap at the Emirates in September.

Son Heung-min was among the goals that day, cancelling out Bukayo Saka's spot kick and a Cristian Romero own goal, and the Tottenham captain is out for a slice of club history when he leads the hosts out on Sunday.

Here, Sports Mole takes a closer look at the winger's record against Arsenal ahead of this weekend's main event.

Son never pitted his wits against Arsenal while donning the Bayer Leverkusen strip, but he has since become accustomed to tough tests against the Gunners, whom he has taken on 19 times in a North London derby setting.

The 31-year-old has only been on the correct end of the scoreline six times, in addition to six draws and seven defeats, and he has curiously only managed to complete the full 90 minutes in three of those contests.

However, with Harry Kane - the top scorer in North London derbies with a staggering 14 efforts - now bursting nets in Germany, the onus is even more on Spurs' skipper to continue his own penchant for scoring in NLDs, having managed seven of his own in addition to two assists.

Son's two most recent strikes against Arsenal both came in September's showdown at the Emirates, in which he recorded his maiden brace against the Gunners, and as mentioned, a new chapter of Tottenham history will be written if the South Korean nets at least twice again.

Indeed, no Spurs player has ever managed to score multiple goals in both editions of the North London derby in one season; the only previous man to do so was Arsenal legend Ted Drake, who achieved the feat in the 1934-35 campaign.

Son's September double came after he failed to contribute to a goal in both defeats last season, but he was on target in both fixtures in the 2021-22 campaign and scored and assisted in a 2-0 home win in December 2020, where a handful of supporters were present to watch his long-range beauty sail in.

The ex-Leverkusen man had identical involvements in a July 2020 home victory, cancelling out an Alexandre Lacazette rocket and assisting Toby Alderweireld's winner, both of which coincidentally marked his 10th goals and 10th assists for that league campaign.

That fixture ended Son's excruciating run of Premier League NLD blanks, though, as he had failed to score or assist in his first nine top-flight matches against Arsenal - in addition to an unproductive cameo in a 2-1 EFL Cup defeat in 2015 - although he netted in a 2-0 win in the same tournament in 2018 to break his 10-game duck in all competitions versus the men in red.

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