Arsenal accused of being "conditioned to choking" as Mikel Arteta faces acid derby test

Arsenal's bottle faces its acid test in the North London derby with Tottenham according to former Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and England striker Stan Collymore.

The Mirror columnist has even vowed to post a picture of himself wearing a Gunners shirt with ‘Arteta 8’ on the back on social media if a club he has regularly accused of lacking bottle and character proves him wrong by qualifying for the Champions League this season.

Arsenal can clinch a top-four spot if they beat their local rivals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. And Collymore said: “Every game now for Arsenal is the acid test of their bottle. Last Sunday against Leeds was one and now the North London derby - this is it.

"When I put out a tweet about being ready to buy the Arsenal shirt a couple of weeks ago, a lot of fans still — and this is bearing in mind the run they are on and the fact Mikel Arteta has got them into a good position for fourth and maybe even third — came back saying things along the lines of, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to **** it up’.

“It was only one Arsenal fan in 50-odd comments who said anything other. I know that’s the sort of gallows humour we get from football fans but it was interesting that there weren’t many, ‘Haha, Collymore, you this, that or the other, get the shirt bought and let’s see you wearing it on Islington High Street’. It was all, ‘Nah, we’re not there yet’, and that’s because they have almost been conditioned to choking.

“So this is it and I actually hope now that, for the foundations the team have dug for themselves to get to this point, they can go on and give their supporters a run and have performances filled with character. Because as much as I would mock a Granit Xhaka as a yellow or red card