'We were ready in January!' Spurs taunt Arsenal ahead of north London derby

Tottenham have fanned the flames ahead of tonight’s pivotal north London derby by reminding Arsenal they were ‘ready’ to face their great rivals in January before the Premier League controversially postponed the fixture.

Spurs were angry that the Gunners appeared to take advantage of a loophole which saw the fixture called off in January when Arsenal had just one case of Covid in the squad.

At the time, several key players were unavailable through suspension and injury, while the likes of Thomas Partey, Mohamed Elneny and Nicolas Pepe were participating in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Tottenham released a pointed statement and complained that the game should have gone ahead, while Antonio Conte, speaking ahead of tonight’s rearranged game, reiterated that the decision was unfair.

He said: ‘To speak now about what happened in the past is not useful. For sure, it was very strange that our game was postponed for Covid and Arsenal didn’t have one player with Covid.

‘We lost a game 3-0 [to Rennes] because Premier League didn’t want to move our game when we had 9 or 10 players with Covid.

‘At that time, it was unfair what happened, but now this is the past and we have to be focused on the present and try to get the best result.

‘I think this could be a good chance for us to get three points against their whole team because if we played in January they were without many players because they were committed at the African Cup [of Nations] and injuries. I think football is wonderful.

‘Also this type of game it’s right to play with two teams and all the players available.’

With less than 12 hours to go before kick-off, meanwhile, Spurs released a rousing video on social media in which they pointedly reminded Arsenal they have been