Arsenal defence won’t give Harry Kane sleepless nights, writes Danny Murphy

When Tottenham’s players look across at Arsenal in the tunnel, they ought to think: “We are better than you... this shouldn’t be a problem”.

Take Harry Kane. If he has thought about the Arsenal defence this week, it won’t have given him too many sleepless nights. He was outstanding in the games against Liverpool and Real Madrid recently and will be chomping at the bit to get at the Arsenal centre-backs.

Tottenham have to improve away from home against the big teams to get to the next level. Under Mauricio Pochettino, their record at the other grounds in the traditional top six is poor but they should be confident they can change that this season.

The results against Real should help. They matched the Champions League holders at the Bernabeu and then beat them convincingly at Wembley. I’d expect performances like that to give the players renewed self-belief when they take on the biggest teams.

We know what to expect from Arsenal. At home, they try to force the pace to win the game, so they won’t sit deep or do anything surprising. If they are at their best, they can cause problems for any team, as Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Alexandre Lacazette can do serious damage in attacking areas.

But the problem with Arsenal is that to win a game against their close rivals they have to play really effective, attacking football.

You don’t see them defending deep and scraping ugly wins in these games. They played well to draw 0-0 at Chelsea earlier in the season but that was very much an exception to recent trends.

I suspect that, after 15 or 20 minutes, you will see big spaces in the Arsenal half and a Tottenham side who look like creating chances whenever they go forward, though it is a problem for Spurs that Toby Alderweireld is missing due to a hamstring injury.

The Belgian is an excellent organiser at the back, who is constantly talking to his colleagues, so someone else will have to fill that role.

I would expect Eric Dier to drop into the back three and perhaps he will be able to do the job, thanks to the confidence and sense of responsibility that leading England will have given him.

Who will score first? If it’s Arsenal, watch their confidence soar — flicks, little balls round the corner, everyone wanting it, Tottenham chasing. But if it’s Spurs, just listen to the home fans get on the backs of their team, and the players will start to rely on Sanchez to get them out of trouble.

It should be a fascinating match and Tottenham must see it as another opportunity to show the rest of the division what they are made of.