Arsenal enter enemy's den as title race reaches boiling point

One fixture lurking like a troll in Arsenal's Premier League title run-in has probably consumed the thoughts of the club's fans more than any other – Sunday's short trip down the road to arch-rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Like all big city derbies, pride and bragging rights are always huge motivating factors, but the fact this one arrives with Arsenal glimpsing a first title for 20 years adds considerably more spice to the occasion.

It looks the toughest of Arsenal's final four games but they will head to Tottenham with confidence brimming after Tuesday's 5-0 mauling of Chelsea lifted them three points clear of Liverpool whose own title ambitions suffered a huge blow in defeat by Everton on Wednesday.

Manchester City, who are four points back with two games in hand ahead of their trip to Brighton and Hove Albion later on Thursday, remain slight favourites to claim an unprecedented fourth successive English crown.

But unlike last season when Arsenal collapsed down the home stretch, this time they seem capable of lasting the distance.

It is a long time since Arsenal faced their arch-rivals in such a position and probably the last occasion in which either had serious title chances by the time of their second meeting of the season was in 2016.

On that occasion it was Tottenham eyeing a long-awaited title but a 2-2 home draw damaged those ambitions and Leicester City went on a fairytale run to glory.

Arsenal re-established superiority over Tottenham last season when they were runners-up behind City, ending a streak of six seasons finishing below Tottenham in the league.

While Tottenham have shown an improvement in an encouraging first season under Ange Postecoglou and had marginally the better of a 2-2 draw at The Emirates in September,