Mohammed Kudus has been handed a setback ahead of the Arsenal clash. Few players are expected to be as vital for Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday\u2019s North London Derby as Kudus, who has been one of the standout Premier League signings of the 2025 summer window. While many of Spurs\u2019 attacking additions have struggled, Kudus has consistently been the brightest spark, and his return from injury is a major lift for Thomas Frank\u2019s side. However, Arsenal have received good news of their own that could make Kudus\u2019 task far more difficult.<\/p>\n
According to Fabrizio Romano, concerns over Arsenal left-back Riccardo Calafiori have been dismissed. Although the Italian defender withdrew from the national team during the November break with an apparent injury, Romano reports that Calafiori is not injured and will be fully available for Sunday\u2019s derby.<\/p>\n
Calafiori\u2019s availability is significant. He has been one of the Premier League\u2019s top defensive performers this season\u2014strong in duels, sharp in his marking, and excellent in possession. His all-round quality at left back has made him a key figure in Arsenal\u2019s defensive structure. Tottenham fans will also be aware of the significant gap between Calafiori and Myles Lewis-Skelly in terms of technical and tactical level, meaning Kudus now faces a far sterner challenge down Arsenal\u2019s left flank than initially expected.<\/p>\n
Spurs head into the derby as clear underdogs against an Arsenal side that has been the league\u2019s best so far this season, while Tottenham sit in fifth largely thanks to Kudus\u2019 influence. With Calafiori set to line up against him\u2014and with Arsenal still sweating on the fitness of Gabriel Magalh\u00e3es\u2014Kudus will have a demanding afternoon as he looks to make a decisive impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mohammed Kudus has been handed a setback ahead of the Arsenal clash. Few players are expected to be as vital for Tottenham Hotspur in Sunday\u2019s North London Derby as Kudus, who has been one of the standout Premier League signings of the 2025 summer window. While many of Spurs\u2019 attacking additions have struggled, Kudus has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/images_GettyImages_mmsport_208_01ka6zsnxy7w8m5s750p.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54742,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54740\/revisions\/54742"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}