Always a high-octane affair, the lunchtime Premier League clash promises goals, drama and bragging rights but the only thing concerning opposing managers Arsene Wenger and Andre Villas-Boas, however, is securing three points.
For clubs with annual top-four and Champions League ambitions, neither is where they want to be after 11 games.
Spurs, in their first season under former Chelsea manager Villas-Boas, are in seventh, one point and one place above Wenger's men. The two teams are already 10 and 11 points behind leaders Manchester United respectively.
Arsenal blew a two-goal lead at home to Fulham last weekend, forced to settle for a 3-3 draw after Mikel Arteta's penalty was saved in the fifth minute of added time.
Wenger said his fragile side needed to defend with "more drive and belief" and, according to the Daily Mail, is considering ditching his trusted 4-3-2-1 formation and playing with five defenders to tighten up Arsenal's leaky defence.
"When we play this Saturday at 12.45 against Tottenham and Santi Cazorla plays [for Spain] in Panama on Wednesday, you cannot say there is no conflict of interest," Wenger told The Sun newspaper.
"What is difficult to understand is why these games are not like the official games and on a Tuesday?"
Across the capital, an early season relegation "six-pointer" takes place in West London at Loftus Road where winless and rock-bottom Queens Park Rangers host Southampton, just one point and one place above them.
Rangers manager Mark Hughes has been rigidly backed by club owner Tony Fernandes but admitted after last weekend's defea
