As Arsène Wenger prepares to pick a team to take into the enemy's lair at White Hart Lane on Sunday, there is one player out on the training pitches of London Colney who must almost torment him by his presence. Robert Pires is back at Arsenal. He turns 38 at the end of the month, and is keeping himself trim for a suitable opportunity to continue his playing career as long as possible because he cannot quite let go of the game he adores. Pires was one of Wenger's most inspired purchases – not least because of a phenomenal record in north London derbies.
Considering this was a player who famously sat on the substitutes' bench for an hour of his first game in English football with his eyes on stalks and a heavy feeling in his stomach as Arsenal lost a bruising encounter at Sunderland, Pires was not an obvious choice to throw himself into the hostile heat of the derby. He was booked in his first north London duel, and with his feathers duly ruffled, went on to score eight times in 12 games. Three times he was the match-winner. Twice he delivered an equaliser to deflate the opposition at White Hart Lane. He has no idea what it feels like to lose one of those loaded encounters.
With such experience on tap, Wenger must feel a tiny bit tempted to at the very least bring him into the dressing room this weekend to build up a team whose wobbles mean they have mislaid the hex they held over Tottenham for years.
For a decade under Wenger Arsenal enjoyed a 21-game unbeaten spell over Spurs in the Premier League. But since that ended in April 2010, Tottenham's two wins and a draw have altered the psychology of the match completely.
Pires was a tanned and enviably relaxed spectator at the Emirates during the week as Arsenal squeaked past Olympiakos. He was grateful for the booster of a win ahead of the derby. "Confidence is vital, and it's true that Arsenal have not had a good start to the Premier League," he said. "This is a complicated game. But for the team to have won against Bolton and Olympiakos in the build-up to the derby is important."
The team's fortitude has been worrying him. As he explained to France Football magazine in the post-mortem of Arsenal's 8-2 defeat at Old Trafford: "I don't like too much to compare teams and players. We had our team, our leaders. This team – and it was already evident last season when you think about the defeat to Birmingham – doesn't have the foundation, the guys who can lift their team-mates back up. Arsène has to build his team like he has always wanted to, with players who love the ball, but with warriors too." He expressed relief to see players such as Per Mertesacker and André Santos arrive with all their experience.
The difference between the team Pires graced and the current group is striking. But so, too, is the difference in Spurs. Consider the players involved when Arsenal won the title at White Hart Lane in 2004, the climax of the Invincibles' season. A couple of minutes into the game, Tottenham had a corner. It was taken by Johnnie Jackson and aimed at Anthony Gardner.
When Ashley Cole won possession, Thierry Henry picked up the ball and ran turbocharged towards the opposite penalty area, he slipped the ball to Dennis Bergkamp, whose cross was driven in by Patrick Vieira. The Spurs line-up that day also included Mauricio Taricco and Michael Brown. Arsenal had Sol Campbell, Gilberto Silva and the other goalscorer – Pires.
Even though Tottenham salvaged a draw, even those with most intense white and blue tinted spectacles would admit there was a gulf in quality. Today, the nature of any discernible gap is such that Arsenal travel along the Seven Sisters Road as underdogs. What they wouldn't do for a younger Pires in the starting XI. "I have big memories of this game," he said last week outside the players' lounge at the Emirates. "Against Spurs it is always special. It has particular meaning, and as players you understand that. It's true that if you have the chance to score against them it is great, as it means so much for the fans."
There is, incidentally, another recent Arsenal player with eight goals from north London derbies. His name is Emmanuel Adebayor.