Arsenal will take on Tottenham Hotspur in the EFL Cup quarter-final this week at the Emirates and Pochettino men will be desperate to take revenge for their previous North London Derby loss.
Spurs lost the first derby of the season 4-2 as they saw a man being sent off during the final stages of the game and with that Unai Emery’s men stamped their authority in North London.
The game had all the action that one fan could hope for but most of it was marred by a pathetic off the field incident as one man decided to throw a banana skin towards Pierre Emerick-Aubamenyang.
Spurs though have taken swift action as they have fined the concerned person £500 and banned him for four years.
At a hearing, the magistrate said: “We find it was a targeted gesture to throw a banana skin after a goal was scored by a black player.
“We have in the circumstances found the racial element was there.”
And now Arsenal have taken steps to prevent a repeat of such an incident this midweek when the teams meet once again.
Before the game, Arsenal released a statement which said:
“This fixture always generates an exciting and passionate atmosphere, however, we recently saw incidents where a small minority of fans have behaved unacceptably and unlawfully.
“We appeal to both sets of supporters to get behind their team tomorrow in positive and respectful ways without any discriminatory behaviour.
“If you witness any form of offensive chanting or discriminatory behaviour at the game, you can report it to a matchday steward or use our ‘See Something, Say Something’ service by texting FOUL to 67777 together with a description of the incident and location.”
Arsenal will go into this game as the favourites after having one the first North London Derby of the season and also due to the home advantage.
But Spurs took are high on confidence after having secured qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League thanks to a hard-fought 1-1 draw vs Barcelona at Camp Nou.
