Arsenal, Spurs and Sutton’s view on the derby
Arsenal’s impressive sequence of ten wins came to an end against Sunderland before the international break. Now the Premier League leaders face a huge test when they meet their north London rivals Tottenham on Sunday, and the question is how they will respond.
BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton believes the balance of power is clear at the moment, even if this game still looks tricky. He feels that Arsenal are a long way ahead of Tottenham right now, yet he also expects Spurs manager Thomas Frank to arrive with a clear plan for how to approach the contest.
According to Sutton, Frank will try to disrupt Arsenal and prevent them from finding their usual rhythm. He acknowledges that Mikel Arteta’s team have not always reached their most sparkling level this season, but he points out that they still tend to find a way to get the result they need. That ability to grind out wins is one of the reasons why Sutton continues to back Arsenal in tight fixtures like this one.
How the prediction battle with Olly Murs works
Sutton is making score predictions for every one of the three hundred and eighty Premier League matches this season. He is not doing this alone. His choices are compared with the views of an artificial intelligence model, BBC Sport readers and a rotating cast of guests from the world of entertainment and sport.
For week twelve his opponent is singer Olly Murs, who supports Manchester United. Murs also has something else to promote alongside his football opinions. His new album, called Knees Up, is released on Friday. Fans are invited to see how his predictions compare with Sutton’s and with the AI tool.
Readers can enter their own scores for each match as well. The most popular result selected for every fixture is then used in the scoreboards and tables that appear at the bottom of the page. The scoring system is simple. Anyone who gets the outcome right, whether home win, draw or away win, earns ten points. Predicting the exact scoreline brings a much bigger reward of forty points.
The article also notes that the AI forecasts come from Microsoft Copilot Chat. The tool was asked a straightforward question. The editors instructed it to predict the Premier League scores for the upcoming weekend matches.
Olly Murs on injuries, family life and future coaching plans
Murs is known as a successful singer, but he is also a capable footballer and has shown his skills in several Soccer Aid charity matches over the years. Even so, he is not aiming for a serious return to playing. As he explained to BBC Sport, he recently took part in a charity game for a friend. His team trailed by three goals to one when he left the pitch around the hour mark. After he went off they staged a comeback and won four three, which he joked says something about his influence.
He stressed that his love for the sport remains strong. However, he suffered a knee injury a few years ago and it has never fully returned to the condition he would like. Because football is such an unpredictable game, he feels that playing regularly at a serious level would be too big a risk for his professional career.
Murs also pointed out that he is now forty one years old. He laughed that not everyone can be like Cristiano Ronaldo and continue at the very top into their forties. He is quite content not to chase a playing comeback and is instead preparing for the moment when his children might decide to take up the sport.
Together with his wife Amelia Tank, Murs has two children, Madison and Albert. He insists he will not push them towards football, yet he admits that if they do develop a passion for the game he already has a plan. He has told Amelia that he would then look to obtain his coaching badges and expects he would end up managing their Saturday or Sunday youth team.
Murs has previous experience of being deeply involved in the grassroots side of the game. He followed his nephews’ matches closely and even owned the lower tier club Coggeshall Town for a period. He says that his interest in coaching and youth football comes from his father, who managed his team for two or three seasons when he was a child and enjoyed it greatly.
Looking ahead, Murs thinks that a similar path could be part of his own future. He likes the idea of taking charge of his children’s team one day and is already looking forward to that possibility.
Chris Sutton and Olly Murs shared their thoughts and stories in conversation with BBC Sport journalist Chris Bevan.
