Tottenham Hotspur boss Antonio Conte has praised Arsenal and Mikel Arteta ahead of the north London derby this weekend.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur go into the north London derby with plenty at stake, as both teams have the opportunity to end the match sitting at the top of the table.

Recent north London derbies have generally been a matter of deciding which of the two teams would end up in the top four, but it’s not completely unreasonable to imagine both sides taking part in a title race this season – even if Manchester City are favourites.

Discussing Arsenal’s opening run of games and Mikel Arteta’s job as manager, Antonio Conte was very complimentary ahead of the weekend.

“For sure, Arsenal had a fantastic start and they lost only one game against United,” Conte said. “They are showing to be a really good team.

“I think that in the summer they made really good signings for them and improved the team that don’t forget last season in the last three games they were four points up from us so it means we are talking about a really good team that in the last season we did a really good job to overcome them in the last three games.

“At the same time, I know the quality of this team. I know they are working with Arteta for many years, they are really well organised and Arteta I said last season he is a really good coach.

“He is young but he can have in front of him a great career. We know that Arsenal are one of the six teams that try to take the best position in the Premier League.”

For Arteta, Saturday is certainly an opportunity to silence some of the doubters about his team’s start to the season.

Though his side have clearly improved and are much more capable of putting the lesser sides to the sword, they need to show they can win the big games as well. They don’t get much bigger than the north London derby at home.