Ally McCoist says Tottenham have a defender who would start for Arsenal instead of Gabriel

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Arsenal and Tottenham are two very different teams these days.

Arsenal are hoping to challenge for the Premier League title once again this season, while, at the moment, Tottenham are languishing in the bottom-half of the table.

It's not just results that separate these two sides at the moment though.

Indeed, both teams have a very different styles of play too.

Tottenham are all-out-attack, sometimes to their own detriment, with Ange Postecoglou's tactics criticised at times.

Meanwhile, Arsenal are more pragmatic, so much so that Mikel Arteta has been compared to Tony Pulis.

Arsenal have a better defence than Tottenham, but according to Ally McCoist, Spurs do have a defender who would get into the Arsenal team.

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The Tottenham defender who would get into the Arsenal team

Speaking to TNT Sports, Ally McCoist was building his combined XI between Tottenham and Arsenal players ahead of the north London derby.

Arsenal face Spurs on Wednesday, and according to McCoist, Spurs do have a defender who would start for Arsenal.

Indeed, when choosing his combined XI, McCoist picked Micky van de Ven over Gabriel Magalhaes.

Van de Ven has earned massive praise since joining Tottenham last year, but Gabriel is a top defender in his own right.

However, McCoist believes that Van de Ven would start for Arsenal ahead of Gabriel.

Ally McCoist's combined Arsenal and Tottenham XI

McCoist built out the rest of his XI, and it's fair to say he wasn't too kind to Tottenham.

Indeed, Van de Ven was one of the only Spurs players who made it into the pundit's combined XI.

Heung-Min Son also got into this team, but, other than that, it was all Arsenal for McCoist.

Martin Keown put Dejan Kulusevski in his team, but McCoist found no room for the Sweden international.

On paper, McCoist clearly believes that Arsenal are a much stronger team than Tottenham, but whether or not the north London derby pans out in that way remains to be seen.

Indeed, derby matches can often go either way, but Arsenal's recent record against Tottenham is stellar.

Arsenal haven't lost to Spurs since 2022, and they will be hoping to extend that unbeaten run on Wednesday evening at the Emirates.