A clashing kit design has prompted Premier League to ban the Arsenal home kit from today’s Premier League clash between the Gunners and Tottenham. Traditionally, both teams have donned the home colours in North London derby encounters. Today’s match, however, is set to become a rarity. Why did the Premier League take this decision? Let’s find out.
Why the Arsenal Home Will Not Feature in Today’s NLD
The Premier League and the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) have ruled that the Arsenal home kit contains an excessive amount of white. This created a clash with Tottenham’s traditional white home jerseys.
As a result, Arsenal will be forced to wear their away strip for the match, breaking with their customary tradition of donning red on derby day. The game will take place at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The club submitted a formal request to the Premier League, pleading for an exemption from the kit clash rules. However, their plea fell on deaf ears, leaving them no choice but to don their away strip for the crucial match.
Arsenal’s kit fiasco took an even more embarrassing turn last summer. Reports surfaced that the received warning about the potential kit clash. Despite this warning, Arsenal, with their new strip already in production, decided to forge ahead, oblivious to the looming consequences.
While the Gunners will wear their predominantly black away kit this weekend, the return fixture in January will see Spurs swap their traditional white jerseys for their away strip. This will mark the first time in recent seasons that either team has been compelled to change colours for the highly anticipated derby.
What Did Arsenal Say?
Arsenal’s fans were far from happy when the club informed them of the kit swap decision. Here’s how the official club statement read:
“PGMOL and Premier League ruled that our 2024/25 home kit features too much white, thus clashing with Tottenham’s traditional colours, even with the option of red shorts and socks for us, which was also discussed.
“As a result, for the first time in recent NLD (North London Derby) history, we’ll be wearing our changed colours, with our black adidas away kit being donned at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“Our adidas away strip for this season has already got off to a winning start when we wore it for the first time in competitive action against Aston Villa last month. It has been designed to celebrate the rich and well-established connection that our club has to the African diaspora in North London and beyond.”
Arsenal will be aiming to extend their winning streak at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to three matches. Last season’s North London derby ended in a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Emirates.
Arsenal’s fortunes in the North London derby were dramatically reversed last season. Mikel Arteta’s side established a commanding 3-0 lead at halftime, ultimately securing a hard-fought 3-2 victory. However, Arsenal’s chances of repeating such a triumph are clouded by a recent spate of injuries.
Arsenal will be missing several key players for the derby. Declan Rice is suspended, and new signing Mikel Merino is injured. will also be without fellow new signing Riccardo Calafiori and Martin Odegaard, both of whom picked up injuries during the international break.
