Tottenham to play Arsenal at Wembley after further stadium delays

Tottenham Hotspur will once again host the North London Derby at Wembley Stadium for the second successive season after it was confirmed that further safety checks will be taking place in the coming weeks.

Spurs have been playing at the national stadium since the start of last season after leaving White Hart Lane, with the expectation that they would be moving into their new stadium at the start of this campaign.

However, the construction process has hit plenty of hiccups along the way, leading to the team believing that they would be playing their first home game of the season against Fulham at Wembley.

Liverpool were supposed to be the first side to visit their new stadium on September 15, but the 2-1 defeat took place at Wembley, as have each of their home games in the Premier League since.

Tottenham were even controversially forced to play their Carabao Cup clash against Watford at Stadium:MK in Milton Keynes due to Wembley already being booked on the date of the cup tie.

Spurs Season Ticket Holders will also be credited 1/19th of the price paid for their Season Ticket at the start of the campaign.

On the delay, the club have released the following statement: "We can today report that remedial works on the safety systems in the new stadium are near completion and we shall then move forward to the final stages of testing the fire detection and alarm system and its integration with the other safety systems.

"The success of this testing is critical to our ability to obtain a safety certificate and open the stadium.

"We can confirm, therefore, that we shall play our Premier League match against Arsenal on Saturday 2 March at 12.30pm at Wembley Stadium."

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy added : "Once again, thank you all for bearing with us and for the great support we have received from so many different quarters. These next few weeks are pivotal."

It has been a frustrating spell for Tottenham supporters, with attendances at Wembley diminishing over recent times. There were just 29,000 supporters present for their 2-1 victory over Watford at the end of January, while there were just over 41,000 for Saturday’s win over Newcastle.

It remains to be seen whether or not the club will move into their new stadium by the end of the season, although it doesn’t appear to have had too much of a detrimental effect on the team’s performances.

Spurs are currently sat third in the Premier League table, just five points behind both Manchester City and Liverpool at the top and still have Harry Kane and Dele Alli to return to the side from injury.

Understandably, there were some unhappy reactions to the news that the North London derby will not take place in Spurs’ new stadium, which was been seen by many as the perfect curtain raiser for their new home.

Check out some of the best reactions to the news from Spurs fans below.