While many Arsenal fans will have a close eye on former fan favourite Hector Bellerin ahead of their Europa League last-16 meeting with Sporting CP, Marcus Edwards will be making sure the other side of the north London divide is also represented.
Former Tottenham starlet Edwards has already taken on his former club this season, playing in both Champions League group games and scoring in a draw at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The winger's form in Lisbon has seen him linked with a return to his boyhood club, and a stand-out performance against their great rivals wouldn't hurt.
A goal against Arsenal is something Edwards himself would enjoy as well. How do we know? Well, he's done it before.
Back in October 2017, Edwards was part of a Spurs under-23 side which claimed a big 3-2 derby victory against their counterparts from the red half of north London. He scored the winner from the penalty spot, firing down the middle as Arsenal keeper Joao Virginia dived out of the way, and an earlier assist for Shayon Harrison showed another side to his game.
Edwards has always had a knack for finding space, and so it proved as he peeled off his marker before driving forward and feeding Harrison to fire home. The youngster's movement had clearly caught the eye when then-manager Mauricio Pochettino gave him a senior debut in 2016, and the praise from the Argentine couldn't have been much higher.
"The qualities - it's only looks, his body and the way that he plays - remind me a little bit of the beginning of Messi," Pochettino had said in 2016. The manager, who cut his teeth in South America, suggested it was only English football culture standing in the way of more football for players of his style.
"Maybe if Marcus Edwards were born in Brazil or Argentina, today he would be one of the most interesting prospects in football in the world," Pochettino claimed. "Maybe all the big teams would be fighting to buy him.
"But he is at Tottenham, he is in England and, at 17, he is still a kid. We cannot appreciate he is a man, nearly a man, and he deserves to play."
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The fact that Edwards was back with the under-23s a year after those comments hints at how his time in north London ended. The Enfield-born player didn't add to his sole first-team appearance, while a loan spell at Norwich was similarly unproductive.
“It was just nice to know that the manager thought I was a good player.," Edwards told The Independent in 2019 “I just feel like he was very welcoming, he made you feel part of the team”.
It was not through lack of talent that things soured at Spurs, and Edwards - reflecting on those early years - appeared to accept his own part in things. He acknowledged he had been "a bit difficult" at times in Spurs' academy, but a loan spell in The Netherlands with Excelsior helped him turn things around.
“Just looking after myself was the hardest thing,” he said “Just being there all by myself. It was different for me.
"But I definitely learned what it takes. What you have to do every day, on and off the pitch, to be a professional footballer, how you have to live. I learned that. I think I did grow up.”
After Excelsior came Vitoria in Portugal. A permanent move, this time, with Edwards - then 20 years of age - given the chance to follow the likes of Jadon Sancho and ex-Arsenal man Chris Willock in trying his luck overseas.
As luck would have it, the Primeira Liga side were drawn against Unai Emery's Gunners in the 2019-20 Europa League after coming through three qualifying rounds. Edwards was thrown straight into the starting line-up, and he needed less than 10 minutes to fire past goalkeeper Emi Martinez.
A north London boy, he grew up with plenty of Arsenal fans, some of whom were there to watch him in action at the Emirates Stadium. “I don’t know bro, I was just so happy, so happy,” he would tell The Independent when reflecting on the goal.
The effort at Arsenal wasn't enough to secure victory, with the Gunners twice coming from behind before Nicolas Pepe delivered a late winner. Vitoria might have finished bottom of the group, but Edwards' form over his first two-and-a-half years in Guimaraes earned him a move to one of Portuguese football's big-hitters.
If anyone wanted a sign of how Edwards has grown as a player, they need look no further than his form at Estadio Jose Alvalade. He has six goals and four assists in the league this term, helping Ruben Amorim's team recover from a slow start to give themselves a shot at returning to the Champions League, while his all-around game has made a real impression.
“He is really doing his part too," team-mate Antonio Adan said back in September. "He speaks to us much with us and that means he’s happy, which shows on the pitch.
"What you see on the pitch is a reflection of the way people are off it. And I think he’s happy now. He also has the faith and trust of the manager to try those things and he’s enjoying it."
In Europe, meanwhile, a goal and an assist in an eye-catching win at Eintracht Frankfurt set the tone, and his goal away at Spurs looked set to take Sporting through to the last 16 of the Champions League. Rodrigo Bentancur's equaliser helped put paid to that, though, meaning Arsenal now await after a play-off win over FC Midtjylland.
“I wasn’t going to celebrate but I was too happy," Edwards said after scoring against Antonio Conte's side. "I can’t put it into words. It was crazy. I can’t explain it.
"I don’t feel like that I was proving a point, I just play every game the same even if it is against my old club. The extra motivation was having my friends and family there.”
If we've learned one thing about Marcus Edwards, it's that he won't feel any extra pressure when he goes up against Arsenal on Thursday. Still, that doesn't mean he won't enjoy it if he scores against them for a third different club.
