Arsenal head coach Unai Emery insists football needs passion as he urged his players to show emotion in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final meeting with rivals Tottenham.

The Gunners sealed a 4-2 victory over their north London neighbours in the Premier League fixture on December 2 in a match that had several flashpoints.

Eric Dier equalised for the visitors at the Emirates Stadium before his finger-to-lips celebration sparked a fracas between the two sets of players.

There were also several arrests made amongst the supporters with a Tottenham fan handed a four-year football ban and a £500 fine for throwing a banana skin towards Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as he celebrated his opening goal in front of the away fans.

Despite those incidents, Emery wants emotions to be running high when the two sides meet again so soon after his first taste of the north London derby.

“I said to you that I think showing emotion is very important,” he said.

“I think football is emotion. In a derby, maybe this emotion is greater. When you win it’s amazing, when you lose it’s horrible. Respect is very important.

“We can show this emotion with respect when we are playing but also when they scored against us, they can show their emotion with their supporters.

“But with respect. We need to show this emotion when we are playing, when we are winning, because I think football needs this passion.”

Arsenal take on Spurs having seen their 22-match unbeaten run come to an end away to Southampton on Sunday.

Emery, who was without a host of defensive options on the south coast and still has a number of selection headaches ahead of Wednesday night, believes losing such a long streak will motivate his players to improve heading into Christmas.

“Sunday for us is a big reality check in our way,” he added.

“We need to improve and also we need to continue doing our way in our process.

“It’s not a good result but this reality gives us more motivation to continue to work hard, finding a new think to work on each day, and also it makes us demand a lot from ourselves in the way we work on this way.”