Ian Wright now says Tottenham have one player who he is always ‘afraid’ of

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Ian Wright has admitted that he’s never a fan of coming up against Tottenham Hotspur star James Maddison.

Speaking on the Wrighty’s House Podcast, the Arsenal legend was reviewing a fascinating North London derby.

A 2-2 draw was probably a fair result albeit Arsenal’s goals were slightly more fortuitous.

Cristian Romero deflected Bukayo Saka’s strike past Guglielmo Vicario which was sailing narrowly wide.

The Argentine centre-back then stopped a Ben White shot with his arm and Saka converted the penalty.

However, James Maddison and Son Heung-min combined brilliantly twice to quickly equalise either side of half-time.

The England international dispossessed Jorginho when he was dawdling on the ball and played a simple pass into his captain’s path.

Wright has admitted he’s always worried when coming up against Maddison and the Tottenham star is proving why he’s developed that reputation.

He’s already laid on four goals for his teammates this season while finding the back of the net twice himself.

Wright afraid of facing Tottenham star Maddison

Reflecting on the match, Wright said: “I think that the way that Spurs answered back so swiftly when they scored and showing what they can do once they break that first press of ours, we look very, very vulnerable.

“Spurs made us look vulnerable, I felt quite nervous and you could feel it in the crowd.

“The finish [for the first goal] is excellent. But again, when we’re dealing with someone like James Maddison.

“I thought that he was pretty quiet, I thought Declan [Rice] was kind of patrolling him, he didn’t have the influence on the game in the way he was doing it until Declan went off.

“You see the space open up for him even more, but I just thought that he was someone that I thought, ‘Oh my god, we need to do something about Maddison,’ even though he was involved in both goals.

“I just felt that he was somebody that you’re just always quite afraid of.”

As Wright suggests, Maddison definitely had a bigger influence on the game for Tottenham once Declan Rice went off.

The two England stars matched each other well, although Maddison still managed to provide an assist while he was on the pitch at the end of the first half.

Maddison was brought off before full-time after struggling with a knock to his knee and is set to undergo tests.

He wasn’t 100% going into the game but his importance to Postecoglou’s side was shown by the fact he still started the match.