Premiership: I'd rather play Arsenal than Boro, says Hoddle

Glenn Hoddle has paid Middlesbrough and their under-pressure manager Steve McClaren the ultimate compliment by admitting: ‘‘I’d rather be playing Arsenal tomorrow.’’

Glenn Hoddle has paid Middlesbrough and their under-pressure manager Steve McClaren the ultimate compliment by admitting: ‘‘In many ways I’d rather be playing Arsenal tomorrow.’’

It is not a case of Tottenham chief Hoddle being hardly able to wait for the annual White Hart Lane crunch with their fierce local rivals, which is actually scheduled for two weeks tomorrow, but he sees the visit of revitalized Boro as a potential banana-skin just as Spurs are beginning to live up to his pre-season promise of a return to the old glory, glory days.