Arsenal v Spurs – Carabao Cup preview

The filthy Gooners at the Haemorrhoids tonight in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

No replays, no extra time even, just one winner and that victor will be a possible two-legged semi-final against Burton Albion away from (yawn) Wembley or the chance to get humiliated twice in quick succession by Moneybags City. (Or play Chelsea or Bournemouth).

Rotation, Rotation, Rotation. Both us and the home side have injury problems galore and whether they want to or not, both sides will field understrength teams. They are particularly short numbered in defence with Mustafi, Kolasinac, Bellerin and Lichsteiner all doubtful, whilst we can see their defence (Aurier, Vertonghen, Sanchez and Foyth) and raise them a central midfield (Dembele, Dier & Wanyama).

So, what to do and who to play?

If the Arse are forced to field both the returning from injury duo Koscielny and Monreal then a bit of speed up front won’t go amiss. Neither Son (our most effective attacker in the league game a few weeks ago) nor Lucas played a full ninety minutes against Burnley and may well both start. It wouldn’t surprise me if Harry and Dele were saved for Bournemouth, especially if the rumours are true about Harry carrying a cold, leaving Eriksen and Lamela to take roles in midfield interspersed with Winks and Sissoko.

At the back, Poch won’t want to start Rose again after he’s played two ninety minutes already in the last week but he may have to. Trippier will begin on the other side (unless the manager thinks KWP is ready for more big game action) but in the middle, it’s a toss-up as to who will start alongside Toby. Davies, Foyth or Sanchez? It all depends on fitness.

Gazzaniga will probably be between the sticks giving Hugo the chance for a night out, I mean ‘off’.

Reaching the quarter-finals of any competition means that you can almost smell the final and the trophy, our manager though has a heightened olfactory organ and can sense the odour of larger silverware than this one. We’ll play a weakened team and with a weakened team you get a weakened performance so whether we make a serious go of making it through to the semis and adding two more games to our already over busy schedule is anyone’s guess. The thing you should never do with Pochettino though is doubt what’s possible.

Jonathon Moss is the ref, Andre Marriner is on VAR. Insert your own joke here about it being panto season.

Let’s do these.

COYS

COYS!!

Arsenal vs Spurs Betting Tips

Spurs have won just one of their last 16 away games against Arsenal. Spurs are 17/10 to get the win.

Tottenham striker Harry Kane has scored in seven of his eight appearances against Arsenal. Kane is 7/2 to score first.

Related Topics