Harry Redknapp has admitted he has some interesting selection problems ahead of Tottenham’s trip to the Emirates stadium on Saturday.
David Bentley, Alan Hutton and Gareth Bale all put in solid performances in Tuesday’s Carling Cup victory over Everton, leaving Redknapp with some difficult choices in his starting XI on Saturday.
“It’s an interesting selection problem for me. I haven’t got a squad as big as Everton, if you go through their so called top players, they have more than Tottenham.
“I’ve got four strikers and I’ve got four central defenders. After that I’ve got three central midfielders only: most clubs would have maybe five or six.
“Against Everton I had no Jermain Defoe, no Peter Crouch, so we only had two strikers and when Robbie Keane went down I was thinking ‘who do I play upfront?’
“Everybody who was fit for me was there. On the bench there was a 16 year-old kid (Harry Kane), a 17 year-old (Dean Parrett) and Jermaine Jenas who had a calf strain and wasn’t fit, but I had to put him on the bench, so that was all we had.”
Aaron Lennon is unlikely to be fit for the North London derby, so Bentley is likely to get to get another chance to enhance his standing on the right of midfield, whilst Hutton could push Vedran Corluka for the right-back slot.
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Another positive for Redknapp in his selection is that Jonathan Woodgate has not suffered the suspected break to his cheekbone, although the Tottenham boss isn’t sure about his availability for the weekend.
“His face is very swollen, but the cheekbone isn’t fractured. I don’t know if he’ll be fit for the weekend, we’ll have to see. But Michael Dawson came in and did great.”
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