Our tasking run of four away games in the space of ten days rolls on with a 3rd round Capital One Cup tie at White Hart Lane. It's fair to say we've made a disastrous start to this testing run of fixtures, gifting Dinamo Zagreb their first win in the UEFA Champions' League group stage since 1999 before Diego Costa and match official Mike Dean ensured Chelsea beat us 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Halting a run of consecutive defeats tonight will be critical before we take on high-flying Leceister City, Olympiacos in the Champions League on Tuesday and Manchester United in the league next weekend. Nothing like a North London derby to kick things off then eh?
Spurs, meanwhile, have made a indifferent start to the season, with two wins and three draws, but have remained unbeaten since their opening day defeat at Old Trafford. They had happier times in Europe though, beating Azerbaijan side Qarabag in a 3-1 win which featured a brace from new signing Son Heung-Min. We're due a win over Spurs, having picked up a solitary point from the two corresponding league fixtures last season, but it's five years to the day we beat them 4-1 in this round of the (then) Carling Cup, and a repeat of the same would be highly welcome considering how the past week has gone. Only Koscielny, Gibbs, Rosicky and Wilshere remain from the 18-man squad that took on Spurs that night by the way.
In terms of team news, Francis Coquelin will miss tonight's game after suffering a knee injury at Stamford Bridge, but Per Mertesacker is ready to return to the fold after recovering from a chest infection that has kept him out for a month. Santi Cazorla will be serving his one-match suspension after his sending-off at Chelsea, but Gabriel is available for selection after his red card was rescinded following a successful appeal by the club. The Capital One Cup has, over the years, provided Arsene Wenger with the platform to "blood" Arsenal's youth into the senior team by giving them some much needed first-team action, but given our current form and the opposition at hand, it is likely that squad rotation will be kept at a minimum.
"...at the moment the youth-team players, many of whom are ready to play for us, are away on loan. The next players who have the talent are not completely ready to play at that level. With the difficulty of the opponent as well, you do not want to throw them into a game where they look out of place."- Arsene Wenger.
I think we'll see a line-up similar to the one that took on Dinamo Zagreb, with Aaron Ramsey returning to a central role alongside club captain Mikel Arteta, in the absence of Santi and Coquelin. Debuchy and Gibbs will likely be given a second chance to stake their claims for regular starting berths at fullback, and Oxlade-Chamberlain will be afforded the same opportunity on the right. I think the manager's first selection dilemma will be at the heart of defence. Gabriel has had a good run partnering Koscielny/Chambers over the past month, but with the return of first-choice centre-back Mertesacker and with a difficult game at Leceister coming up, the German might need game time tonight to gain some match-fitness. Giroud will probably get the nod at centre-forward, but I tend to think that this will play right into Spurs' and Mauricio Pochettino's game plan. His sides are typically difficult to play through and the Argentine prefers to play a high line and win the ball back high up the pitch whenever they can. Playing Theo would then either force Spurs to sit deep and reduce the space in behind rather than letting them use a high press whenever we are on the ball; or run the risk of getting balls played in behind them as Theo likes to hang on the shoulder of the last defender, using his pace and movement to good effect.But anyway.
With Nabil Bentaleb, Mousa Dembele and Ryan Mason all out through injury, Pochettino will likely field a partnership of Erik Dier and Dele Alli, both of whom have impressed so far. Son Heung-Min has scored three goals in the space of a week and will run in between the lines and make up the numbers in the box for Spurs, definitely the one to watch out for. He does like to take his man on and poses a great threat on the counter-attack, so it worries me that Coquelin is missing out tonight.
Christian Eriksen, Spurs' most creative attacking outlet last season is only just returning from a knee problem and has not started a game since early August, but will probably return either on the left or in the #10 role just behind Harry Kane. Speaking of whom, our last visit to White Hart Lane might have gone south thanks to a brace from Kane, but the young English striker is yet to find the net for Spurs this season and will hope to turn the tide against the enemy tonight. All in all both sides will field slightly changed line-ups from the start, and bearing in mind that weekend opponents Leceister made ten changes to their starting line-up against West Ham yesterday, we would do well to keep our squad fresh too.
Enjoy the game people :-)
*Quotes and image courtesy of Arsenal Media*
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