FA Cup 3rd Round: How Tottenham Hotspur Will Line Up Against Arsenal
North London hostilities will be renewed a couple of months earlier than anticipated this Saturday, when Tottenham Hotspur take on Arsenal in the FA Cup Third Round.
The two clubs meet in the Premier League again in March but will have a chance to duke it out once more at the Emirates Stadium this weekend. Their previous encounter there this season saw Arsene Wenger's men edge a 1-0 win.
Tim Sherwood is the man in charge at Tottenham now, but the new boss could well pick a starting lineup just as informed by that September clash as it will be by recent performances he has managed.
Despite the narrow scoreline, Arsenal were deserving of their win. The amassed experience of their players in derby games showed in comparison to a new-look Spurs side featuring several new signings and players returning from loan to the fold.
Sherwood will hope lessons from that day—as well as varied encounters with the division's top clubs since then—can be turned into usable wisdom. Spurs may be on a good run of form, but the table-topping Gunners have progressed since then too.
Managers of both teams will have preferred to be facing lower-league opposition to kick-start their respective FA Cup campaigns. Games that would have offered them the chance to rest weary legs as the Christmas and New Year period concludes.
Instead, the rivalry between the two clubs necessitates a full-on approach for this one (though the large number of injuries each side is dealing with may have stopped much rotation anyway).
Hugo Lloris was in the thick of things late on in Spurs' 2-1 New Year's Day win over Manchester United. His aggressive approach to goalkeeping risked giving away a penalty in an incident with the boy who cried wolf, Ashley Young. It also ensured his team had an alert last line of defence as the pressure mounted.
The shape of an Arsenal attack without the services of Nicklas Bendtner, Mesut Ozil and possibly Olivier Giroud will not be apparent until just prior to kick-off. Regardless, Lloris can expect another busy evening's work.
Though outsmarted by Danny Welbeck for United's goal, Vlad Chiriches and Michael Dawson were otherwise as solid as could have been hoped for in central defence. The renewal of their partnership has played a big part in tightening Spurs up on both occasions following hammerings from Manchester City and Liverpool. With Younes Kaboul and Jan Vertonghen still out injured, it is likely to continue here.
Either side of them, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker have been equally impressive these last couple of weeks. The former was troubled by the lively Adnan Januzaj on Wednesday and may be the most likely to be rested as he continues to regain match fitness following his lengthy injury layoff.
With that said, Rose is likely to join Walker in starting again, with his greater experience a better bet to take on the dangerous Theo Walcott than Zeki Fryers.
As a collective, Spurs' defence will need to be sharper and better organised than when they were cut apart in the buildup to Giroud's winner in September. In front of them, Sherwood will be looking for his midfield and attack to retain the positivity showed versus United. Both in attacking Arsenal with the ball and harrying and challenging the Gunners when the home side are in possession.
Etienne Capoue and Mousa Dembele will be expected to continue in centre midfield.
The former cannot afford to be as wasteful in possession as he was at Old Trafford (only 55 percent pass completion rate, as tallied by Squawka) against an Arsenal team that will make it hard to regain the ball. However, a similar job from Capoue and Dembele to that done contesting their counterparts will certainly be welcomed by Sherwood again on Saturday, knowing full well how Wenger's side can be stifled if denied time and space.
Christian Eriksen and Aaron Lennon are likely to remain in the starting XI as Spurs' chief creative outlets. The Dane's goal and assist in midweek marked arguably his best showing since moving to the Premier League.
Ahead of them in attack, Sherwood will hope the pairing of Emmanuel Adebayor and Roberto Soldado will be good to go.
Adebayor scored a terrific header from Eriksen's cross and was generally a handful. Soldado missed a good chance soon after but carried on his recent fine work linking up play with his fellow attackers.
At the time of writing, the fitness of Adebayor (and his Spurs team-mates) had not been confirmed after he was stretchered off at United. If he is not fit, Sherwood may be tempted to hand Harry Kane a start in order to keep a front two to occupy Arsenal as best as they can.
It is a strategy that runs the risk of leaving the team outnumbered further back. But an ability to get at them can be just as problematic, as shown against Arsenal last time. Going by Sherwood's comments on Tottenham's official website post-United, the former seems like it might be his preferred choice again:
"We created the best chances in the first half and it’s a shame we only managed to take one, but we stuck to it and scored the second," the manager further added.
Derbies between these two teams over the last few years have shown predicting the outcome of them to be a fool's task. With Spurs re-engergised under Sherwood and Wenger managing Arsenal to their best overall from in years, what is almost certain is that this one will not be dull.
Predicted Tottenham line-up versus Arsenal
Hugo Lloris; Kyle Walker, Michael Dawson (c), Vlad Chiriches, Danny Rose; Aaron Lennon, Etienne Capoue, Mousa Dembele, Christian Eriksen; Emmanuel Adebayor (if fit, if not Harry Kane), Roberto Soldado
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