After that absolutely amazing come from behind win the morale in the squad will be very very high especially as we beat the league leaders home and away. Arsene will rotate his squad significantly though I believe the heart of the defense will still remain the same.
Toure will probably start alongside Sendy due to Djourou anda Gallas being out. If AW is really confident he might give Matthew Connolly a game and give Toure or Sendy a break mostly Sendy…Traore n Hoyte will complete the back four.
Walcott and Denilson on the wings with Diaby and probably Merida/Song in the middle with Cesc to come on if needed. Ali and The Beast will look to keep their great form going up front and try and score a couple of crucial away goals.
If we can beat Spurs away it’s another game in an incredibly tough period that we’d have come up tops on and we can then finish the job against Bolton in the FA cup. If we come through both of those unscathed..this young squad would have repaid AW’s faith in him fully.
Spurs will put out a pretty strong squad and we’ll find it a bit tough .. but just because we have so much momentum right now and the confidence is so high I’m going for an Arsenal win …
Spurs 1 - Arsenal 2
26 Responses to “Spurs - Arsenal - League Cup Semi-Final First Leg”
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January 24th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Apparently, this is the traveling squad for tonight’s fixture:
2. Abou Diaby
4. Francesc Fabregas
5. Kolo Toure
6. Philippe Senderos
9. Julio Baptista
13. Alexander Hleb
15. Denilson
16. Mathieu Flamini
21. Mart Poom
24. Manuel Almunia
27. Emmanuel Eboue
30. Jeremie Aliadiere
31. Justin Hoyte
32. Theo Walcott
43. Mark Randall
45. Armand Traore
Merida, Song and Connolly are not named so they will not be playing.
January 24th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Sorry, at White Hart Lane, I feel a 2-1 win for Spurs
January 24th, 2007 at 10:52 am
your starting line up?
Almunia
Hoyte Toure Senderos Traore
Walcott Diaby Flamini Denilson
Baptista Aliadiere
January 24th, 2007 at 11:05 am
A draw at the Sh*thole (1-1) followed by a win at the Emirates next week (1-0). Low scoring 2-legger even though these two sides can score at will some times.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:06 am
A draw would be good.
A win fabulous.
I look for “Ali and the Beast” to write another story for us all!
January 24th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Wow, this is a much stronger side than I would have predicted. If we play well we can get a result. Spurs are suspect at the back without their captain.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
and Tottenham must feel thay have to get a lead from this game to take into the 1nd leg..hopefully they attack and we destroy them on the counter.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
I think Tottenham will be a lot tougher than Liverpool. Liverpool played a few rookies at the back, and without taking anything away from Arsenal’s performance a couple of Liverpool’s kids had nightmares.
Tottenham will play a proper full strength side, and over 2 legs as well it’s difficult to expect them to keep on defying the odds. It will be very interesting to see how Aliadiere and Baptista perform together - I get the feeling Aliadiere will do absolutely sod all, and Liverpool was a one-off. If I’m wrong, I might be willing to slightly revise my opinion of him.
I predict Tottenham to overcome Arsenal over 2 legs - they probably want it more and will be playing full strength, but they won’t walk it.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
If Liverpool was not a one-off and a repeat performance by Aliadiere and Baptista takes place today, I would be willing to more than slightly revise my opinion of each of them. I also think a strong performance today would strongly affect Wenger’s views and substitution patterns going forward.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
No way will spurs score either leg, they are awful - we will either win by 1 or by 3
January 24th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
We have lost in previous two semis - Boro in Reyes’ first season and Wigan last season. Will it be third time lucky?
Spurs will want it more than us. I think it will come down to how much desire our team has. Bap and Ali have something to prove and will fight for the right to replace RvP (who may be out for the season).
January 24th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
According to Sportinglife.com, the starting lineup for Arsenal is the following:
24. Manuel Almunia
31. Justin Hoyte
5. Kolo Toure
6. Philippe Senderos
45. Armand Traore
15. Neves Denilson
4. Francesc Fabregas
2. Vassiriki Diaby
9. Cesar Julio Baptista
30. Jeremie Aliadiere
32. Theo Walcott
January 24th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Baptista scores again. Unfortunately it was the wrong net.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Did you bet on this one?
January 24th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Does away goals count extra in Carling cup?
January 24th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Away goals count, but only after extra time.
This game was very succinctly described by the Arsenal fans at the game: “2-0 and you f*cked it up”.
Spineless, lazy, thoughtless Tottenham - they really are hopeless. Fabregas = genius, he is better than the whole of Tottenham put together, it was one of his best games ever.
Aliadiere - goodbye.
Baptista - hello. Maybe he’s the fox in the box we’ve always wanted, he just seems to know when to arrive.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
The result is a good one given the two away goals. The issue however is whether the knocks suffered by Hleb, Eboue, and Aliadiere are serious and will keep them out of action. Hleb and Eboue made a real difference when they came in. It was notable that Wenger started Fabregas and that he substituted with regulars when we were 2-0 down. This game meant something to him. The only starters who could have played today (i.e., not Gilberto who is suspended and Van Persie who is injured) that did not feature in Wenger’s plans were Henry, Adebayor, Lehmann, Rosicky and Clichy.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
was it me or did hoyte actually have a great game??
we started with only 3 regulars while they used their usual first team …and they still coulndt get nada at HOME !!! ha! useless bunch they are.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Yep, Hoyte probably had his best game for Arsenal. Tottenham should have trounced Arsenal, 2-0 up and all over us - but their tempo dropped and just sat back and committed suicide. Jol should be strung up for whatever he said to them at half time.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
baptista scored another hat trick! albeit including an o.g. but the second half was a great display of will and fightback from the kids and out of this game Wenger must be happy with the comeback from 2-goals down to score 2 valuable away goals and a draw going into the second leg.
Spurs must be embrassed as they had only played well in the first 20 minutes against our boys as they seemed shaky at the start. From there onwards we were fighting back and looked the better side. The second half it was our men against their boys, and overall a great comeback for a deserved result.
A concern that hleb and aliadiare are both subbed off with injuries, hope it’s nothing serious because we neeed our full squad for the rest of the season!
January 24th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Just saw the goals.
Don’t know if Almunia gave a call, because Toure clearly seemed to stop his jump.
Baptista is surely doing well in the Carling Cup. With RvP injured, he will get chances to translate that into league and cup games.
Maybe Wenger was right to keep Eboue and Hoyte and let Lauren leave.
January 24th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
We are getting better in terms of mental strength. The way we come back into games even when we are 1-0 or 2-0 down is amazing. Unlike before when the first goal mattered the most, you can’t write us off anymore.
January 24th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Hoyte really impressed me tonight. He really looked like he wanted to win and really attacked Spurs after we went down.
I don’t know about you guys but I thought Denilson was outstanding. Well, he wasn’t better than Fabregas but he pulled a tight second. He got open, passed well, tracked back, and made runs forward. He looks like he’s going to fit right in. I think Aliadiere did fine also. He just didn’t see enough of the ball.
Walcott was bad against Liverpool and was bad again tonight. He takes too many touches and, prophetically, gets closed down. I know Baps got two more tonight but he was not good and I’m still not convinced he’s good enough to play here. Lennon took poor Traore to school.
The first goal was weird as that’s a ball that most keepers would come claim. For some reason, Almunia didn’t and Kolo expected him to. It’s hard to blame Manuel as I’m sure that nine times out of 10, he would have claimed that. He jsut happened to do his one time tonight. Besides that blunder, he was very good tonight.
Paul Robinson sucks! There are better English keepers than him but he’s still England’s keeper. I even thought Keller was better than Robinson. I’m glad he plays for Spuds.
Both the Tottenham goals were down to our mistakes and not them being good. Our reserves beat that ass in their own front yard. I just hope we don’t pick up any more injuries. Go Gunners!
January 24th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
i watched in horror as the miscommunication cost us an early goal.
if jens was in there he would’ve come for it, and i think kolo was expecting almunia to do so because that’s what lehmann would’ve done.
eboue changed the game when he came on. he gave us great width, and a thrust that walcott just did not have today. theo plays better with the senior team because he doesn’t hold the ball too long and seems to make quicker decisions. tonight he was not very good at all. but he will come good in a few more years.
baptista had an unfortunate own goal but fought back well for his brace. a couple of ‘fox-in-the-box’ goals no less. he will get his chances now that rvp is out.
the first half was poor, but the second more than made up for it. and against the spuds at their shite home! brilliant.
January 24th, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Baptista was played out of position in the midfield. He is a forward. Besides, he seems to score goals. Strikers tend not to get noticed throughout the game until they score or fail to.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:04 am
In spite of the goals, I’m having the same doubts about Baptista. When I saw him playing in Spain he looked quick, here he looks a little slow, no explosive power and based on his past 2 games his touch and passing may not be quite good enough. That said, if it works for Drogba…
Completely agree on Denilson, very good indeed and I have real high hopes for him.