Arsenal entertain Tottenham Hotspur at the Emirates for the second time in a month when they face off in the League Cup quarter-final tonight. The Gunners secured a sublime 4-2 comeback triumph in the north London derby earlier in December and Unai Emery will be hoping that the team can put in a similar performance.
Formation: 4-3-2-1
Predicted Lineup:
Petr Cech has not featured for the Gunners since their last Europa League game against Vorskla in November and the veteran should make a much-awaited comeback between the sticks.
In the defence, Emery will have Sokratis Papastathopoulos back after his domestic suspension but Shkodran Mustafi and Sead Kolasinac remain injury doubts while Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding are sidelined – the latter for the rest of the season.
In this case, the manager may opt for the traditional 4-2-3-1 formation and we are anticipating Stephan Lichtsteiner and Ainsley Maitland-Niles to start on the right and left side of the backline respectively with Sokratis and Nacho Monreal taking up the central defensive positions ahead of Laurent Koscielny, who looked short of match sharpness at St Mary’s last weekend.
Onto the midfield, Emery is likely to go with the senior combination, given the magnitude of the game. In this case, we are fancying Granit Xhaka, Mateo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira to reprise their midfield roles with the latter making his mark in the previous derby where he capped the performance with his maiden Gunners goal.
Further forward, Emery is likely to go with the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette, all three of whom started on the bench for the recent Southampton defeat. Ozil and Ramsey will most probably feature behind Lacazette, who should lead the line ahead of regular league starter Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
