Arsenal play their second North London derby of the month on Wednesday, as Tottenham Hotspur visit the Emirates Stadium for the League Cup quarter-final.
Unai Emery got off to a good start against Arsenal’s local rivals with a 4-2 win at the Emirates earlier in December. Now he needs to try and follow it up in the cup, with 90 minutes between his team and the semi-finals.
After playing a Premier League match on Sunday, with another coming up on Saturday, Emery might be tempted to rotate some of the team for this clash. However, a North London derby in the League Cup is still a North London derby, so we expect him to go pretty strong all the same.
Let’s have a look at our predicted XI and team news for the match.
2Midfield and Wing-Backs
After his performance against Tottenham a couple of weeks ago, it’s difficult to imagine Unai Emery leaving Lucas Torreira out of the team. Alongside him will either be Granit Xhaka, Matteo Guendouzi, which will depend on Sead Kolasinac’s availability.
Like Mustafi, Emery confirmed that Kolasinac will be assessed ahead of the game. If he’s available, he’ll play at left wing-back, but if he isn’t, Nacho Monreal will have to move forward, leaving a space for Xhaka to fill in defence. In that case, Guendouzi would start in midfield, as against Southampton.
On the right, Ainsley Maitland-Niles will fill in after Hector Bellerin was ruled out for a few weeks, and Stephan Lichtsteiner picked up that knock against Southampton.
Click ‘Next’ for Forwards and the Full Starting XI