I know, I know you hate Diaby on the left but he will not let the side down with the amount of confidence he has right now

The first North London derby of the 2008-09 season takes place tonight at the Emirates stadium and I am wishing the hours away so I can feast my eyes on what is hopefully a good old fashioned beating.

We have had many chances over the years to give them a thrashing but it has never materialised. Last seasons heavy defeat to them was difficult to stomach regardless of the competition and missing players and I believe that they deserve a taste of that to bring them down to earth.

I don’t actually think they we will thrash them but it would be nice wouldn’t it?

So what will the line up be? It is such a tricky one. It seems a little early in the campaign for the amount of rotation that Arsene is currently serving up, but it has worked so far.

Once again this is going to be guess work but I think Arsene may want to rest Nasri who has looked slightly off pace in the last two matches. Diaby will be the one to replace him on that side to add some physical power, I know, I know you hate Diaby on the left but he will not let the side down with the amount of confidence he has right now. I will go as far as to say that if he starts he will be one of the best players on the pitch if not the best. This game is suited to him. Diaby has the guile to create things and has the strength to upset the likes of Modric, Jenas and Huddlestone.

Cesc will play obviously, and will probably be partnered by Denilson who missed out against West Ham. I cannot imagine Arsene playing Song at home when he needs to take the game to Spurs. Walcott has played the last two matches but I hope Wenger does not rest him for this one, Eboue and Diaby at home on our wings is not decisive enough. You have to play one of them. Arsene might give Theo one more outing and draft in Eboue for Stoke.

If Silvestre keeps his place alongside Gallas then it would be a big statement from Arsene. It would mean that Toure would no longer be first choice, not for the time being anyway. I expect him to keep his place as Gallas and Silvestre kept a clean sheet at Upton Park.

Everybody knows that Adebayor will start and I hope that he can continue his good goal scoring record against them. He made a big difference at Upton Park and hopefully he can transfer that from the first minute to the last, and I think we will witness a big display for the Togo giant.

Harry Redknapp does not have the best record against us, and I do not expect him to go ultra defensive against us. He will try and hit us on the break. He will play one striker as he did at home to Bolton which I found a strange thing to do, maybe fear of losing was just too much. So it would be a shock to play both at the Emirates.

Bent could hurt us with his pace and directness on the break whilst Pavlyuchenko can provide a threat in the air, something that Harry would have noted before today.

I expect them to continue playing 3 central midfielders. Modric pulling the strings, Jenas providing the energy and Huddlestone sitting in front of his defence. We will probably be playing 2 central midfielders so I expect Diaby / Nasri to join them so we do not get outnumbered in the midfield.

Arsene has turned up the heat on the Spurs board before the game by stating that they should have stuck with Ramos a little longer.

“I don’t think he’d have been sacked if he had only arrived at Tottenham in July,” Wenger said of Ramos.

“But the fact is he arrived in the middle of last season and people were less patient with their league position.

“What sometimes happens in this league is when a team doesn’t go for Europe and wins the Carling Cup, they suddenly switch off.

“Without anyone noticing, slowly you lose results. And then, if you don’t start the next season well, which is what happened to Ramos, his environment slowly lost confidence in him.

“I am very surprised it didn’t work for Ramos and I feel sorry for him because I rate him as a coach and as a man.

“It takes time to get your ideas through. I understand Tottenham have to make decisions but you would want anyone to be given more than eight or nine games.

“Now they have gone a completely different way and done away with the director of football because they were suddenly convinced it doesn’t work for them.

“Only time will tell whether Harry Redknapp will be a success.”

It actually annoys me to see clubs acts so stupidly even if I have to laugh at it from time to time, especially in Tottenham’s case.

But you pick a manager who is currently doing a job at another club, you think he would be a great asset to their own club so they would do their research and bring him in after paying a heavy amount in compensation. Now surely if you are bringing in a manager to a club which I consider to be the most important man at a club then you would have 100% faith in that manager / coach whatever you choose to call him. Speaking to a Spurs supporting mate, he claims that they have spent around £15 million in compensation for Ramos and Redknapp and that does not even include the backroom staff like Poyet etc. That is roughly what half of our team cost against Everton.

For them to have spent that sort of money on him you would imagine that you would want to give him a chance to put things right, especially after many of the players he brought in are from abroad and we know that most players (minus superhumans like Sagna) need time to adjust to a) a new team b) a new country c) the speed and physical nature of the Premier League.

Modric, Pavlyuchenko, Gomes, Gilberto, Giovani have all come in from different leagues around the world at pretty much the same time. It is little wonder that they are struggling at present. When Eduardo first came in he was off the pace and looked out of place. Would Tottenham have sold him in the time it took him to adjust?

Redknapp could well benefit from Ramos’ work so far after the Christmas period.

Emmanuel Adebayor’s words have been shamelessly twisted by the press with headlines like Adebayor: Spurs Are ‘Really Bad’

The Togonator said:

“I think every player feels sorry for them,” explained the striker as reported by talkSPORT magazine, “They have a strong team, good players and I’m sure that in a few months they’ll be back winning games.”

“At the moment they lack confidence and when you lack confidence it’s always difficult to win games. But at the moment Tottenham are really bad.”

It is funny how every thing said can be taken way out of context. Could he have meant that they their confidence is really bad? Adebayor: Spurs ‘have strong team’
Adebayor claims that Spurs lack confidence
Ade admits to Spurs ‘good players’ shocker
Tottenham will ‘be back winning games’ says Adebayor
‘That in a few’ storms Adebayor! ok, well you know what I mean.

Arsene has nothing but confidence and praise for his former captain over taking up the new job at Portsmouth.

“He is at the age now where you have to start in this job. For the rest I believe he has a good squad and he has worked a lot now in this job and I think he is ready.

“Tony has now much more experience because he has been abroad and has been at Portsmouth as an assistant. I believe he has the qualities and that is why I am very positive about it.

“I believe in life when you go wrong you can always, with intelligence and character, turn things right and that is what he did.

“He came out and said he had a drinking problem when he was a player and he showed enough strength and character to change that.

“I believed in him because everybody deserves a chance when he wants really to change life. That basically didn’t come from me, it came from him.

“I believe that he has natural authority, which is one important ingredient, the second one is of course to convince everybody about your philosophy and the way you see things.”

I hope he does well at his new job, he already knows the players and how Redknapp was successful so that should give him a big head start but he will want to add his own ideas and it will be interesting to see how the team plays. I can imagine that he will have a lot of George Graham stuck inside his head.

He certainly has the leadership and motivational skills to be a top manager but it is much more than that. It is about man management and what players he brings in and sells.

I hope he does well against everyone apart from us. Fair enough?

So back to the game tonight, nothing less than 3 points will be good enough for us.

Mean Lean’s predicted line up

Mean Lean’s predictions

Tottenham will be committed and focused on trying to get something from the game. They will play 4-5-1 with Modric supporting either Bent or Pavlyuchenko when they are in possession.

Tottenham were the better team at the Emirates last season, something that does not happen often. They came and pressed us all over the pitch and when they got on the ball they used it very well. O’Hara was fantastic that game and he ran the midfield. This time around the two teams are in completely different shape. Victory over Bolton would have lifted spirits somewhat but it wouldn’t be enough to make them relax and outplay an Arsenal team that is in the middle of a 3 game winning run.

This is our biggest game of the season so far, maybe not in terms of quality but in regards to stature. I expect us to play with that big game mentality, which means flying out of the traps, moving the ball quickly and playing at a very high tempo. I expect Adebayor to be a constant menace to the Tottenham back four and will hopefully continue his goal scoring run against them.

Arsenal 3 (Adebayor 2, Diaby) Tottenham 1 (Bent)

Come on you Gunners!!! Enjoy your day.

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