Arsenal's "kids" are good enough to win the forgotten Cup

Carling Cup / Dan Fitch / 08 January 2008 / 1

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Dan "The Betting Man" Fitch discusses the merits of the Carling Cup and looks ahead to the first leg of the semi-final as Arsenal clash with Spurs

Alan Hansen famously proclaimed that you don't win anything with kids. He was of course proved wrong, first by Manchester United and then more conclusively, by the Emilio Estevez vehicle 'The Mighty Ducks'. This week sees Arsenal attempting to discredit Hansen once more. Not content with mounting a title challenge with a team mainly comprised of non-shavers, Arsenal are attempting to reach the Carling Cup final with an even younger side.

Most of the players that take the field against Spurs in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi final, will only do so on the proviso that Uncle Arsene has Sky plussed Blue Peter for them. Wenger has long adopted the policy of blooding his youngsters in England's secondary cup competition and many have used this platform to establish themselves as first choice selections.

Arsenal's policy has been accused of devaluing the competition, but it is difficult to maintain this argument when their reserves prove good enough to reach the final. It is also difficult to devalue a competition, which already holds such a flimsy place in the nation's hearts. And given that not just Arsenal, but several other clubs, field sides featuring more unfamiliar faces than a series of Dancing On Ice, why is this competition still going?

The European qualification place could go to the sixth placed side in the league, as it has done anyway for the past three seasons, as Champions League sides took the trophy. It would mean less games for clubs that already complain about having too many fixtures and the FA Cup would be strengthened by being the only cup competition. Lower league clubs have already seen their chance of a windfall reduce, as two legged matches in the second round were scrapped and European qualifiers were allowed to enter at the third stage.

Therefore the argument of the competition being kept alive for benevolent reasons is a weak one. What the lower league clubs would lose in TV and gate money could easily be rustled up by the Premier League clubs, if they weren't essentially a bunch of selfish mercenaries. As it is, the League Cup will continue for as long as the top flight sides find it to be in their financial interest.

Of course, some clubs are so starved of success that their fans would heartily celebrate a League Cup win, which brings us to Tottenham. After yesterday's FA Cup draw and their lowly league position, this is probably Tottenham's only chance of qualifying for Europe next season and success would represent their first trophy since 1999. I could also say that winning the Carling Cup is Spurs' only hope of keeping hold of Dimitar Berbatov, but I'm only able to kid myself to a certain degree.

Tottenham slipped up at this stage last season against Arsenal, despite holding a 2-0 lead during the first leg. An injury to the much-coveted Berbatov, was a contributing factor to Spurs collapse, but so too was their tendency under Martin Jol, to sit back having taken the lead. Ramos seems to realise that this Tottenham side are incapable of defending and all they can try to do is to outscore the opposition. Hence the recent run of games featuring score lines only normally seen when two teams are playing with rush goalies.

The fact that Tottenham are capable of anything makes this hard to predict, especially considering that Arsenal's team selection is far from a sure thing. Though the Arsenal side that defeated Tottenham last year was certainly young, they still fielded such talents as Almunia, Fabregas, Hleb, Toure, Flamini, Silva and Adebayor.

Having played an under strength side against Burnley on Sunday, don't be surprised if the team that plays Spurs includes a few internationals. The odds of [2.18] for Arsenal would then fall before kick off, with the draw currently available at [3.5] and Tottenham [3.85]. Obviously as a Tottenham supporter, I would rather hack out my eyeballs than take the admittedly good price for Arsenal, so the [3.3] for over 3.5 goals will be where my money goes.

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Lewis Appleby | 09 January 2008

It is embarrassing for teams when they are made fools of by losing to Arsenal's reserves, but at the end of the day they are all good players. The likes of Walcott, Denilson and Bendtner would all get into the starting eleven of lower Premiership sides.

I'm actually surprised there weren't more goals tonight. My prediction was 3-1 to the Gooners. Either that, or something ridiculous such as 6-4 to Spurs... neither would have surprised me.

I now cannot put my finger on who will progress to the final. Given tonight's performance, I'd say Spurs. Berbatov had another good game and they overall looked the better side. I just wonder whether Wenger would be rattled by this and put out more first teamers in the second leg. Even if it is the 'forgotten cup' you still can't deny it is nice to have a bit of silverware.