MX23RW : Friday, December 21 21:28:51

Combined XI: Arsenal vs. Tottenham Hotspur

Ahead of Wednesday's EFL Cup quarter-final between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, Sports Mole selects a strongest combined XI between the North London rivals.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will do battle again on Wednesday, just two-and-a-half weeks after playing out a 4-2 thriller at the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League.

The hosts came out on top on that occasion, and this time there is a place in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup on offer for the victors.

Arsenal will be looking to bounce back from their first defeat in 23 games at the weekend, whereas Tottenham's only loss in their last 11 came against their North London neighbours.

Here, Sports Mole selects its strongest combined XI from both squads, using only players available for Wednesday night's match.



Combined XI: ARS vs. TOT

The XI kicks off with a World Cup-winning captain as Hugo Lloris gets the gloves in what is a fairly easy decision ahead of Bernd Leno, who was at fault for Southampton's winner at the weekend.

Both defences have been ravaged by injuries which limits options, but combined they are still able to cobble together a strong back four. Kieran Trippier recently returned from an injury of his own to make him eligible for this team ahead of Arsenal's Stephan Lichtsteiner, with other options such as Hector Bellerin and Serge Aurier likely to be sidelined for Wednesday's match.

Toby Alderweireld is the only Spurs centre-back that looks certain to be fit, and Arsenal are depleted in that area themselves - as their makeshift three-man defence showed on Sunday. Laurent Koscielny is fit again, though, and makes the team due largely to a lack of other options.

Ben Davies was forced to play at centre-back against Burnley but will hope to return to his favoured left-back slot as quickly as possible, and that is where he earns a place in this team ahead of Nacho Monreal and Danny Rose.

Spurs are also without the likes of Eric Dier, Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama at the moment, which paves the way for an all-Arsenal holding midfield. Lucas Torreira has quickly established himself as a fan favourite - a status increased by his performance in the derby earlier this month - and his form seems to have had a galvanising effect on Granit Xhaka alongside him too.

The fourth and final Arsenal representative in the team is Premier League top-scorer Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, although Harry Kane's presence up front means that the Arsenal man has to make do with a place on the left. Kane remains one of the world's best strikers, and has a particularly good record against Arsenal.

Christian Eriksen's ongoing stomach issues mean that he is never certain to start at the moment, but there is no doubting the playmaker's quality, while Dele Alli completes the XI ahead of the likes of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Lucas Moura, Son Heung-min, Erik Lamela, Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey and Alex Iwobi.

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Who will progress from Wednesday's EFL Cup quarter-final between Arsenal and Spurs?

Arsenal
Spurs
Arsenal
53.4%
Spurs
46.6%
Harry Kane celebrates after putting Tottenham Hotspur in front against Arsenal on December 2, 2018
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How Spurs could line up against Arsenal
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Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool1815303973248
2Manchester CityMan City17142148103844
3Tottenham HotspurSpurs17130431161539
4Chelsea17114235142137
5Arsenal17104337231434
6Manchester UnitedMan Utd177552929026
7Wolverhampton WanderersWolves187471921-225
8Everton176652422224
9West Ham UnitedWest Ham177372525024
10Watford177372325-224
11Bournemouth177282528-323
12Leicester CityLeicester176472121022
13Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton176382024-421
14Newcastle UnitedNewcastle174491422-816
15Crystal Palace1743101423-915
16Cardiff CityCardiff1742111733-1614
17Southampton172691632-1612
18Burnley1733111533-1812
19Huddersfield TownHuddersfield1724111028-1810
20Fulham1723121642-269

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