It’s Everton v Arsenal in the Carling Cup
The 4th Round tie will be on Wednesday, November 8th at 8pm.
Spurs won 5-0 at MK Dons and now face Port Vale at White Hart Lane, while Chelsea meet Aston Villa.
Everton come to Arsenal on Saturday off the back of a 4-0 win against Luton in the Carling Cup.
Arsenal won 2-0 at West Brom, losing Adebayor for three weeks with a groin injury, while Everton lost club skipper David Weir for three weeks with a head injury.
Last season Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 in September without Thierry Henry, but lost 1-0 at Goodison in January with Henry in the side.
Clearly, Everton are quite a good team this year.Their squad is stronger than when David Moyes guided them to fourth place. There is competition for places in every position except right back.
Yobo and Joleon Lescott are very strong at the back. Lescott, one of the summer’s unsung transfers, arrived from Wolves with David Moyes saying he was the best centreback in the Championship.
Wolves were in the Premiership for one season and Lescott helped them win the play-off but then he was out for the whole of that year after surgery to both knees. So he had no Premiership experience. He is 24 and has been a revelation despite doubts about his knees. The deal was £2 million, followed by another £2 million, plus a further million depending on appearances.
Arteta is a fine playmaker. Andy Johnson is very, very quick, at least as quick as Craig Bellamy and with more discipline.
When Everton play five in midfield, Tim Cahill is the most advanced of the five. Cahill has scored six goals already this season.
Keeper Tim Howard, the American, is thriving on the challenge of total immersion in a cause. He is getting better every week.
Low-scoring wins are a trademark of the David Moyes regime. Everton do not give much away and its hard to imagine them conceding a goal in 58 seconds, as Reading did.
They beat Luton 4-0 without a goal from Johnson and their players don’t have any bad memories of beatings at the Emirates. The new stadium has not had time to become a weapon, in that sense.
For Arsenal it might be the usual scenario : score early or it could become tricky. Let’s hope it’s a good game and may the best team win.
ELSEWHERE, Inter Milan and Palermo are joint top of Serie A after last night’s games.
It must be weird for Italians to adjust to a sporting world where results are no longer being organised by despicable ref-fixer Luciano Moggi.
Revealing quote from Maurizio Zamparini, the president of Palermo, who has said, “Maybe we are top because there is correct refereeing this season, maybe we were allowed to beat Milan, and Atalanta was allowed to beat us without the referees.”
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Compare this week’s Carling Cup line-ups :
ARSENAL (4-4-2): Almunia; Connolly, Senderos, Djourou, Clichy; Walcott, Song, Denilson, Flamini; Adebayor (Traoré, 24), Aliadière. Subs not used: Poom (gk), O’Cearuill, Randall, Simpson.
EVERTON (4-4-2): Turner; Davies (Anichebe, 70), Weir (Hughes, h-t), Stubbs, Lescott; Arteta, Cahill, Carsley, Osman; Johnson (Beattie, 68), McFadden. Subs not used: Howard (gk), Vidarsson.