Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Arsenal To Face Tottenham In Carling Cup Semifinals

Arsenal will face North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the semifinals of the Carling Cup for the second season running. The other semifinal will be a tough contest between Everton and Chelsea.

Arsenal made it through to the semifinals after a thrilling 3-2 victory over Blackburn Rovers, while Tottenham barely had to fight to defeat Manchester City, despite playing 70 minutes with 10 men after the sending off of Didier Zokora.

The Gunners defeated their bitter rivals 5-3 on aggregate last season, drawing the away leg 2-2 before defeating Spurs 3-1 at the Emirates after two extra time goals from Jeremie Aliadiere and Tomas Rosicky. They crashed out of the cup in the finals after losing to Jose Mourinho's Chelsea.

Arsenal have already defeated Tottenham once this season, and face them again in only three days.

The last Premier League fixture between the two sides was an emphatic Arsenal victory at White Heart Lane. The Gunners were trailing early after a Gareth Bale free kick, but pulled back to take home three points thanks to a double from Emmanuel Adebayor and a goal from Cesc Fabregas.

The home and away fixtures mean that Arsenal will be playing Tottenham three times over the span of the month.