Cock-a-hoop Spurs confident of knocking Arsenal out of FA Cup

There is a lot to shout about in North London at the moment, Arsenal are riding high at the top of the Premier League, while Spurs are preening themselves after a second victory in succession at Old Trafford took them back into serious contention for a Champions League spot.

But all that will be forgotten at the Emirates on Saturday when the two sides meet in the tie of the FA Cup 3rd round. The only thing that will matter to both sets of players and fans will be to knock their closest and fiercest rivals out of the competition.

Coral make Arsenal fifth favourites to win the FA Cup outright at 9/1 with Spurs on 16/1. The home side are also 19/20 to win this game (11/4 Tottenham, 5/2 the draw), but performances on New Year’s Day suggest that it is Tim Sherwood’s side who will be going into the game with more confidence and momentum.

For while the Gunners huffed and puffed against the struggling and then managerless Cardiff before Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott finally blew the house down, Spurs were busy turning over the champions in Manchester.

With Aaron Ramsey sidelined and Olivier Giroud doubtful with an ankle injury, Arsene Wenger must be tempted to dip into the transfer market for a striker this month, but in the meantime he’ll be looking to Walcott, Bendtner and Lukas Podolski to get amongst the goals.

Tim Sherwood initially promised gung-ho football, but there’s no way he’s going to be silly about it and we had a taste of what may be to come for the remainder of the campaign against United when a blend of creative attacking play and solid defending secured all three points.

Emmanuel Adebayor is a striker reborn and wouldn’t he just love to stick one past his old team; Coral go 11/4 that he will and 8/1 that he scores first or last.

As often as not, there are goals galore when these teams clash in the Premier League – Arsenal twice won 5-2 during 2012 and there have been 3-3 and 4-4 draws in recent times.

We have also seen a 5-1 hammering by Spurs and a 4-1 drubbing from Arsenal in the League Cup, but this is the first time the sides have met in the FA Cup since 2001 when Arsenal won 2-1 at Highbury.

That’s the sort of scoreline I envisage again, but who to? Coral go 15/2 it finishes 2-1 to Arsenal, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it ended that way in Spurs’ favour (12/1).