Carling Cup: Best three meetings between Arsenal and Tottenham
As Tottenham host their north London rivals Arsenal at the White Hart Lane late on Tuesday night, the fixture brings back memories of the previous cup games between the two sides, games which have lived long in history. Not only because
they were between two such great rivals but also because in these games, people witnessed some sheer moments of footballing ingenuity.
The third round game which kicks off at the White Hart Lane is seen by Arsenal as a chance to give showcase their youngsters and give some of their more youthful and inexperienced players a chance to get some first team experience.
On the other hand, Tottenham will use this opportunity to hunt for some serious silverware this season. After qualifying for the UEFA Champions League through their last season’s fourth place finish in the English Premier League, Tottenham are slowly but surely
closing the divide in quality that has existed between them and Arsenal in the past two decades.
Over the past few season, Carling Cup has taken secondary importance for all English Premier League teams, clubs prefer to do well in the league rather than chase cup glory in competition such as the Carling Cup. One of the most memorable
matches between Spurs and the Gunners took place on March 4th in 1987, it was a match which took place at the White Hart Lane and the encounter was also a semi-final of the Littlewoods Cup.
Tottenham was put in the lead by their prolific goalscorer, Clive Allen in the first leg of the match at Highbury. However, Viv Anderson and Niall Quinn pulled the rest back for the Gunners, who forced the match into a replay which
was played at the White Hart Lane. Clive Allen scored at the Lane as well and gave Tottenham a lead on aggregate but soon Arsenal came back into the game as their substitute Allinson along with David Rocastle gave Arsenal a late victory as their goals pushed
the score line to 2-1.
Arsenal took on Tottenham in 1991 as well on April 14th, this time it was a F.A Cup semi-final which took place at the Wembley stadium. The match is still remembered as one of Paul Gascoigne’s finest moments. Arsenal approached
the match at Wembley in fantastic fashion as they were chasing a domestic double but little did they know that Gascoigne was about to announce his arrival on English football’s oldest stage i.e. the F.A Cup. Gascoigne gave Tottenham a lead through his thirty
yard free kick which was blasted past the despairing David Seaman after just five minutes of the match.
The shock of conceding such a remarkable goal was just too much for the Gunners who never got back into the match. Lineker scored two more times for Tottenham while Alan Smith did find the back of the net for Arsenal but it was just
too little too late as Tottenham won the match by a score line of 3-1.
One of the more recent encounters between the two sides took place in January of 2008 and it was a Carling Cup semi-final between the two London teams. The match was played at Tottenham’s home ground i.e. the White Hart Lane after
Spurs managed to obtain a one all draw at the Emirates stadium in the first leg of the semi-final tie. It had been a long time since Tottenham had beaten Arsenal and the Spurs were really up for this match under their manager, Juan De Ramos.
Tottenham started the match of by matching Arsenal stride for stride and soon struck first blood as Jermaine Jenas gave his club side a one nil lead which was soon doubled through Bendtner’s own goal from the Arsenal side. Before
the half time whistle came, Robbie Keane and Lennon struck again for Tottenham, thus Spurs were leading 4-0 going into the break. Adebayor tried to pull a hero’s act in the second half as he gave Arsenal some home when he scored to bring the deficit down to
three goals.
However, it was too late as Malbranque scored for Tottenham to make it 5-1 for Tottenham, a final score line that is still remembered fondly by many Spurs fans. Tottenham did eventually go on to win the Carling Cup as they defeated
Chelsea in the final match of the tournament in extra time thanks to Jonathan Woodgate’s goal.
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