Tuesday, 1st December 2009 – KO: 20:00

Where to start with this one?

I suppose the first thing to say is that the team that starts for United in this one tonight will be largely the same team that were beaten by Besiktas last week.

I would expect a couple of positions to change though and a start for Owen would not be totally surprising.

Tottenham, of course, are flying in the Premier League at the moment and their 9-1 demolition of Wigan the other week showed just what kind of form they are in at the moment, particularly in an attacking sense.

What this does mean is that perhaps Harry Redknapp has a decision or two to make regarding his own team selection here tonight. He may decide to just go for it and play his strongest side in the belief that they will be more than enough for a United team full of kids.

Or, he may decide to give one or two of his bigger stars a breather. Surely at this point, maintaining their position in the Premier League has to be Harry’s priority and realistically, he might be feeling that he doesn’t have the strength in depth to really compete on two or three fronts in the way that United and Chelsea do.

As usual, even if you say that Fletcher and Carrick will definitely not play here tonight, Fergie has all kinds of options in midfield and upfront but it is the defensive positions that are likely to give him the biggest headache. His hand is forced to a large degree to perhaps play players that he would rather not due to the injuries to Evans and Fabio.

Tomasz Kuszczak did his case no harm whatsoever with a fantastic display against Portsmouth on Saturday so Fergie will have to decide between him and Foster. Personally, I think Kuszcak deserves to keep his place. Foster had his run of games earlier in the season and didn’t exactly shower himself in glory.

Ideally, I’m sure a rest for Evra would be on the cards but I think Fabio is injured. Neville played against Portsmouth so probably will be given a rest tonight which means Rafael on the right. Brown and Vidic will probably continue in the centre.

As for the rest. Well, the team I would like to see is Welbeck, Gibson, Anderson, Obertan, Macheda and Owen but it might end up with Welbeck and Macheda up front again with Park or Nani on the left and Obertan switched to the right.

The main concern from a betting point of view is the concern I have had before most United games this season – where will the goals come from? These players generally played well against Besiktas last week but seemed a bit clueless in the final third.

It didn’t help that Besiktas played with an eight man defence and I cannot see Spurs adopting those tactics here tonight which might make it a bit more of an open game.

The bookies generally think that this will be a fairly high scoring game and that was my first thoughts too but I just have a feeling that chances will be at a premium for both teams here tonight.

I’m not totally confident, anything could happen here tonight, but a small bet on the Under market is where I’m leaning towards.
The bet is 2 points Under 2.5 Goals @ 2.02 with Bet365.

Fergie rang the changes yet again with his team selection here and was true to his word that the kids would get another chance to right the wrongs of last week’s Besiktas defeat.

However, he did use experience where it mattered most and a backline consisting of Brown, Neville and Vidic is about as experienced as it gets.

Ritchie De Laet was given a starting role alongside them and that was just about the only one I didn’t see coming.

Berbatov and Welbeck were chosen to start upfront with Anderson, Obertan, Gibson and Park playing across the middle.

Kuszcak was given the chance to shine in goal and, one or two dodgy kicks aside, he did very well again and on the evidence of the last two matches, I think  he has pushed himself ahead of Foster in the pecking order.

Tottenham played all their big guns for this one including the on-fire Defoe and probably had the best of the first half in terms of chances created but there were two Manchester United players in particular who changed the course of this tie.

The first was Vidic who snuffed out several good Tottenham attacks with some crunching tackles and blocks.

The second was the man who answered my question, “Where will the goals come from?” .

Darron Gibson.

Several times over the last couple of seasons we have played some pretty football, dominated possession and then when it came to the final third, we seem to run out of ideas and it looks at times like we always want to walk the ball into the back of the net.

What we have been lacking is someone willing to have a go from outside the box on a regular basis and this is Gibson’s forte.

Two cracking goals from him gave us a 2-0 half-time lead which left Tottenham absolutely shell-shocked.

The second half promised more goals but both teams largely cancelled each other out and neither could make the breakthrough.

So, we march on into the Semi-Final and the draw has paired us with Manchester City.