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The skipper has played recently in midfield but is without doubt a central defender and is the preferred option to play alongside Arthur. The other option is to play Mark McGregor but the McGregor/Gnohere partnership was far from successful in last week’s defeat at Grimsby.
I would think the likely option is for Davis to move back into defence with Tony Grant, the susbtitute replacement for Cox on Saturday, returning in midfield.
Other than that it will depend very much on the system and whether he wants to play Ian Moore in a wide role on the right.
It is though all pointing to the eleven that played most of the first half at Deepdale, namely, Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Steve Davis, Arthur Gnohere, Lee Briscoe, Ian Moore, Paul Weller, Tony Grant, Glen Little, Robbie Blake, Gareth Taylor.
The subs would then probably be from: Mark McGregor, Graham Branch, Paul Cook, Brad Maylett, Alan Moore, Dimitri Papadopoulos.
Spurs’ boss Glenn Hoddle has admitted that this might be a game where he can utilise his squad although he has reiterated the importance of the fixture for his club and said it is as important as any Premiership game.
They do have some injury problems although some of them could be fit to return. Stephen Clemence, Darren Anderton and Ledley King are all now back in training but goalkeeper Neil Sullivan and defenders Mauricio Tarrico, Christian Ziege and Ben Thatcher are still all out injured.
Sunday’s 0-0 home draw against Chelsea also saw three other players pick up knocks and they are all considered doubtful. They are former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp and Glenn Hoddle’s two most expensive signings Dean Richards and Robbie Keane.
The squad that featured against Chelsea was: Kasey Keller, Stephen Carr, Dean Richards, Goran Bunjevcevic, Chris Perry, Steffan Freund, Simon Davies, Gustavo Poyet (Milenko Acemovic 73), Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Keane, Teddy Sheringham (Les Ferdinand 90). Subs not used: Lars Hirschfeld, Anthony Gardner, Matthew Etherington.
There are no real clues to Hoddle’s starting line up but he said earlier today, "I can assure you, whatever team we put out, we are not taking this anywhere near lightly.
"We’ve got players coming back who are not quite fully fit and I don’t know whether they would be up for a real cup tie. This is a real balancing act that I’ve got to work on going in to this game. It’s getting that balance right because we want to win the game."
For more on Spurs, a look back at other League Cup games against them and also a former player of both clubs see the Match Preview