Soccer: Arsene Wenger made the surprise decision to replace Jack Wilshere with Alex Song in Arsenal's midfield for tonight's north London derby at White Hart Lane. The Gunners boss chose to drop Wilshere to the bench after a run of 13 straight Premier League starts.
Bacary Sagna came in for Emmanuel Eboue at right-back while Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp recalled Peter Crouch in place of Aaron Lennon. Rafael van der Vaart was expected to shift to the right flank, leaving Crouch to partner Roman Pavlyuchenko up front.
Fernando Torres failed to earn a recall for Chelsea’s Premier League game against Birmingham tonight as Carlo Ancelotti made just one change from Saturday’s win at West Brom.
Torres’ omission was significant as it was the first time he had been left out of the XI for two successive games, with Ancelotti appearing to acknowledge Didier Drogba was in far better form.
Paulo Ferreira replaced the injured Branislav Ivanovic at right-back while Birmingham made two changes, with Alexander Hleb handed his first start for two months and Keith Fahey his first for six-and-a-half weeks.
