It's now or never

The bad news for the Tottenham skipper is that Arsene Wenger is set to abandon his policy of fielding his reserves and play a near full-strength team in tonight's Carling Cup semi-final second leg at White Hart Lane.

Still, with the teams locked at 1-1 after the first leg, King believes it is a case of 'now or never' for Spurs as they seek their first trophy since 2002.

He said: "We should have won the first game against Arsenal with all the chances we created. We should have put ourselves out of sight really. We have taken the lead against them a number of times but they always seem to come back.

"We were looking for that second goal to kill them off but it never came. There was a bit of disappointment but we are taking the confidence from how well we played to White Hart Lane.

"In terms of beating the top sides we have been getting closer and closer. We beat Chelsea last season but mostly we have got draws or suffered narrow defeats and it's now time to start turning those games into wins.

"If someone had told me in July that we had a home game to get to Wembley I would have taken it all day long." King will skipper Spurs tonight against an Arsenal line-up that will include established first-teamers William Gallas, Alexander Hleb and Bacary Sagna, as well as out-of-favour World Cup winner Gilberto.

Wenger has also opted to have Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Adebayor, Mathieu Flamini and Eduardo on the bench as an insurance policy.

Although the Frenchman will stick with the likes of Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson, Abou Diaby, Lukasz Fabianski, Armand Traore and Justin Hoyte, who have been key figures in the club's Carling Cup run, his decision to bring in the big guns reflects his desire to end Arsenal's three-year trophy drought.

In the earlier rounds, the Gunners boss was committed to his experiment of relying on fringe and youth-team players but his side were outplayed a fortnight ago at Emirates Stadium.

The Frenchman's hand has been partly forced by the absence of four of his central defenders after Philippe Senderos broke his nose against Fulham on Saturday.

Wenger said: "I will rotate the squad which means those that didn't play on Saturday will play at Tottenham. I will put the younger players out and have experienced ones on the bench because the squad has been reduced. On the bench you might find a high number of Premier League players."