A North London Derby Fantasy Draft, Part I: Picking The Teams

I know what you thought when you woke up this morning. You thought "What would happen if Kevin McCauley and Ted Harwood of SB Nation's Arsenal blog The Short Fuse did a fantasy draft where they picked from the rosters of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal to make two teams?" I'm really, really glad that you thought that, because that's exactly what Ted and I did last night.

The rules: Every player is 100 percent fit. This draft is for one game, so don't take into consideration youth for long term ROI or injury history. Snaking draft. I gave Ted the choice between having the first and fourth picks or the second and third. He chose second and third. Both of us selected teams that ended up playing in 4-3-3 formations.

Below the jump, you can find the results of our madness.

Team Ted

GK: Wojciech Szczesny
LB: Benoit Assou-Ekotto
CB: Laurent Koscielny
CB: Per Mertesacker
RB: Kyle Walker
CM: Alex Song
CM: Jack Wilshere
CM: Rafael Van der Vaart
LF: Gareth Bale
CF: Robin van Persie
RF: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Substitutes: Lukasz Fabianski, Michael Dawson, Andre Santos, Tom Huddlestone, Aaron Ramsey, Yossi Benayoun, Andrei Arshavin

Team Kevin

GK: Brad Friedel
LB: Kieran Gibbs
CB: Thomas Vermaelen
CB: Younes Kaboul
RB: Bacary Sagna
CM: Scott Parker
CM: Mikel Arteta
CM: Luka Modric
LF: Gervinho
CF: Emmanuel Adebayor
RF: Aaron Lennon

Substitutes: Carlo Cudicini, Ledley King, Carl Jenkinson, Sandro, Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott, Louis Saha

Here's how the teams line up against each other.

Luka Modric was my selection with the first overall pick. Ted then took Robin van Persie and Gareth Bale. With what are clearly the three best players on the two teams gone, things got really fun. Ted forgot to pick a center forward for his bench, which I thought was fun. Real quick, some stuff on the guys who missed the cut.

Jermain Defoe: Almost certainly the best player not selected. I guess I wanted someone that could become a natural replacement for Manny if he got hurt or we just needed a fitness sub. In retrospect, someone like Defoe, who could change the game and offer something different, might have been a better choice.

Ryan Nelsen and William Gallas: Two of the best 36 players between the two teams? Probably. But we only had room for six central defenders.

Giovani dos Santos: Hah, sorry, had to mention him.

Niko Kranjcar: In retrospect, better than Rosicky. An oversight on my part for sure.

Francis Coquelin: Don't laugh. He's a very versatile player that probably would have worked out well for someone's bench. I took Jenkinson -- who has played both fullback positions -- as my injury insurance guy instead.

Debate away, folks. Where did I screw up? Where did Ted screw up? Who would win the game? That's Part II, by the way.