Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood has defended his use of a 4-4-2 system against Arsenal in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

Goals from Santi Cazorla and Tomas Rosicky saw Spurs go down 2-0 to their North London rivals at the Emirates Stadium.

"No," Sky Sports News quotes him as saying when asked if he should have deployed more midfielders. "They outnumbered us in the middle of the park but we outnumbered them out wide.

"They can't have it all ways. I think we were fine. We didn't lose the game because we were outnumbered in the middle of the pitch. A lot is made of systems - 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or whatever you want to call it.

"It's about passing the ball to your own team and keeping hold of it because when you lose the ball you are always going to be out of shape - otherwise you are going to be a rigid, boring team. It's about funnelling back in, shuffling across. I don't think we were overrun in the middle of the park. I think they did all right."

Tottenham are currently sixth in the Premier League, while Arsenal are a point clear at the top.