The Gunners take on their north London rivals in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow.

Wenger has Robin van Persie fit again following injury, but maintains he will field a "young side", a policy which has served him so well in the competition once again. Spurs boss Juande Ramos is, though, expected to use all of his key men in a bid to reach Wembley.

Berbatov - signed from Bayer Leverkusen for £10.9million during July 2006 - has continued his good form this season, smashing in four goals against Reading on December 29 and also netting a brace when the two sides met again in the FA Cup last weekend.

The future of the Bulgarian, 26, remains the subject of much speculation - with Chelsea said to be ready to launch a £30million raid - which the player claims have made him 'fed up'.

Wenger has long been an admirer of the powerful 6ft 2in forward, but felt he already had several attacking options when considering a bid himself.

The Arsenal manager declared: "He is top class. He always has time on the pitch and when you play against him he is always in the places you don't want him to be.

"He is what I call a top class striker because he can provide, he can score, he can be at the start of the move and at the end of it. That is a sign of quality."

Asked if he had ever considered a move for Berbatov, Wenger told Arsenal TV Online: "Yes, when he played for Bayer Leverkusen. I noticed him once when he played against Real Madrid. He was a young boy at the time, but we were never in need of him.

"We had Thierry Henry, we had Robin van Persie. Then we got [Emmanuel] Adebayor, but I have known about him for a long time."

Wenger added: "I look always more at the individual quality of a player first and Berbatov had technical top quality, he is tall, in England it helps.

"When building a team in England sometimes you think on set-pieces not only offensively, but defensively you don't want to be caught."

Arsenal will be without defender Kolo Toure, winger Emmanuel Eboue and utility man Alex Song because of the African Nations Cup, which could see the trio away for a month.

Nevertheless, Wenger will resist the temptation to call on his big guns tomorrow, although in-form striker Eduardo is likely to lead the line alongside Dane Nicklas Bendtner, after both strikers scored during the 2-0 FA Cup win at Burnley on Sunday.

"Lukasz Fabianski will play in goal again, Theo Walcott is available while Johan Djourou and Philippe Senderos will play at the back," said the Arsenal boss.

"Apart from that it will be the players who played in the last [Carling Cup] game. Basically it will be a young side maybe with one or two experienced players."

Holland striker Van Persie could feature, having now recovered from a muscular problem which sidelined him since the Barclays Premier League win over Chelsea on December 16.

Wenger said: "Robin had a little setback coming back from his knee injury, it was a muscle problem - but the positive side of it is that he could forget about his knee and work on his fitness."

The Arsenal manager also maintained there was "no news" on the future of goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, currently considering a move back to old club Borussia Dortmund.

Wenger insists he does not expect much movement in the transfer window, playing down suggestions Justin Hoyte was off to Aston Villa and that the club were set to table a bid for unsettled Tottenham forward Jermain Defoe.

"Up front we have Bendtner, Eduardo, Van Persie and of course we have Adebayor. Walcott can play there too. Then we have Carlos Vela don't forget for next season," said the Arsenal boss.

"At the moment we are not interested in any other strikers."

Arsenal reached the final of the Carling Cup last season, beating rivals Spurs in the semis en route to defeat by Chelsea at the Millennium Stadium.

Wenger sees no reason why they should not go one better in 2008.

He said: "Of course you want to win trophies especially when you have a very young side which has already been in two finals.

"For every team when you are in a final you might win it - and this year we have a good chance."