Carabao Cup 4th round, Thursday, October 1, 19:45
It’s an age-old debate, the importance of striving for success in the League Cup considering the stern demands of the other three competitions that a top-tier club like Arsenal contends each year. On the positive side is the argument that the confidence gained through League Cup success often carries over into a team’s performance in the other competitions. Recent seasons have seen Chelsea (2015) and Manchester City (2018 and 2019) achieve important victories in the League Cup which proved beneficial later on in their Premier League winning seasons. On the other hand, when clubs go out at an early stage they may risk an adverse psychological impact from the realization they no longer enjoy as many potential avenues of success. Then there is the very real risk of physical fatigue and injuries that increases dramatically the longer clubs remain in all four competitions. In any case, in order to succeed in multiple competitions a club must have a very deep squad, and Arsenal’s current squad is not nearly as deep as the aforementioned clubs. So is it worth it to set up the team up to win at all costs?
With that tricky risk/reward equation in mind, just three days after Monday’s league match at Anfield, Arsenal return to the same venue to face what we can expect to be a largely rotated Liverpool side for a League (or “Carabao” if you prefer) Cup fourth round tie. Ahead of Sunday afternoon’s home league match against Sheffield United, Mikel Arteta faces a significant team selection headache as he contends with fixture congestion and injuries, as well as the need to refresh a team that must be recovering from a psychological low. I’m not sure how realistic it is, but hopefully we will see a bunch of breakthrough performances from unexpected sources, and resting our top players will look like a no-brainer in retrospect.
As you will recall, this is the second straight season Arsenal meet Liverpool at Anfield in a fourth round tie in this competition. Last year the teams played to a wild 5-5 draw but after leading for nearly the whole game Unai Emery’s Gunners conceded in stoppage time and went out 5-4 on penalties. The leaky Arsenal defence that day was led by Shkodran Mustafi who put one in his own net, but Arsenal’s five goals were accounted for by Gabriel Martinelli (2), Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock. If he were not unavailable through injury, Martinelli would almost certainly feature in Thursday’s starting line-up, and the Gunners could really use him as the matches are coming so thick and fast. Arsenal advanced to this stage by virtue of their 2-0 away win at Leicester City just last Wednesday, when Nicolas Pépé forced an own goal after for once going to the by-line and using his right foot. Eddie Nketiah, who could play a major role on Thursday, added a tap-in before full-time.
Prior to Monday’s game, Arteta commented on the awkwardness of this rematch saying: “It is normally difficult enough to play the same team in four days and for the players as well to adapt. Obviously, the first game has a big impact on the second one and it is really tough to beat the same opponent twice in that short period.” Now knowing the result of that first game, perhaps it is Liverpool who would be best advised to take note of Arteta’s final assertion, but we know that the players that Liverpool put out will have entirely different, but no less strong motives to perform at a very high level, so the team Arteta puts out will have their work cut out for them.
In
their own 3rd round tie last Thursday, Liverpool won away at League One side
Lincoln City by a 7-2 whomping. Their only first-team players who
featured in that game were Van Dijk, who was substituted at halftime, as well
as Fabinho, Keita and Jota, who made second half appearances. If
Jurgen Klopp selects a team similar to that one, we can expect to see Adrián
keeping goal with a cast of youngsters and bit players in front of him, including
two defenders named Williams. In more
advanced positions we will probably see Minamino and Jones (who each scored
twice at Lincoln), and Origi, Shaqiri and Grujic, who scored one each. Recently acquired Greek left-back Tsimikas
played at Lincoln but is already
out of contention due to a thigh injury, so in his place we could see either of
John Robertson or another of Liverpool’s youngsters. After his goal on Monday there is a chance
that new boy Diogo Jota, recently signed from Wolves, could play from the start
in one of the attacking positions.
Arsenal XI
Dani Ceballos only played half an hour on Monday so could be a candidate to start in this one, but how many minutes he can handle is a tricky call because the team needs him for Sunday’s important league match. The core of Arsenal’s attacking unit is likely to be composed of youngsters Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, and Joe Willock, who all played at Leicester but did not feature in Monday’s game. We can expect them to be joined by Eddie Nketiah and Nicolas Pépé, who both featured against Leicester but only made second half appearances against Liverpool. If Arteta decides he needs to rest players for the Sheffield United match at the weekend, we may see Sead Kolasinac or some less familiar names pop up in the side, but to keep the team’s resolution strong, I expect Arteta to opt for a relatively strong team such as this one:
Leno
Holding – Luiz – Gabriel
Soares – Torreira – Willock – Saka
Pépé – Nketiah – Nelson
The ‘holics pound
Seeing as last time the score ended up 5-5, nobody could accuse me of extravagance in predicting that this time we will hold them to 3-3, with one goal scored by each of the front line, in this very order: Nelson, Nketiah, and Pépé, who will deliver a sumptuous free kick ten minutes from time. Buoyed by that momentum, Eddie will put away our final spot-kick and Arsenal will advance to the next round, giving the first team just the boost it needs to look at the league season that much more positively.
Enjoy the game, ‘holics.
A fine preview and a bold prediction
as ever bt8 👍👍
Now to turn my mind to the
team selection…….
ok, thinking done and I more
than half agree on your team
bt8.
Now that Runarsson has had a week to
settle in and Leno has a couple of games
under his belt I think we may see the
son of Runar start. Also I think Kola
is nailed on to start with Gabriel in
the middle. I doubt LT will play as he
looks to be partly out the door.
Whoever isn’t starting against Sheff
Utd will join Joe in the middle.
No idea if Soares is fit yet but if so
he should start. My very iffy guess….
Runarsson
Soares (Saliba? Papa?) Gabriel Kola
AMN Elneny Joe W Saka
Pepe Eddie Nelson
If MA was serious about everyone
starting from scratch again then Guen at
least should be in contention.
Or if we go with 4 at the back
then Ozil should be too.
Anyway, our right flank behind
Pepe is the area that needs the
most thought / inventiveness.
Great preview bt8
Tough one to call this one, we almost did it last time and Ozil was instrumental in that game, however I very much doubt he will feature later on. I wish we could resolve this issue asap.
My prediction a cheeky 4:2 to the good guys.
Dr F from previous drinks
Just to clarify,
I have no quibble with our defensive tactics per se.
What i did object most strongly to,was taking it to a ridiculous level in fielding effectively 8 defenders.
With our creative midfielder on the bench for whatever reason,we had no creative path to the front 3.
Auba and Willian spent most of the first half defending,as we were so deep in our own final 3rd.
So we actually had 10 defenders trying to keep Pool at bay.
Once you signal your negative intent, the opposition have the dominant high ground without earning the right to it.
I do hope we don’t make the same mistake at City after the Intl break.
By the bye,i was so cranky on Monday night,i omitted to compliment you on an exemplary post match summary.
Seems Soares is available from
this injury update
https://www.arsenal.com/news/team-news-chambers-mustafi-sokratis
Good stuff, bt8. I’m not overly concerned by the demands of two games in a week at this stage of the season. I like this Cup only because, like the early rounds of the Carabao, it provides the opportunity to field younger players and build their ‘big game’ experience in a first team shirt.
I think Leno needs game time and so wouldn’t be tempted to start Runarsson, but I’d play a back four of Cedric, Saliba, Gabriel and Maitland-Niles in front of him. A midfield of Elneny, Saka and Ceballos with your front three.
Enjoy the game, Holics.
From previous drinks
The point was he was suggesting there were two camps on this blog
Nope. I was actually referencing the attitude which has been on display on the Twitter feed of a certain fan publication, whose whatever you call it at the top reads as follows
The No1 voice of intelligent, informed and irreverent genuine Arsenal supporters – not ‘fans’ – since 1987. Online and in print
The End.
@6 – Oops, too much whisky in the porridge this morning. Midfield of Willock, Saka, Elneny.
Fine summary bt8, of a difficult game to assess and even more difficult to pick a line up for.
I will leave it to Mikel in the hope he will pick a more attacking side than he did on Monday.
2 stats i found of interest.,
1, This is the 16th time we have been drawn to play each other,which is the most in the history of the competition.
2, we have won 14 of the 17 games we have played when reaching the 4th round, here’s hoping we can make it 15.
Also good luck to the Ladies tonight in FA Cup semi against Man City.
They kick off half an hour before the Men,so i will be keeping an eye on that one as well.
A deft preview bt8. Nicely summed up with wisdom and brevity.
I like your team. Matt says Soares is out. Maybe AMN on the right to protect Hector? If Torreira is near an exit then Elneny may come in. The exclusion of Ceballos on Tuesday looks even more odd given that if he plays tonight he will have little time to recover for Sunday, when he will surely start?
I think you are right Arteta will hand starts to both Nelson and Saka. I can’t see Kola playing. We want rid of him. No point in getting him injured, and we have two young lads who both need game time.
I don’t care much about this one.
Unless we win. In which case it will be a significant victory. 😉
I’m gonna be doing the same as Clive and watching the women start their game. They are an excellent side to watch.
An excellent preview nicely illustrating the schizophrenic relationship we have with this competition and the likely opposition personnel of whom I knew nothing. Indeed I feared that we would field a team of fringe and youth players and Klopp (creepy bloke with homozygous disingenuity genes) would field a stronger team. However the details you provide of their third round victory assuage my suspicions somewhat.
I pretty much agree with your team though I expect Saliba to make his debut rather than Holding to revisit the site of his Monday night torture and I understand Sokratis is back to fitness and that his move to Italy has gone cold so he may be asked to earn his corn by playing tonight perhaps instead of Luiz. That is however a back three who have barely made their acquaintances let alone dealt with a rampant opposition so there may be a place for Luiz after all. Torreira’s agent was in Madrid yesterday so I don’t expect him to start. I expect Ceballos, Elneny or most probably Xhaka (spared 90 minutes on Monday) to start alongside Soares, Willock and Saka in midfield. Your forward line seems our most likely option.
The team selected for this game may conclusively demonstrate whether there is to be any redemption for Guendouzi and Özil. There’s noise about Guendouzi and Marseilles so he may be spaared the risk of a move-blocking injury along with Torreira and Kolasinac. There’s no noise at all about Özil so I expect his place in outer darkness to be confirmed and I expect to see neither in our first team again given that they haven’t made any match squads this season. A very sad end to one career and a black mark on the early career of another. Ho hum! Life is about choices.
Anyway,
COYG
Good articles on Untold Arsenal and She Wore this morning outlining why we have to sell (or at least get rid of) two of Kola, Torreira, Sokratis, Ozil and Mustafi before the season starts and that we have to sell (or get rid of) a further one for each foreign player aged over 21 that we buy. The latter site suggests an interesting sequence of deals to be done and their likely timing. Deadline day is indeed going to be a humdinger IF we are going to do what everyone seems to think we’re going to do!
A very nice preview Bt8. Really looking forward to seeing the team, which will give a real clue to who is lurking by the exit door as well as which of our young guns are going to strut their stuff tonight. What’s it going to be? No idea!
Excellent review bt8.
I agree with your team mostly except Dani for Torreira because I think our feisty Uruguayan is off to Spain. I will miss him personally, but I also understand why he needs to be upgraded in PL. I think in La Liga and/or Serie A we will see an excellent ex-Arsenal player stamping his authority over the next few years.
The scoreline can be anything. A Julio Baptista style 6-3 will be nice. 🙂 Eddie with a quadruple?
Clive, thanks for replying to my comments on previous drinks. I do agree that our inability to get out of our own defensive third was deeply frustrating and I agree that starting Dani would have given us a more reliable path towards “verticality” through the midfield.
@10
GSD,
I said Soares is available.
Though seeing will be believing
in his case.
I completely agree with your
conclusion!
And Happy 60th Independence Day to Cent and all our Nigerian Gooners!
I feel proud to support a club that has such a huge following in Nigeria and possibly the best player in the country’s history also being an Arsenal legend. I love Kanu.
Saka has been called up to the England squad. Not that I care much, but it must be a good boost for him.
Unless he wants to follow in Kanu’s giant footsteps and represent Nigeria.
Either way, good luck to him as he starts his international career.
I also love Kanu.
Sorry Matt. I saw Soares and injury update…
😄 An understandable conclusion
GSD.
Well done to Saka and good luck to
the Arsenal women. A final against
Everton awaits, and looks winnable.
Nice preview bt8.
Personally, I would not be happy to see virtually a totally different starting 11 to Monday. In the list of priorities, the league cup is at the bottom. These are strange old times. We have had no proper end of season break and no pre season. We have no idea yet how that will take it’s toll in the coming months. We have players that are in need of games and those where the priority is that they are 100% fit for Sunday.
Without knowing any of the above, any prediction is difficult. That said I’m sure we have more than enough to get a result.
Up the Gunners.
Still no Saliba????
COYG!
Good chance. Eddie unusually hesitant
Massive hole on our right there
We created two great chances in two minutes but couldn’t give the finishing touch.
They created clear chance which almost gave them the lead.
Minamino’s challenge was a borderline red card; the guy was totally out of control and could have seriously injured Saka.
What Wenger used to call a deep orange
Shirt pulling going unpunished
We have no play maker Ramsey type of player, Ceballos way too deep
Not sure what Dani was doing there
Great save from Leno then the bar rattled
Good start but a slow decline as the half went on
That was almost a penalty for Pool. They almost took the lead as Leno made a great save but Minamino only hit the crossbar. That was so close.
Evenly matched game.
Decent enough first half considering all of the changes. I think we need to be a bit more adventurous in the second half and be a bit more bold.
Bring it on.
we faded and they got stronger through the half, and we got lucky at the end. why are we throwing towards our box? yeesh.
Wot Steve said
The women’s team fighting hard against Man City. Come on you Gunners!
Xhaka you stupid fool
Stoke through to the next round, beating Villa.
Great save Leno 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Another great save from Leno
What a save by Leno, superb. Keeps us in the game.
Despite Rob and Gabriel being tall, we’re losing a lots of crosses into our box.
I really don’t want to get on his back, but Pepe very ineffective again.
Another good save we are struggling now, subs please
Salah and van Dyke off
I’m a bit puzzled to why he’s still not making changes
Another two fine saves from Leno – but we’re under the cosh here.
Fourth great save by Leno. Make that five!!!
Without him the match would be over a long time ago.
It’s Leno show best Arsenal player so far and if we have to talk stats we have not had a shot in goal yet
We just don’t have the creativity and penetration. So we send on Elneny!
Elneny for Xhaka I hope hopefully Ceballos can play higher up!
Come on guys this is Liverpool’s second string mostly we should be doing better
Ha ha Ceballos and Xhaka stays on
Dani off for Elneny. Curiously negative move
Ceballos off, so whatever little attacking spark we had is gone.
That’s better come in Arsenal!
Elneney for Ceballos seems a negative change to me.
Straight at the keeper Holding
That’s an awesome cross from Pepe. Rob unfortunate not to score
Holding heads it straight at their goalie. Great chance missed.
If you give him space on his left foot Pepe can be very good. Trouble is, because he only uses his right leg for standing on, those occasions are few and far apart.
The best compliment I can pay Gabriel is that I’d forgotten Salah was playing until he was subbed.
Laca on for Eddie.
Laca coming on for Nketiah.
7th save by Leno
Ainsley on for Saka. One of his quieter games
Our midfield is screaming for reinforcement
And there was me thinking Xhaka was going to play it forward
Handball and we get nothing
Was that a penalty denied to us?
Penalty shootout it will be to decide the winner.
Finally we get a penalty!
Oh. It’s a shootout.
Elneny screws it. What a timid penalty.
Oh dear lazy pen
ah, mo.
Come on Leno great save
leno!
Leno saves again!!!!
lol amn
honors even into the next phase: sudden death.
Come on
leno II!
yes!!!
Siolololololooooo bring it on! Not the best pen from Willock but got there in the end!👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼
Willock scores and we win. Klopp must hate us.
Willock almost didn’t do it, lucky his shot hit the goalie and went in.
Arteta -3 – Klopp – 1..😅
Last four games. Arsenal 3:1 Liverpool. Ice in their veins. Leno two great saves. AMN cool as funk.
AMN was the only one that I felt confident about. He just does not look like missing a pen.
Glad Laca and Pepe took such good pens.
Glad we got through.
Bernd Leno, take a bow!!
What a great goalkeeper we have in the team.
we did it, well done. it was actually a good game, excepting for the ref. how they didn’t end up with a passel of yellow cards, i don’t know.
i enjoyed the first half better than the second, we just couldn’t seem to get on the final ball. holding’s header was great, but straight at adrian. we were lucky with minamo (the little shit) hitting the bar.
motm leno, without a doubt.
Great win. Good battling performance and good to see some of the younger players stepping up to the plate.
Leno was excellent tonight. I hope that puts to bed once and for all any of the silly Martinez comparisons. Gabriel will also be an excellent addition to this side. Get Mari and Saliba fit and we might have the beginnings of a proper defence at last.
I thought Willock played very well. Kola did his usual defensive performance but he showed more of his attacking abilities, which is where his strengths lie. Not a bad game at all from him, especially if it is his last.
Leno and Gabriel excellent.
What I liked about Pepe was that he didn’t let his head drop when things did not come off and he worked really hard all 90. Keep that up and good things will come. Then he took an excellent penalty and looked chuffed when we won.
i liked willock’s game, and eddie’s. pepe ran and ran and ran, and just couldn’t quite make it happen. but the effort was there. i still don’t understand why xhaka is on the team, though i will say when mo’neny came on we had more forward movement. maybe dani was tired.
defensively we’re clearly a work in progress, and while i love the man i am not sure holding should be starting. i can imagine we will get there at some point.
and martinez? whodat?
Looks like we’re through. And the grilled chicken is done. Dunno what more you could want.👍🏼👍🏼
Paul Merson is impressed that the penalty takes all hit the target.
cheeky as amn…
Nicely done scruz
Uncontroversial opinion. Liverpool are far from an all conquering team when missing their superb full backs and Mane. Makes the non existent red card on Monday even more galling but hey. We are learning how to beat Liverpool.
Scruz panenkas it in for the ton. 👏👏
We get City
Home again City in the quarters
Didn’t watch it, as fell asleep watching the women. Heard Leno did well, which is pleasing.
Still think Martinez is the more solid keeper but then I still think Trevor Ross was under rated, so fuck my opinion. 🙂
fucking hell. not villa or whoever they were playing today? gotta believe in rigged elections, even if you don’t listen to the bs being promulgated in the states.
cheers, all. i learned all i know about cheeky penalties from ainsley.
Cynic. Leno was truly brilliant tonight with several world Ives then two saves in the shoot out. Good on him. Villa lost against Stoke – not sure if Emi was playing.
So here’s an interesting one. Our league cup tie against City is in the same week, w/b October 22, as our first round Europa Group games. In which game do we play the strongest team?
c100@ 109, that’s three weeks away. let’s see where we are when we get to that week. we might not even be able to put out the same team sheet as we did today.
C100
The Qtr final of League cup is not till w/c 21st December, so no worries on clashes with EL ties.
What it does mean is that there is no midweek break for the squad for the rest of this year, except for some players not on Intl duty in Oct and Nov .
Actually forget that Scruz. Seems the games will be December 22 or 23. So we can relax, enjoy being in the next round and concentrate on the league and Europa for the next three months.
Thanks for the correction Clive. Let’s hope the squad is big enough to cope.
Another Carabao match I’ve
slept through but a good result
again. Well done the lads but
commiserations to the women
for a 2-1 defeat.
A packed schedule until the end
of the year but I noticed we
should have 2 or 3 CBs returning
in the next few weeks.
Rob has played a lot and I’m
doubtful Luiz can manage
two games a week for three
months so it’ll be handy to have
one or two more to rotate in and
free up KT for LWB.
Do you know what guys? I fucking love the league cup.
Still haven’t seen the game as I was outside grilling chicken all afternoon, but just now watched highlights for the first time, and must say you guys weren’t kidding about the quality and quantity of Leno’s saves. Jota must be having nightmares about a couple of them.
I found some extended highlights
as well. Though it was 0-0 I thought
Eddie, Minamino, Rob and Jota should
all have scored. Leno excellent.
But no highlight of the handball at
the end which Adrian Clarke was saying
was a definite penalty.
At the moment their first XI looks
better than our first XI but no real
difference in squad depth.
A win over Sheff Utd, a decent
draw in the Europa and action before
the window closes on the transfer
market will do nicely for the next
7 days.
“I think Milner got a bit of the ball”
Milner getting a bit of…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>