{"id":11958,"date":"2025-09-23T19:12:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T18:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11958"},"modified":"2025-09-24T22:50:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T21:50:51","slug":"time-to-reset-the-vole-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=11958","title":{"rendered":"Time To Reset The Vole Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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No, I haven\u2019t developed late onset dyslexia – and why is that particular word so hard to spell ? – it\u2019s just an anagram and I like them ! And what\u2019s more, it\u2019s quite fitting because it really is high time we reset The Arsenal\u2019s record in the (Football League) Carabao Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time we won the competition was in 1993 in which incarnation it was known as the Coca-Cola Cup. That season’s competition ran alongside the first season of the newly formed F.A. Premier League. That\u2019s how long it is since we won that particular trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To clear the first hurdle this time we will have to literally do it on a, possibly, wet Wednesday night in Stoke. To be precise we will have to do it in Port Vale which is located about 4.3 miles (6.9 km) from Stoke City’s bet365 Stadium, making them very local rivals. Port Vale’s home stadium, Vale Park, is in the district of Burslem, if you\u2019re driving there, one of the six towns that form Stoke-on-Trent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a wider context it is part of the Potteries where a teacher once told me I would never be any good at poetry because of my aforementioned late onset dyslexia. Well, so far I\u2019ve made three beautiful vases and a jug, so up yours Mr Evans !<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This 3rd Round tie is a mismatch on paper, but we will need to be careful not to fall into this particular trap as the League One strugglers, managed by Darren Moore, have already knocked out Blackpool and Birmingham City to make it this far for only their second third-round appearance in the last 16 years – although they did reach the quarter-finals in 2023-24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The History<\/strong>
A look at the head-to-head record between the clubs shows that in their 22 previous meetings Arsenal have won 13, drawn 5 and Piet Vale have won 4.
Before Arsenal were promoted to the top tier of English football in 1919, the two sides frequently clashed in the old Second Division. Back in the days of Christmas Day football, three of the first five clashes between Arsenal and Port Vale – including their first-ever meeting – took place on December 25th with Arsenal winning all three. On Christmas Day 1894, Arsenal recorded their biggest victory in this head-to-head – a 7-0 drubbing at Manor Ground. Port Vale have to go back to September 1901 for their last win against the Arsenal – actually Woolwich Arsenal at that time. Since that 1-0 victory on their home soil, we have maintained a nine-game winning run against them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two teams have only been drawn together twice in the FA Cup since the end of the First World War, with Arsenal prevailing after replays on both occasions. In the 4th Round of the 1926-27 competition, the two sides drew 2-2 before Herbert Chapman led the Gunners to a 1-0 win in the replay. Seventy years later, in the third round of the 1997-98 FA Cup, the newly arrived Arsene Wenger saw his side – which included the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars and Ray Parlour – held to a 0-0 draw at Highbury. Port Vale then almost pulled off a huge giant killing in the replay, taking Arsenal to penalties after a 1-1 draw and extra time. The Arsenal won the shoot-out 4-3, almost a very early exit for Arsene who, of course, went on to win the competition that year and a record 7 times overall as a manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Squads<\/strong>
It just wouldn\u2019t be Arsenal if we didn\u2019t end the weekend with new fitness worries – two this time to be precise. New signing Piero Hincapie, having joined and gone straight off on international duty, did not make the matchday squad on Sunday due to an unspecified problem. As we all know now, Noni Madueke was replaced at half time due to a knee injury which has now, after scans, been diagnosed as a medial ligament tear. He will be out for 6-8 weeks. Gabriel Jesus (ACL), Kai Havertz (knee) and Martin \u00d8degaard (shoulder) all missed the game against Man C130y but Bukayo Saka and Ben White made welcome returns to the squad. I would expect both to feature against Port Vale to build fitness and get some match practice in before the trip to St James\u2019s Park on Sunday. Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly should also be among a number of changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been saying since the summer that we have to get away from the idea of first teamers and reserves as we now have comparable quality with all players throughout the squad. On that basis we could reasonably expect to see some mix and match selections across all competitions, rather than an obvious A and B team. However, just to immediately contradict myself, I would expect some key players to start on the bench and get a breather with Newcastle coming up at the weekend especially as the Geordies, while dropping points against Bournemouth, took the opportunity to rest the likes of Guimaraes and Joelinton and I believe new 6\u20197\u201d striker Valdemort (sic<\/em>) was withdrawn at half time. I\u2019d be very surprised to see Max Dowman start but he could well get 20 minutes at the end if Bukayo Saka has a good hour or so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that would leave a team looking something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Kepa; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nwaneri, N\u00f8rgaard, Merino; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka, Gyokeres, Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Port Vale, on-loan Wrexham forward Mo Faal has recovered from a hamstring injury, but Moore has problems out wide following a rash of fresh blows. Liam Gordon was forced off late on in the win over Mansfield, Mitch Clark is not yet expected to return from his unspecified issue, while Kyle John has been ruled out for the next few matches owing to a muscle injury. At this point I have to admit I know absolutely nothing about any of them or what likely effect their absences will have on the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so \u2026..<\/strong>
Some people may think this is only the Carabao Cup and doesn\u2019t really matter. While it\u2019s clearly not our top priority, I hope we will take it very seriously as the importance of winning a trophy for this team cannot be overestimated. It would be great for confidence, belief and just plain getting the first one over the line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game will be shown on Sky Sports in the UK. Kick off at 20.00.
If you\u2019re driving to Port Vale for the game do take care as apparently a tanker of ready mixed concrete has crashed with a prison service van on the M6. Police are warning that there are hardened criminals on the carriageway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on you Reds !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, I haven\u2019t developed late onset dyslexia – and why is that particular word so hard to spell ? – it\u2019s just an anagram and I like them ! And what\u2019s more, it\u2019s quite fitting because it really is high time we reset The Arsenal\u2019s record in the (Football League) Carabao Cup. The last time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11958"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11970,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11958\/revisions\/11970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}