{"id":1447,"date":"2020-10-01T04:44:46","date_gmt":"2020-10-01T03:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1447"},"modified":"2020-10-02T05:10:36","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T04:10:36","slug":"sighting-spice-amid-seconds-with-the-scousers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=1447","title":{"rendered":"Sighting spice amid seconds with the Scousers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Liverpool v. Arsenal Preview<\/strong>
Carabao Cup 4th round, Thursday, October 1, 19:45<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s 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?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that tricky risk\/reward\nequation in mind, just three days after Monday\u2019s league match at Anfield,\nArsenal return to the same venue to face what we can expect to be a largely\nrotated Liverpool side for a League (or \u201cCarabao\u201d if you prefer) Cup fourth\nround tie.  Ahead of Sunday afternoon\u2019s home league match against\nSheffield United, Mikel Arteta faces a significant team selection headache as\nhe contends with fixture congestion and injuries, as well as the need to\nrefresh a team that must be recovering from a psychological low.  I\u2019m not sure how realistic it is, but hopefully\nwe will see a bunch of breakthrough performances from unexpected sources, and\nresting our top players will look like a no-brainer in retrospect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you\nwill recall, this is the second straight season Arsenal meet Liverpool at\nAnfield in a fourth round tie in this competition.  Last year the teams\nplayed to a wild 5-5 draw but after leading for nearly the whole game Unai\nEmery\u2019s Gunners conceded in stoppage time and went out 5-4 on penalties. \nThe leaky Arsenal defence that day was led by Shkodran Mustafi who put one in\nhis own net, but Arsenal\u2019s five goals were accounted for by Gabriel Martinelli\n(2), Lucas Torreira, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock.  If he were\nnot unavailable through injury, Martinelli would almost certainly feature in\nThursday\u2019s starting line-up, and the Gunners could really use him as the\nmatches are coming so thick and fast.  Arsenal\nadvanced to\nthis stage by virtue of their 2-0 away win at Leicester City just last\nWednesday, when Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 forced an own goal after for once going to the\nby-line and using his right foot.  Eddie\nNketiah, who could play a major role on Thursday, added a tap-in before\nfull-time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to Monday\u2019s game,\nArteta commented on the awkwardness of this rematch saying: \u201cIt is normally\ndifficult enough to play the same team in four days and for the players as well\nto adapt. Obviously, the first game has a big impact on the second one and it\nis really tough to beat the same opponent twice in that short\nperiod.\u201d  Now knowing the result of that first game, perhaps it is\nLiverpool who would be best advised to take note of Arteta\u2019s final assertion,\nbut we know that the players that Liverpool put out will have entirely different,\nbut no less strong motives to perform at a very high level, so the team Arteta\nputs out will have their work cut out for them. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\ntheir own 3rd round tie last Thursday, Liverpool won away at League One side\nLincoln City by a 7-2 whomping.  Their only first-team players who\nfeatured in that game were Van Dijk, who was substituted at halftime, as well\nas Fabinho, Keita and Jota, who made second half appearances.  If\nJurgen Klopp selects a team similar to that one, we can expect to see Adri\u00e1n\nkeeping goal with a cast of youngsters and bit players in front of him, including\ntwo defenders named Williams.  In more\nadvanced positions we will probably see Minamino and Jones (who each scored\ntwice at Lincoln), and Origi, Shaqiri and Grujic, who scored one each.  Recently acquired Greek left-back Tsimikas\nplayed at Lincoln but is already\nout of contention due to a thigh injury, so in his place we could see either of\nJohn Robertson or another of Liverpool\u2019s youngsters.  After his goal on Monday there is a chance\nthat new boy Diogo Jota, recently signed from Wolves, could play from the start\nin one of the attacking positions.
\n
\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dani Ceballos only played\nhalf an hour on Monday so could be a candidate to start in this one, but how\nmany minutes he can handle is a tricky call because the team needs him for\nSunday\u2019s important league match.  The\ncore of Arsenal\u2019s attacking unit is likely to be composed of youngsters Reiss\nNelson, Bukayo Saka, and Joe Willock, who all played at Leicester but did not\nfeature in Monday\u2019s game.  We can expect them to be joined by Eddie\nNketiah and Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9, who both featured against Leicester but only made\nsecond half appearances against Liverpool. \nIf Arteta decides he needs to rest players for the Sheffield United\nmatch at the weekend, we may see Sead Kolasinac or some less familiar names pop\nup in the side, but to keep the team\u2019s resolution strong, I expect Arteta to\nopt for a relatively strong team such as this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holding \u2013 Luiz \u2013 Gabriel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soares \u2013 Torreira \u2013\nWillock \u2013 Saka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9p\u00e9\n\u2013 Nketiah \u2013 Nelson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018holics pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing as last time the\nscore ended up 5-5, nobody could accuse me of extravagance in predicting that\nthis time we will hold them to 3-3, with one goal scored by each of the front\nline, in this very order: Nelson, Nketiah, and P\u00e9p\u00e9, who will deliver a sumptuous\nfree kick ten minutes from time.  Buoyed\nby that momentum, Eddie will put away our final spot-kick and Arsenal will\nadvance to the next round, giving the first team just the boost it needs to\nlook at the league season that much more positively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy the game, \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s 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\u2019s performance in the other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1467,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1447\/revisions\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}