{"id":6963,"date":"2022-11-10T11:44:20","date_gmt":"2022-11-10T11:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6963"},"modified":"2022-11-12T05:29:24","modified_gmt":"2022-11-12T05:29:24","slug":"arsenal-lose-the-battle-to-win-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=6963","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Lose the Battle, to Win the War?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal were knocked out of the Carabao cup at the first hurdle as they gave up a 1-0 lead to lose 3-1 to Brighton (AND Hove Albion) at the Emirates on Wednesday. We took the lead thanks to a superb curling effort from Eddie Nketiah after an outstanding solo run and pass from Reiss Nelson. However, we were undone by a penalty from former Gunner Danny Welbeck and a couple of exceptional second half finishes from Mitoma and Tariq Lamptey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst some fans may be disappointed by the loss as it can be viewed as an opportunity for a trophy and a day out at a Wembley car park, it was obvious that this competition was the least of Mikel Arteta and Arsenal\u2019s priorities. Many may be reminded of the days where Wenger would use the League Cup as an opportunity to blood the youngsters and play eight 16-year-olds which was always exciting and probably one of the reasons we never won it under his tenure, but most clubs have bigger squads these days and will just give run-outs to some fringe players. And that\u2019s what Arteta did making ten changes from the win at Chelsea. There was a first team debut (and probably one to forget) for the Estonia number one, Karl Hein, Cedric got a rare start, Lokonga was given another go and we went with a front three of Nelson, Marquinhos and Eddie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening 15-20 mins were low key, both teams trading off pot shots from outside the box. But on 19 minutes we broke the deadlock. Nelson received the ball in his own half, turned away from a couple of Brighton midfielders, carried the ball into the final third before laying off an excellent pass to Nketiah who had peeled away to the left-hand side. He opened his body up and curled in an excellent finish high into the top corner. An Henry-esque finish! It was a goal that showed that Eddie is much more than just a fox in the box. I have been waiting a long time for him to score a goal like that. I think he is very underrated by most Arsenal fans but for me, he gets into a lot of premier league sides. One of the best back up strikers around. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, things began to unravel soon after. Welbeck was sent through, it looked as though Hein would get there first but he slipped on the turf at the worst possible moment and as a result he could only bring Welbeck down and it was undoubtedly a pen. Thankfully Hein was only shown a yellow. Welbeck dusted himself down and calmly sent Hein the wrong way. I noted that he didn\u2019t celebrate which I liked because he always celebrated when he scored against United! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We started the second half strongly, creating several chances. Eddie hit the post with a fierce drive with the keeper well beaten. Shortly after, Marquinhos sent in a dangerous cross from which Nelson\u2019s header was well saved by the Brighton \u2018keeper. It looked like it would only be a matter of time before we restored our lead. But it was Brighton who went in front. They broke down our left-hand side after an impressive switch of play. Sarmiento drove forward and fed Mitoma who had come on as a half time substitute, the Japanese international took a touch and curled it past Hein. We huffed and puffed but couldn\u2019t regain our rhythm. Twenty minutes from time Brighton got a third. Tariq Lamptey waltzed past Cedric with ease and poked his effort into the far corner. From that point onwards the game seemed to fizzle out from an Arsenal point of view, and we were out of the energy drink cup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time will tell if that proves to be a blessing or not, but you sense that it probably will. The 4th<\/sup> round is bizarrely scheduled for the 21st of<\/sup> December just three days after the World Cup final. On a night where Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham also went out you get the feeling this will only free up space in the hugely congested calendar. And for the people who say we have thrown away a chance of a trophy, I would say, we are top of the league, through to the round of 16 in the Europa League and we still have the FA cup to look forward to in the New Year. So, make the judgement yourselves. Personally, I don\u2019t believe we have the squad to compete on four fronts. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a reflection of our transfer business, more just an indication of how ludicrous it is to have two domestic cup competitions. Quite frankly, no one cares. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we win at Wolves on Saturday night this game will well and truly be forgotten. And that\u2019s a game of much more importance anyway. Onto the next\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal were knocked out of the Carabao cup at the first hurdle as they gave up a 1-0 lead to lose 3-1 to Brighton (AND Hove Albion) at the Emirates on Wednesday. We took the lead thanks to a superb curling effort from Eddie Nketiah after an outstanding solo run and pass from Reiss Nelson. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6963"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6966,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6963\/revisions\/6966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}