Any chance of silverware should not be scoffed at, even if it’s the often ridiculed Carabao Cup, according to Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta. At Manchester City, Arteta was part of the team who won it in back to back seasons and he feels that the perception of the league cup is slowly turning.
“I think, in the last few seasons of the competition, other clubs have raised (their standard),” he said.
“There is only one winner with the Premier League in this country with a lot of frustrated teams. So now, everyone wants to win a title.”
The Spaniard has already won two titles in his nascent Arsenal career and is gunning for more this season – including the Carabao Cup, but he admits the fixture schedule adds to the challenge.
“We’re going to take the Carabao Cup seriously, that’s for sure,” he said. “And, obviously, with the fixtures that we have, the number of games, it is very difficult.
“Maybe not the first game, but (it gets more difficult) as the competition moves a little bit more forwards, with how teams, not just ourselves, are going to treat the competition.
“We have to go day by day. Let’s see what happens tomorrow, and see which position we are on Wednesday to try to put the strongest possible team to try to win it,” shared Arteta.
On top of the possibility of winning a trophy, a deep run into the Carabao Cup is beneficial for youngsters and bench players who could use the minutes on the pitch.
To earn those minutes though, Arsenal ar going to have to perform at the King Power Stadium against a wily Leceister side.
There may be a debut for new goalkeeper Alex Runarsson, while the likes of Cedric Soares, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi will all hope to be involved from the start.
Runarsson
Cedric/AMN Saliba Luiz Kola
Elneny Willock
Pepe Ozil Nelson
Nketiah
I’d give that a go, give them a chance to earn more games
So am I right in thinking we didn’t catch the lurgy off David Moyes? Haven’t heard anything suggesting Arsenal should be worried…
They tested everyone and all OK.
Apparently Cedric is injured…again!
Soares, Sokratis, Smith-Rowe, and Tierney are all out for this match and possibly the next one. I like your line-up, although I’d go for Maitland-Niles and Saka as the fullbacks.
I know we’re going to get injuries like any other team does, but why do our injuries all have to be in the same position? We’ve got six defenders unavailable now.
Soares can play as KT from the RCB position me thinks. Hector and AMN cant. So he is useful. Also I bet he doesnt want to be injured so not sure why people are harsh on him.
Sorry, I agree with this but it needs more downvotes.
Nothing against Ozil, but I’d be tempted to go with Saka & experiment with having Pepe & Saka interchanging during the game. If it worked, it would be horrible to defend against.
Cedric is injured.
Back 4? Hmm…I think if I had to choose between back 4 or Kolasinac I would go for the first
I think Pepe will not want to be included as would rather start over Willian on Monday?
He needs to earn his place, then. Five days between matches is enough time to recover.
Runarsson
Saliba Luiz Kola
AMN Elneny Willock Saka
Pepe Nketiah Nelson
I think this is the one.
This is probably the best we can do but I’ll be damned if I can get excited about watching another 90 mins of Kola’s passing
No Kola, maybe 7-UP or better yet Gunnersaurus. That guy hasn’t had a game since Ozil played!
Got to go for all the cups. Best chance to win something.
Cedric Soares is out till the weekend according to the club site.
Also hope the positive Westham cases don’t impact Arsenal. It looks increasingly likely that there are going to be lot of disruption to the schedule like the Spuds cancelled League Cup match.
I suspect much of the squad probably contracted the virus back in March at the time Arteta got it and so will still have antibodies.
On the one hand hard to see how League cup wasnt deemed the low hanging fruit to be suspended to make space this season, on the other ii guess the football league clubs are needing any tv money from it more than ever.
I’m in the minority here but, I don’t care about this cup. Play the youth.
If we play the youth, we might get knocked out in the first round against a hard team. Then no more chances for the youth. best is to have a mixture of youth and experienced players.
The problem is that we’ve got an atrocious draw. Win today’s game, and our next opponents will be Liverpool (provided they win their match).
Provided we win I’m actually quite pleased
These games are fun to watch
Imagine we win the cup with this draw. That would be pretty legendary. Plus it would mean Arteta wins his first 3 chances at silverware!
Also we need to know where we are, ie how strong we are in respect of other teams
I think tonight will be a tougher game and Leicester will go for it. This is a cup they have a small chance to win if things go well for them. So if we might have to take tonight slightly more serious. Now if we win tonight, the Liverpool game will be probably easier, since they usually don’t take this cup very serious and will have a less experienced line up.
I think Xhaka will start. He always start.
I would expect to see Elneny and Guendouzi be the midfield partnership and Eddie up top. After that I haven’t got a clue. Find out later 🙂
I think it will be interesting to see who is or is not in the squad. If e.g Papa and Torreira start then it would appear nothing is too imminent about them leaving. If the y don’t make the squad however…
Hope we can win this game without having to risk players like Auba and..err can’t think of anyone else, Xhaka maybe?
A very sensible attitude towards this cup. Realistically, our best chance of a trophy this season is one (or more, possibly) of the three cup competitions we’re competing in. That said, we’ve a tricky tie in this one so it may be handy to have other options.
What, is fourth place no longer a trophy? I must have missed that.
Certainly one of Mr W’s most memorable remarks. I’d rather have the place and an actual trophy of course – like we used to have back in the old days. Ah, nostalgia.
Prescient too.
Just like 2014… UCL place and a FA Cup 😉
Coyg, it’s not on tv?
Not even on “special internet tv” ? 🙂
It’s on the Carabao cup’s official streaming site… But it costs £10 to watch if you want to go the legal route
Ha I’m sure it’s on ‘special internet’ TV, my new favourite euphemism.
It’s on the Leicester City website for free in the UK – you just need to sign up for a free account
Just spent a tenner bollocks!
Can you give us a linK?
My mate is an LCFC fan, he said that it is audio only on their site. He could be wrong though so may be worth a go for free.
Radio commentary?
Anyone slightly concerned there is literally no noise about Arsenal fixing their midfield with less than 2 weeks of the transfer window left? Especially with all the clubs around us strengthening en mass. I know a lot can happen to 2 weeks but it’s gone very quiet and I think it’s fair to suggest that if we don’t strengthen the midfield we can expect mid table and maybe another cup run this season. Arteta can’t work miracles with what he has
I think Arteta did work a miracle with what he had in winning that FA Cup and reducing our goals against drastically since coming on, and I think he’s going to be asked to defy the odds again this year as I can’t see us paying the fees for players like Aouar or Partey. I’m sure Arteta wants them, or some version of them, but I’m also sure he has made it clear to the brass that he will turn this team into a winner with or without further signings. I personally think with the current team we have, with… Read more »
I think that a top 4 finish, let’s say fourth place, will be about the best we can hope for in the PL. We’ll get a much better idea come Christmas. The problem with the current squad is that we’re still carrying too many passengers – and the list of players Arteta wants to offload (according to consistent reports) is pretty long. There’s little chance of moving all but a very few before the window closes I think. This could become tricky when we have the inevitable injuries, suspensions etc. and the strength/quality in depth won’t be there to the… Read more »
No mate, I’m not concerned, if we don’t sign anyone it’s not the end of the world, but we might still push a late deal through in the 13 days that’s left.
Have a look at the Oracle’s latest podcast
It is a pity the League Cup has lost so much of its lustre, as it used to be such an amazing competition. I remember attending the 87 semifinals against Spurs and final against Liverpool, which were epic. The 88 semi final against Everton at Highbury was electric and were some of the most exciting games I can recall. It was a big deal back then, and fans were really invested, but I guess times move on.
True. In its early days it was a bit of a “white elephant” though as I recall that several “big” clubs didn’t bother entering the competition, and I don’t think it’s replicated anywhere in major European leagues (although I stand to be corrected about that). I was at the 1969 final against Swindon. Although very young, I do remember the huge disappointment at that heavy (and humiliating) defeat against the “lower” side – our second final defeat in a row, of course. That said, it seems that the team had gone down with ‘flu prior to the game so that… Read more »
I was too young to remember this match, but I’ve been told that the defeat really stung the players and the club as a whole.
Bob Wilson always maintained that the Double side of ‘70/‘71 was born that afternoon. As you say, not only were half the team stricken with ‘flu but the match was played on an absolute quagmire of a pitch, thanks to The Horse of The Year Show the previous week.
And as you also say, Bertie Mee’s lads went on to much greater things.
No Mustafi own goals to worry about – so we have a chance of progressing into the next round.
Quite. I wonder if we’ll ever manage to get him off the books? I fear the answer is if we were a potential buyer, would we buy him? I thought not.
Seriously but not too seriously bc Liverpool coming up. Carabao cup as before better to blood some of the reserves and younger player. A reasonable mix is important with the weighting on the up coming players. First squad players we need to give some protection include Bellerin, Granit, Laca or Auba, Ceballos. Willock and Elneny can feature. Pepe may also need a run out. Nketiah following his goal can do with added push to build on. AMN may come in on left. Cedric looks injury prone and out again so maybe we do have to play Bellerin still but AMN… Read more »