Arsenal’s Carabao Cup fourth-round clash with Preston North End – the only other side in English football history to go a top-flight season unbeaten – will take place on Wednesday 30 October at 7.45pm.
The trip to Deepdale comes between two challenging fixtures for Mikel Arteta’s side: a home clash against Liverpool at the Emirates on Sunday, 27 October, followed by an away trip to Newcastle on 2 November.
Given the schedule, the boss may well be tempted to rotate his squad against Championship opposition – he handed debuts to four teenagers in the last round – and we wouldn’t be surprised if the occasion is also used to give minutes to Martin Odegaard who is tipped to return around that time.
The Gunners last faced Preston in January 2017, winning an FA Cup third-round tie 2-1. We also faced them in both the FA Cup and League Cup in 1999 winning 4-2 away in the former and 2-1 at home in the latter. Before that, we faced the Lilywhites 78 times between 1901 and 1960.
It’s expected the match will be broadcast in the UK by Sky Sports + but we’re still waiting official confirmation of that.
Would love our skipper to be back by then!
Martin will destroy those fuckers. Will be exciting to see him and Nwaneri start together too? If it’s those two and Merino could that be the most creative midfield we’ve fielded since the Wenger era? Honestly if you’re going to have fixture congestion, which is a given these days, that’s not a bad way to have it. Preston won’t necessarily be easy to beat at home with our second choice squad, but if all of the players that are supposed to come back do and we don’t lose any others then we should be able to manage it, while also… Read more »
or alternatively Ode, Nwaneri and Jorgi could also be a ball moving masterclass
I want us to try to move away from the idea of a first team and a second team. Some players are clearly super important and will play all the most important games, but the majority of the squad should be more interchangeable and less predictable. Guardiola does this really well.
I’m with you 100%. But there’s what we want, and then there’s what Arteta wants in theory, and then there’s what he actually does. So far, though I’m sure he aspires to that, he’s shown little signs of actually implementing that concept.
You need a bazooka to kill a fly? Ode for Preston?
The Invincibles Derby
And not against City, will never happen.
Warra UCL Preston?
Losers.
be awkward if this was the wrong preston and we accidentally scheduled a game against preston the robot dog from wallace and gromit
Also awkward if the sat nav on the team bus screws up and we end up going to Southend rather than North End.
The Invincibles Derby.
Another great one for the boys !