Morning all.
Oxford Utd, a club whose ground still has part of its stadium missing. A club which pre Christmas, held Sheffield Wednesday to a draw away from home. On Saturday, Sheffield Wednesday dumped Newcastle Utd out of the FA Cup. Means little I know but that’s the joy of the FA Cup, it can spring a surprise.
Oxford’s most recent defeat of Arsenal dates back to 1985-86. Relegation from the old first division loomed large that season with only a win on the final day able to save them. They got the three points.
Oxford’s good fortunes didn’t last long though as within a few years, they were playing non league football. Both Graham Rix and Brian Talbot have a some stage, managed Oxford Utd but neither enjoyed success. Right now, the club is playing League One football and sit 8th in the table. Their kit is yellow and blue, perfect on a night when Arsenal players will be in all white as part of the club’s ‘No More Red’ campaign.
There has been a lot of negativity thrown Arsenal’s way since the Newcastle Utd game. Mikel Arteta has been heavily criticised for his touch line behaviour, the players to for theirs but you know what, it doesn’t matter. It’s called passion and it’s nothing football hasn’t seen before from other clubs players and managers. Arsenal can never win though because one day the players are deemed to lack passion, another they over celebrate a win and then now, they have too much passion. Bonkers!
Oxford v Arsenal is very likely to bring a lot of changes, certainly for the latter. Of course we’d all love to see Martin Odegaard lifting the trophy for the first time in May but in my opinion, this is a golden opportunity to give those who don’t usually start a game, some playing time. Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos, Sambi Lokonga, Mo Elneny, Rob Holding and Matt Turner. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney could start with Emile Smith Rowe expected to make his much awaited return too, albeit probably from the bench. Having been on the bench for the Newcastle game, Nathan Butler-Oyedeji could very well be involved too. Perhaps Miguel Azeez too as he’s returned to Arsenal having been called back from his loan with Ibiza.
With the under 21’s playing yesterday, a thumping by Man City by the way, Mikel Arteta’s options, certainly for the substitutes, are somewhat limited so it’s likely we’ll see a strong bench. Hopefully though, there’ll be no William Saliba and Bukayo Saka on it as both will miss the Tottenham fixture if they pick up a booking in tomorrow’s match.
This is how we lined up in our League Cup defeat to Brighton.
I think we’ll see a similar starting eleven but with Matt Turner and Takehiro Tomiyasu replacing Karl Hein and Cedric Soares respectively. With Eddie Nketiah as our only out and our striker then I guess he’ll start. Unless Mikel Arteta either throws Nathan Butler-Oyedeji in at the deep end. I say deep end but we have players his age, 20, out on loan playing football on a regular basis at a similar level or higher than League One.
As said before, Mikel Arteta has a deep squad as far as the numbers go but as far as strength goes, he lacking options both in attack and in midfield. The gulf between Thomas Partey and those who step in for him is big. Same with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli although having ESR back will change that somewhat. Marquinhos is still a relatively unknown quantity who needs game time. All those who could be called upon at any time if injuries hit the squad, need playing time and in my opinion, this is the best time to get it.
I don’t ever expect an Arsenal team to just turn up and roll over a team which plays their football two leagues below, but let’s be honest, if a second string group of players can’t perform against Oxford tonight then one would have to wonder what some of them are doing at Arsenal.
Manchester City at The Etihad await the winners of tonight’s fixture.
Catch up in the comments.
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Good morning.
I agree that the (unfortunately short) Carabao Cup line-up is a good indicator to our starting XI tonight.
Further agreed with the Hein -> Turner and the Cedric -> Tomiyasu switch, and would further add Nelson -> ESR/ACD, as I think the 2 youngsters will share the left winger minutes between them (depending how ready Emile is, and how tired Amario is after his 90 minutes in the U21 disaster 2 days ago). Or maybe Martinelli could be involved in some LW/ST capacity, but Nketiah should indeed start. He had 6 days to rest and will have another 6 days before the NLD, so fitness shouldn’t be an issue here.
Injury might be a concern though re Eddie. Nelson is injured I believe.
I’m not sure about who ‘should’ start though as I think Arteta is in a better position to know who should or shouldn’t play tonight.
Cozier Duberry played for the under 21’s two days ago so I’d have thought tonight is too soon for him.
Afternoon Rico and all.
I wouldn’t start Eddie just in case he gets injured, we are already short
Afternoon Geoff, tough call isn’t it.
David Coote referee and no VAR.
HNY Rico et al
Tonight is a banana skin. A friend with knowledge of Oxford say they have a lively forward, who won’t stop running.
I remember Nuno Tavares having a whopper against Forest this time last year and Jyed Spence becoming the next star to head into the EPL. I wonder what happened to him?
I saw Tavares scoring for Marseille recently. Good finish, but he appeared to be playing CF. I’d be surprised of he comes back to Arsenal.
VAR seldom helps us anyway.
Happy new year to you too Pete.
Spence is rotting away down the road, not the best decision he’ll make in his life.
Agree re Tavares, he’ll be gone I’m sure.
Azeez to Wigan rumoured, Kolo Toure is their manager.
Felix to Chelsea then…
Arsenal team news
Turner; Tomiyasu, Holding, Gabriel, Tierney; Elneny, Lokonga, Vieira; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli.
Subs: Hein, White, Zinchenko, Xhaka, Partey, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Marquinhos, Butler-Oyedeji.
This is rubbish from Arsenal, 32 minutes and we haven’t had a single attempt on goal. Pathetic!!
We must be better than this surely.
It’s not good on the eye, that’s for sure. Just hope Mikel doesn’t get tempted to bring on Partey..
Get Lokonga off, he’s doing nothing, bring on a bit of midfield creativity with either Odegaard or ESR.
If you didn’t know, which team would you think was top of the Premiership?
Just Lokonga?
Vieira too?
Neither… No wonder Mikel Arteta keeps banging on about needing to add quality…
Vieira has little behind him though and these hoof balls up the pitch are doing no good whatsoever.
cetainly look weak in midfield
Just midfield? Lol
At last..
Eddie’s first was good but his second, superb.
Three goals in thirteen minutes of proper Arsenal football, a clean sheet and we’re in the fourth round. We will have to play much better at City.
Vieira needs a strong player around him and Lokonga is not that , When Xhaka and Zinchenko came on we looked much better and he found room .
ESR looked rusty but the minutes will do him good but rather than miss Jesus we definitely miss Partey.
With VAR I reckon it could have been 1 nil.
Not a classic from an Arsenal perspective but Oxford were rather really good, passed the ball better than us in the 1st 45, Lokonga was a spectator and I can’t see much of a future for him at Arsenal, doesn’t mean he’s a bad player it just doesn’t work, maybe sell him to Burnley if they get promoted?
Much better in the 2nd half, Vieira got more involved further forward, delightful cross for the first goal, superbly weighted pass for the second goal, just better all-round, that said I’m beginning to worry about Tierney and Tomiyasu, two fantastic players but their form seems to dropped right off, just shows how some players need to play regularly to build up to their optimal level.
Great to have ESR back, thought he was gonna score a 4th for us at one point, a fit ESR is worth his weight in goals,
…
Matt Turner had a stress free evening, dealt with everything very competently, those early season nerves seem to have gone…..good….
Regardless of what might have been had VAR been in operation, I believe it’s wrong that games in the same competition should be played under different rules.
As lower league clubs cannot afford VAR installations all cup games, up to the final, in order to provide a levels playing field should take place without it.
Had VAR been in operation last night I think we would have been awarded a penalty for hand ball and one of Eddie’s goals may have been ruled out for offside.
I didn’t get to see the match but at least it sounds like we didn’t pick up any injuries, and a win with a clean sheet sound like a goodnight.
Good morning all.
The noise around our supposed no.1 target Mudryk has gone away and Arteta’s second choice, Joao Felix looks set to go on loan to Chelsea. Far from “getting the business done early” it looks like back to square one. 😕
Morning all.
No noise is good. 😝
New post up now