Morning all.
The semi-final draw for the League Cup took place last night, right after Leicester City allowed a 3-1 lead to slip by so that Liverpool could beat them on penalties and WestHam weren’t able to be Toots. Chelsea knocked out Brentford. Arsenal will now face Liverpool leaving Chelsea and Toots to battle it out for a trip to Wembley.
Arsenal and Liverpool have been here before and just recently too. In 2019 and 2020 and both ties needed penalties to decide who progressed.
Arsenal have won the League Cup just twice in their history, 1986/87 and 1992/93 which is pretty poor in comparison to our 14 FA Cup victories. Liverpool though have eight League Cup trophies to brag about, the most recent in the 2011/12 season. However, they only half the number of FA Cups and one of those should never have been won.
The two sides have faced each other in this competition 16 times over the years. In 2019, the tie finished 5-5 after what was a bonkers game under Unai Emery. After going behind early, a Mustafi own goal, we went 3-1 up. 3-1 became 3-2 Gabriel Martinelli conceded a penalty which really never was. Ainsley Maitland-Niles made it 4-2 but Liverpool weren’t giving up. Oxlade-Chamberlain and Origi brought the scores level before Joe Willock gave us the lead again on 70 minutes. With very little time left on the clock, all we needed to do was hold on. We didn’t and lost on penalties.
Just over a year ago, both teams went head to head again in the same competition and it was everything the previous year’s game was not. Having played Liverpool at Anfield just a few days before in the league and losing 3-1, I doubt many Arsenal fans expected us to come away with anything. But, we did. 0-0 at full time and a penalty shootout in which Bernd Leno was the hero. Kind of.
So here we are again but being the semi-final, the tie is over two legs, the first of which is at The Emirates during the week commencing 3 January with the second leg during the following week. In between the two League Cup matches, we go to Nottingham for our first FA Cup fixture this season.
Both Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp have said they’d prefer the semi-final to be just a one match fixture, Klopp has even suggested if it took place at The Emirates, he wouldn’t care.
In just eight days time, the January transfer window opens. By then, it’s likely that all of the Arsenal players on international duty for the ACON will have departed. The tournament kicks off on the 9th January and I think players are expected to arrive in Cameroon 13 days before that date which by my maths means our Boxing Day fixture will be the last for Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pepe, Mo Elneny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Thomas Partey is the only one to feature regularly in the Premier League but, come the domestic cup fixtures, we’ll miss both Elneny and Pepe. Fine, we have AMN and Sambi Lokonga to come in in midfield but with three cup fixtures and five league matches to be played between Boxing Day and the 22nd January, it’s going to be tough.
That’s why Klopp had a rant after last nights fixture. Premier League clubs are playing on the 26th of December, the 28th and then again on New Years Day. Whoever thought that was a good idea is bonkers. I would say it’s the same for all clubs but I’m pretty sure both Manchester clubs have an extra day of rest between their festive fixtures.
The next few weeks are going to be tough for Mikel Arteta as he’ll have to juggle his squad around in attempt to keep them all fit. There’s talk about bring back the five substitutes rule which would be good I think. Apparently there’s a meeting between the PL bosses and managers today where that very topic could be discussed.
See you in the comments.
Good morning Rico, I guess we go into the semis as the outsiders not expected to make the final. While the other match-up is harder to call.
Still, so far, they are two legged ties so there should be ample opportunity for an upset.
Morning Cicero, all.
I like being the underdogs. At least we won’t be facing Mane and Salah.
Once the quarters were settled we were unlikely to get an easy draw. The only benefit of getting Liverpool is that should things not work out for us we don’t have to suffer the possibility of playing other London clubs and the potential damage to our mental health.
So we head into a christmas period that leads to 7 games in 21 days 3 at home and 4 away, with 4 players heading for sunnier climes personally I would play them all including AUBA at Norwich to give those that are staying a break and depending on how they react possibly Wolves on Boxing day too. Afterall we pay their wages and not their respective countries.
I thought the similar Potter. Imagine if we have to face that lot down the road at Wembley.
I counted 8 fixtures between Boxing Day and the 22 January. Maths has never been my strong point.
You might be right I haven’t checked and you cant trust .com to be accurate unless it comes to selling tickets or merchandise.
However which ever way it goes it’s a busy period that’s going to stretch all squads not only ours. Everyone in the up coming list will lose players except one
Man City :- just Mahrez ,
Liverpool :- Salah & Mane
Arsenal ;_ Auba , Elneny , Partey & Pepe
Spurs :- No-one.
Incidently Chelsea lose Mendez and Ziyech.
Leicester :- Amarty , Mendy , Ndidi & Ineacho
Man Utd :- Bailly & Diallo
West ham :- Benharama
Wolves :- Sais & Boly
There’s going to be a fair bit of juggling over Christmas and New Year .
Unless Boris steps in,
Yep, I think we can expect a few changes to the starting eleven. I think Boris will step in right after Christmas and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it’s back to football behind closed doors.
Morning Rico and all
Potter I totally agree with you, let’s play all the players that are going to ACON and rest the others.
7 or 8 games in such a short time is ridiculous, no wonder why the players get injured.
I recon Arteta needs to just concentrate on the home and away season and the FA Cup and forget about the rest.
Morning Geoff.
At what cost though? The first 11/14 players are growing together, too much change could do more harm than good I think. I certainly wouldn’t want to see a sulking Aubameyang back in the team.
I would rather take advantage of using Auba then seeing our younger players run out of steam. There is still a long way to go this season and who knows what quarantine time the players will be made to do when they come back from ACON.
Sorry Geoff I can’t agree about Aubameyang, he’s currently out of the squad, training on his own and could even be off to the ACON on Boxing Day. The 26th being the earliest date players can arrive at their country’s training base.
Frankly I don’t want the guy anywhere near the other players.
I like the headline Rico, very Christmassy ” Five subs returning: Four off to the ACON:: Three out with Covid: Two in the sick bay: And Auba on the transfer list. Tra, la, la. 😉
I wouldn’t Geoff, I’m with Cicero re Auba.
😂 Cicero, I like that.
Wolves getting a 9 day rest before coming to us as their game with Watford is off as Watford cannot field a team .
Typical!
And Chambers is confirmed as positive for covid . That makes three at the moment.
Dear Government :Want to get your message across ?
From today’s Eastern Daily Press
Nine out of 10 Covid patients in a Norfolk hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) have not been vaccinated against the virus.
It is understood that 90pc of people with Covid in the James Paget University Hospital’s (JPUH) ICU over the last few months have not had their jabs.
It comes as reports nationally suggest significant numbers of Covid patients requiring treatment in hospital are unvaccinated. At Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, its chief operating officer said about 80pc of patients seen on general wards and in critical care were not vaccinated.
Instead of showing us a load of graphs which the average man doesn’t understand , these are the facts that need to be hammered home .
We don’t need to know the number of cases , it’s the percentage of those in the ICU that needs to be heavily publicised and whether they have died from it and whether they have been jabbed.
Our game could yet be cancelled then.
People must be stupid playing Russian roulette with their lives, not to mention what risk they’re casing others.
ICU in Notts hospital one evening recently admitted 5 new covid patients. A man aged 65 fully jabbed, died during the night. Very sad the other 4 aged 17,19,20and 21. All very poorly and put straight on to the iron lung, none were vaccinated. How they are now I’ve no idea but it is ridiculous to think any body could dodge the disease without being vaxxed. However, it also demonstrates just how much risk you take if you think the world is even remotely “back to normal”. We still have to be very wary when and if we go out and about.
Happy Xmas one and all
Well at least now there is a recognition that being unvaccinated is just not acceptable. The Archbishop of Canterbury this morning pointed out that it is the moral duty of everybody possible to get themselves vaccinated so as to avoid causing the illness and possible death of other people.
Mostly I have little time for the sermons of the clergy but in this instance I believe by his words may do some good.
Get vaccinated! You know it makes sense!
The unvaccinated won’t change their stance though. They’ll still not be swayed to have a vaccine imo.
Anyhow as Mary Poppins inevitably hits our Christmas screens.As chim chimney chim chimney chim chim cheroo is sung how many of will sing “who needs Anelka when we’ve got Kanu “ ?
If the Wolves games at Watford has been called off surely they won’t be be fit to play Arsenal two days later- or will they?
I smell a conspiracy…
It’s Watford who have problems Kev. Wolves are fine.
Morning all