The Football League Cup, does it really matter to us anymore?
This competition seems to have carried a kind of jinx around with it for Arsenal ever since Swindon Town in 1969 and except for two notable exceptions seems to save some kind of cup final calamity for us when the Gunners are involved. Birmingham anyone, Kepa perhaps, Mustafi even and when we did win it back in 1993 the Adams incident with Steve Morrow tainted the day. If only we’d kept the old Littlewoods trophy from back in 1987, mind you, Luton Town ring a bell?
Most of the chat around yesterday’s game focused on the line up and rotation and Mikel did his best even if for some youth team extremists it still won’t be enough. Ipswich made 10 changes, Arsenal made 9.
Gabriel and Myles were the only starters from our visit to Sunderland to begin the match, but the squad players of Arsenal are far superior to their Ipswich counterparts and the Gunners dominated the 1st half to such a degree that the 0-2 halftime lead felt somewhat disappointing.
Zubimendi at rightback, Myles reinstated to leftback after Hincapie picked up a training ground injury and the exceptional Marli Salmon kept the Town at bay whilst their team mates rampaged into the territory of the tractor. Madueke and Dowman in particular had a great time running into space and causing the home fans all kinds of anxiety.
Gary O’Neill to his credit sent his team out to have a go and it made for an open, entertaining game, both sides having their moments but in general it probably left his players too vulnerable. After only 7 minutes, Max Dowman picked up the ball midway between the halfway line and the Town goal. As he surged forward the Town defenders backed off waiting for the pass and with Eze peeling off to take some blues shirts with him and the gap opened like the Red Sea. Into it Max strode and comfortably sent a low shot beyond the Ipswich keeper and into the net to break a few Suffolk hearts.
The game continued to be wide open and on 16 minutes Bruno slid in to win a tackle, the ball ran to Merino who calmly lifted the ball over the opposing defenders and into the space behind which Madueke charged into before firing low and hard into the net.
This was too easy but on 19 minutes Kepa made a save, yeah really, but it was mostly the Max and Noni show as they toyed with the Town defenders. On 22 Noni got free and sent in an inviting cross, the kind signed and sealed for Viktor, but it was smothered and cleared. On 27 Noni fired a good chance over the bar and on 45 Gyokeres controlled a low pass, spun and shot but his effort lacked venom and the keeper saved easily.
Half-time 0-2
Marli Salmon impressed greatly in the first half, even clearing one off of the line with Kepa beaten. Arteta made one change at the break taking off Gabriel for Konsa – sensible substitution.
Two minutes after halftime, the cultured technique of Martin Zubimendi threaded a perfect pass through for Dowman to score our 3rd. On 54 Madueke had a low cross-shot that took a slight deflection and away from the clearly frustrated Gyokeres. Viktor couldn’t buy a decent pass, everything passed him by. On 54 it was over as a contest as another Zubimendi masterclass saw him put Merino in and our captain on the night buried his first goal of the season. Then O’Neill started to make changes.
Ipswich pulled a goal back on 62 minutes. A well constructed move but I couldn’t help feeling Kepa could have done better. On 64 minutes Theo Julienne became Arsenal’s 3rd teenager replacing Bruno. Theo dropped back into right back and Zubimendi moved into midfield. The game became more unpredictable as Ipswich upped their game and Arsenal tried to manage it. On 76 minutes Arteta sent on Odegaard for Madueke, Noni had a decent game, Tzolis came on for Eze who did ok but I felt that I wanted more from a player who looks no nearer a Premier League start than ever.
Marli Salmon dropped his shoulder, danced past his opponent and charged into the midfield only to be soundly fouled by Nunez. Marli is really looking the complete package, can you imagine how he’ll look at 20 let alone 25! Still time for Ife Ibrahim to get a few minutes as he replaced Zubimendi on 85 minutes. Old boy Chuba Akpom had come on around 61 minutes and 30 minutes later he got his name onto the scoresheet, no blame on Kepa this time but we all know he’s got clangers in his locker.
So Arsenal finished the game with four teenagers on the field and whilst 2-4 is a comfortable win I still couldn’t shake off the feeling that the Gunners missed a lot of chances again and that 2nd goal made it look closer than it really was.
Anyway, into the hat for the next round.
We March On.
By Kev
