BBC Footballer Of The Year.
Morning all.
Arsenal kick off the 2022/23 League Cup campaign against Brighton tonight at The Emirates. This is Brighton’s second fixture of the competition, beating Forest Green Rovers 3-0 in the last round.
I wondered if this would be the competition in which Mikel Arteta might rest more players than he has in the Europa Cup so far but nope, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Talking in his pre-match press conference, he said:
It is a different competition but the purpose is the same, to play as good as we can, win the game and go into the next round, You know there are no second chances and we’ll take it very seriously. We’re going to pick a very competitive team. I think everyone deserves chances, and we’ll make some changes with judgement in relation to the load of the players, but we’ll play to win.
His opposite number, Roberto de Zerbi said something similar yesterday too:
It will be a test for many players, but when we wear our shirt we must play seriously and we must try to win. it’s a very important game. I can make some changes in the first 11 but, for me, the cup or a friendly is like a Premier League game. There’s not a big difference. It’s important to always win, but it’s most important to play seriously. If we want to prepare in the best way for the next game against Aston Villa, we have to play well tomorrow – 100%. The best way to arrive in the best condition next Sunday is to play well tomorrow.
So, it should be a competitive game if both manager’s are taking this competition seriously but even so, de Zerbi clearly has Villa on his mind already and I’m sure Mikel Arteta is thinking about Wolves too because another win would keep us top of the league for Christmas. Then it all starts again only busier than ever before. But that’s 6/7 weeks away.
Takehiro Tomiyasu and Emile Smith-Rowe will miss this one through injury Cedric Soares, Marquinhos, Matt Turner, Rob Holding, Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson, Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira will no doubt be hoping to start this one and I’d imagine Mo Elneny starting is a certainty. Kieran Tierney and one of Gabriel or William Saliba will be needed too. I hope it’s Gabriel, purely because Saliba is one booking away from a one match ban and we need him for Saturday’s trip to Wolves. Same applies to Gabriel Jesus.
Brighton have just the one player missing through injury and that’s Jakub Moder. Brighton have had a bit of a mixed few months. They lost their manager to Chelsea but when the two clubs met a couple of weeks ago, it was the south coast side which ended the game smiling after a convincing 4-1 victory. Last weekend they beat Wolves 3-2 away from home. Wolves played the second half with ten men. The two victories came after a run of five games without a win.
Arsenal are on a very good run and playing really well. Our only real drop in performances has been in the Europa League but considering the number of changes Mikel Arteta made for those fixtures, it’s kind of understandable. Yes, we lost at Old Trafford and huffed and puffed a bit against Southampton but with the amount of fixtures the team/squad has played, I can understand that too. Even City, with their deep superstar squad have had dips and dropped points.
The League Cup is a weird one really. Of course I hope we beat Brighton because winning is great for confidence, moral and all that stuff but if we go out at this stage, then I certainly wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. In my head, beating Wolves is more important in the long term.
Lastly, congratulations to Beth Mead who have been voted BBC Footballer Of The Year. Chelsea striker Sam Kerr, Wolfburg attacker Alexandra Popp, Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas, and Lyon captain Wendie Renard were all in the running but it was our girl who came out top. Rightly so too.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all.
Arteta should rest our senior players after all it’s only a Mickey Mouse tournament that should be for the reserve team, the premier league team’s already play enough matches.
Morning Geoff, I was beginning to think I’d been abandoned today.. 😜
By the sounds of it, we’ll see a strong side.
Let’s hope we don’t suffer any major injuries then,
I recon we should prioritize what we really want to win and not just try to win every think and anything.
1 – premier league 2 – FA Cup 3 – Europa cup maybe not in that order
and forget about anything else
Good day Rico, Geoff.
Congratulations to Beth Mead, a thoroughly deserved honour. About the only decision the BBC has got right this century.
I would rest Saliba this evening, purely because a booking would rule him out of the Wolves game and Holding is a more than competent replacement. Zinchenko needs the minutes to get match fit, so start him with a view to substitute him at half-time or sixty minutes. Tierney will offer a different option on the left with Martinelli.
It may only be The Carabao Cup, but it is important to keep the winning run going and reinforce the player’s confidence.
Is anybody there?
Yes Rico, it’s a sign of contentment with how the team are performing when it’s so quiet and hopefully it’ll stay way up to and including May.
It should be a good game tonight but it won’t be easy because Brighton in recent years have been a major thorn in our side, it’s a game that many Arsenal fans think is a given win but it really isn’t, far from it.
I’d like to see some youngsters getting minutes but there won’t be many goals in it and Arteta will want to win, he always wants to win, it’s non- negotiable…
Hi Cicero, me too. Pointless risking Saliba getting booked, same with Jesus.
Always been the case really Kev, nothing like a good loss to get people talking. But, there’s not much to say really, not when things are going as well as they are.
Everybody is catching up with Beyond our Ken on You Tube.
Or watching Jake Thackray’s video of his song “Sister Josephine” .
I think the yellow card scare is not applied in the cup. I found this from a 2022 article:
“According to Premier League rules, any player earning five bookings from their side’s first 19 Premier League matches will serve a one-match ban in the same competition. Therefore, yellow cards are not carried over to the Carabao Cup or FA Cup.”
Cup games are used similarly to PL fixtures for applying the suspension. (Despite being sent off in Man City’s win over Fulham, Joao Cancelo is available for selection in Gameweek 16. The Portuguese will serve his one-match suspension in the EFL Cup in midweek.) But cards accumulated in domestic cups – apparently – don’t count in the PL limit.
Nevertheless I would also prefer seeing Gabriel over Saliba tonight, as it would be elegant to give some rest to William ahead of the WC, while Gabriel will – unfortunately (in some point of view) – have the opportunity to relax a bit while some teammates are playing in Qatar.
Ha ha Cicero, I yet to watch it but probably will.
Sorry for ignoring you but it’s the first dry day for a while so there’s outside ground work to be done..
Make the most of it Potter, more rain on its way I think..
VAR not in use for The Carabao Cup. It’s all own to the man in the middle Jarred Gillet, In his six Premier League outings this term, he has shown 23 yellow cards but no reds, and is yet to award a penalty. I think he was the VAR in a recent match that was subject to some controversial decisions. he has officiated three Arsenal matches, we won all of them.
Good old Jarred
Gosh, a very different team. Hein in goal and Saliba the only one from Sunday.
Arsenal team news:
Team to play Brighton: Hein, Soares, Saliba, Holding, Tierney, Lokonga, Elneny, Viera, Nelson, Marquinhos, Nketiah
Subs: White, Partey, Gabriel, Odegaard, Jesus, Martinelli, Turner, Xhaka, Zinchenko
3-1 down, looks like we’re heading out of this one..
shame we cant see it will have to rely on the comments from those who went
Yep. Sky are showing all the goals as they go in. We’ve certainly had a few chances.
Can’t say I’m particularly sorry about the result, it will slightly lighten the load for the second half of the season but it does represent a bit of a wobble. All the more reason to win at Molineux.
Glad we are out of this Mickey Mouse competition, now to concentrate on the main 3 league, FA and Europe
It’s almost impossible to comment as we were unable too see the match and we can only make assumptions from the reports from those that were there and make allowances for their bias ‘ .
It seems that we made too many changes and in parts were unlucky with post hitting but the fact that Jesus , Martinelli ,Gabriel , Xhaka and Zinchenko came on suggests that strength in depth is not one of our greatest assets at the moment.
It’s a sad reflection on our squad strength when our prize striker was brought on at 3 – 1 down and desperate for a goal, a prize striker who hasn’t scored for ten games now.
‘morning all.
Totally agree re the squad depth but I think certain games in the Europa League showed that. I’m pretty sure Mikel Arteta knows that too. I’m not bothered we’ve gone out, just hope we bounce back on Saturday…
The cricket is interesting. 😃
Morning all…
Sounds like the keeper had a night he will hopes Arteta forgets about, next time he looks at using him.
Desperately looking for a silver lining :-
The fourth round of the Carabao Cup is due to be played three days after the World Cup final and just five before the league returns,
Maybe for the sake of league places it’s actually a bit of a relief.
Morning all.
On the bright side Toots also got knocked out of the Carabao cup by forest 2 nil and it sounds like Kane started.
New post up