Trying to pick Arsenal’s League Cup teams is like trying to … well rather like trying to do something quite difficult.
Arsène Wenger let’s us know who is not playing…
- Gervinho has an ankle problem and will be out for some time, but how long is not known.
- Szczesny is fit but not fit enough for the match
- Wilshere doesn’t really need two games so quickly
- Oxlade-Chamberlain is still out with an injury
- Diaby is still out.
- Rosicky is still out
- Gibbs is still out
So who have we got then?
Sagna probably doesn’t need another game instantly so that gives us Mannone in goal and Jenkinson.
Koscielny hasn’t had much of a run this season, so that should see him in the middle
Francis Coquelin, Theo Walcott and Andrey Arshavin all look likely given their position on the bench for the last game.
Which gives me
Martinez
Jenkinson KoscielnyDjourou Miquel
Yennaris Frimpong Coquelin Gnabry
Walcott Arshavin
Which even by some of my standards looks fairly odd. Chamakh could make a return I suppose, but it depends just how far gone he is. Could Walcott really play down the middle? Should we not be finding space of Eisfeld?
This is the team we put out against Coventry
Damian Martinez
Ignasi Miquel, Johan Djourou (c), Martin Angha, Nico Yennaris,
Francis Coquelin, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Andre Santos
Andrey Arshavin, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott
This is one of the oddest games to predict the line-up for, because there is every chance that Mr Wenger has some other experiment up his sleeve and something unexpected just like the sudden arrival of Gnabry took most of us by surprise.
Apparently if Arsenal win they will qualify for the quarter-finals for the 10th season running. Not that anyone notices such things.
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- “The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal”: crowd behaviour at the early matches
The sites…
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed wayto stay fit
- Looking for a terraced house in Northamptonshire?
- For all your football betting try these Bookmakers with free bets.
Capital One (League) Cup
Thank you _ for attempting to come up with a starting roster. It seems equally difficult to guess a starting formation. And this is all because of the quality of players Arsene Wenger has to choose from.
I’ve got a big statistical problem I am working on. I haven’t watched soccer in too long, and I can squeeze the BBC play by play from the website into my work. And the news after an Arsenal loss is too difficult to read. Consequently, I have been hibernating (and in the last 2 weeks we have had about 46 cm of snow where I live: and a large black bear is prowling the neighbourhood, who we wish would hibernate).
Anyway, on to the setup.
I like the League and FA Cup games with Arsenal, because Arsene Wenger brings in the newer players. This year seems to have a few more of the senior players that haven’t been getting game time, but as I haven’t tracked this I don’t know if the difference is significant (or real) or not.
Most teams go into these Cup games, with a team (or most of a team) that has played competitively before as a unit. Maybe they have one or possibly two new people. Arsenal fielded a team which probably has never even been put together in a practice. This is typical. There was 3/4 of a back four, and maybe 1/3 of the front 6 which had played together before in game situations. And Miquel is playing out of position in the defense.
Wenger wants intelligent players. Intelligent or not, it takes a little time to gel. Before you start to gel, to make a pass you have to _look_ first, as you start to gel, you can think about the pass, and can then decide to not pass if things weren’t quite what you were expecting.
I don’t think Arsenal winning was a miracle. In these Cup games, the opposition knows that the team they are going to be playing against, has never played together as a unit. Most teams are not prepared to come out and attack from the word go. And it isn’t unexpected that Arsenal will go down in goals at first. Some of Arsene’s teams have not gelled fast enough, and they lose. Some of Arsenal’s teams have gelled very quickly.
What any team playing Arsenal in one of these Cup games has to do, is start strong and score as many as they can, as fast as they can. Because it is likely that the team will start to gel as the game goes on, and then look out. And that is what we seen in the game against Reading. Reading is not a bad side. Their problem was that they didn’t score enough before Arsenal started to gel. They scored 4, they needed 5.
37 minutes (36?) into the game, we are down by 4 (one an own goal). Imploded? The typical Arsenal poor defence? Lots of other whorenalistic descriptions. The Guardian described the Arsenal team as “Spare Parts”. It is a problem for people who go the game expecting a cohesive Arsenal team. Arsene Wenger has been trying to run an EPL team, and run a development system for new players for a long time. Everybody should expect that the “first team” (whatever that is) is _NOT_ going to be playing.
What you look for in these games, is how do the young players respond to playing against adult professionals. For any of the older players playing, are they as hopeless as the press and blogs have led you to believe they are?
Arshavin had 3 assists according to the BBC commentary, as did
Walcott. Both reportedly “fodder” by the blogs.
At QPR, I was actually hoping for 10-0. I think that would be a game which would bring the players together. I was looking for 6 from Giroud. And this has nothing to do with QPR being that weak a team, it has everything to do with the potential of Arsenal. I think they are overdue to run rampant on some team, and this was not the game. But this might seed that rampant game.
Most teams, EPL or otherwise, are designed for 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1 type games. Wenger’s teams are not designed that way.
I will continue to wait for the breakout game. It would be wonderful if it was against Man-Chest-Hair United, but I doubt it. I do think it will come reasonably soon. And it could be against any opposition.
And it is time for me to go back into hibernation, as this statistical problem still needs to be solved/finished.
I hope you enjoyed the game, especially if you could watch it, and not just read about it. It is nice to see so many pictures of Walcott with such a huge smile on his face.
Reading Arsene’s report at Arsenal.com has me smile. After the substitutions on the hour mark, he remarks that they are playing a 4-1-5. I think there was a game (Champions League?) last year, when faced with injured he had apparently considered starting with 6 strikers. Which kind of goes back to the kinds of teams that Arsenal were presenting 100 years ago.
I think it is really dumb for fans to think there is a _first_ team. The team you bring out, is the team you think has the best chance of winning. Whether a person is talking about the back 4, midfield or the strikers, no fan should think that who plays in any of those positions is set in stone.
Gats is a waste of oxygen.
I would like to see comments about how the young players did, and how the “spare parts” did.
And back to statistical games.
I’m just back from that game. Oh my goodness. I’ve not been to an away game for years (Fulham v QPR, 2003 or4, last match of season – Loftus Rd). In that match the 1st team played as though they didn’t care (or perhaps they were tired). That match was my 1st experience of the away boyz. Amazing – taking the P out of Henry’s corner-taking just cos he put them all out on the opposite side of the pitch. We sang: What the ****, what the f***, what the ******* ‘ell was that!
Today that support was again unbelievable. At 0-3 down the fans were still singing, and at 0-4 down they started singing, “We’re gonna win 5-4″. When we reached 5-4 the ditty went: 4-nil, and you fk’d it up, along with, “That’s why you’re going down”, etc.
Kevin Friend was awful, particularly in the 2nd half. The linesman in front of me (nearside South Stand) was ???? Friend really done everything he could to give it to Reading, near full time and full (extra) time. That resulted in Arsenal scoring a 7th goal.
Can you imagine the supporters?
I’ll leave it to others to talk about the performance but I must admit, I’ve never seen an Arsenal team so bereft of confidence, as they were during the 1st half. My companion moaned at half time. I opined it wasn’t that Reading were classy, it was just that we were shit, and therefore it could change. You know the rest.
As a final way of “them” getting at us, the M4 was reduced to 1 lane so it took double the rush-hour time to get back. Our heads were so in the clouds that this late night traffic jam didn’t seem to matter. I found the Reading fans very friendly, but you regular away fans – you’re magnificent, fantastic. It was you that made the team end up doing better, and whatever talking to the boyz got from Wenger at half time.
Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal Arsenal!
* Fulham v Arsenal, at Loftus Rd*. Excuse me.
i cant believe i overslept throught that. Stupid alarm
Well done Arsenal ! Whoo hoo ! A win was important and hope it gives the whole team a lift for this weedend’s cruncher .
Up the Gunners !
@gats…hahahhahahahahahahahahahhaahahah
My feelings last night as the game began – ah we are going to win this easily.
0-1: ok but we have all day, we can score 2.
0-2: oohhhkkay, but we can score 3.
0-3: noooooooooo….commooonnnnn gunners,where are you, but we can score 4.
0-4: whats going on…….commooonnnn Gunners. If Reading can score4, we can score 5….go gunners…go.
4-1: now we have a game. we have 45 mins. we can score 4 more. AND we did.
refs have to give us a fair game. OK first half we were poor, BUT the second half performace was brilliant. And I dont understand why Martinez was booked for time wasting and none of the Reading players were.
AND those “Giroud is not the answer” guys will have to find someone else now.
I could have some intra cranial hemorrhage, last night as I was shouting voiceless again and again and again!
It was just 1:30 am here when Theo scored the 6th. My internet had just stopped at the sense, by this picture: Wolcat is in front of the goal with the ball on his feet, ready to shoot!
OMG, what is going on!? Is in?! ……. Yessssssssssss!
@Rantetta
Watching all you guys there supporting Arsenal was a real joy!
Thank you guys! You made us all so proud!
An epic match.
Arshavin and Theo are brilliant. Coquelin looks unbeatable when his main job is only to sit in front the defense. And what a player Eisfeld is gonna be! They way he moves the ball and his spatial awareness are top class for his age. Can’t wait to see more of his actions.
COME ON ARSENAL
For those who want a different perspective on things just look at these highlights with a very enthusiastic commentator (Portuguese?)
http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/video/show?id=2413390:Video:747995&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_video
enjoy it.
Listen when we score 5-6: fantastica Arsenal he said around a 100 times I think
Just brilliant. That for me, the match of the season. Inspiring stuff for the weekend. Come on!!
WHAT!!?? Theo wasn’t credited with the 4th goal? The officials weren’t going to give that? I thought they gave it.. WTF?? Even more well done to Jenkinson for following in and putting that away. Un-fucking-believable!! That was handball and crossed the line and we weren’t going to get either decision? Maybe the ref was gonna give handball though. He did put his whistle into his mouth. Then again, we know from experience that doesn’t mean they’ll call it (Dowd at Newcastle)
At the end of the game Arshavin gave the ball to Theo for his hattrick. The linesman was a disgrace. Like with the handball from the Reading defender…
I also thought in the first 10 minutes 3 corner and throw ins were given wrongly. And always in favour of Reading.
We won against all odds and against everything and everyone. Credit to the boys for delivering such an answer
Referee was disgraceful.
A great comeback but an utterly dire first half performance. To concede 5 goals to Reading is hardly a sign of improvement in the defence. A few positives, Eisfield and Walcott. If we sell him in January we’ll get a sharp reminder of the club’s lack of ambition.