LEAGUE CUP TEAM NEWS - West Brom v Arsenal, League Cup third round, Wednesday Arsene Wenger will make changes for Arsenal's Capital One Cup clash at West Brom. Striker Nicklas Bendtner is likely to make his first appearance for the club since August 2011 while youngsters Serge Gnabry and Hector Bellerin could feature.
Hans I think you are absolutely right. protect any first team players at all costs as squad depletion is very worrying with Theo out now as well. we normally only play the kids in CC - if we lose its a Mickey Mouse trophy, if we win its good for kids development. so lets play kids and Bendy upfront
18 Man Squad named 4 Per Mertesacker 5 Thomas Vermaelen 8 Mikel Arteta 13 Emiliano Viviano 17 Nacho Monreal 20 Mathieu Flamini 21 Lukasz Fabianski 23 Nicklas Bendtner 25 Carl Jenkinson 30 Ju-Young Park 31 Ryo 37 Chuba Akpom 40 Hector Bellerin 42 Thomas Eisfeld 44 Serge Gnabry 45 Isaac Hayden 53 Kristoffer Olsson 60 Alex Iwobi
Agreed with a couple up top. We need to prioritise the league. We're on a good run and need to keep this momentum going. We have too many injuries to our key personnel and can't afford to sustain any further injuries.
Its a hard one to decide. on the one hand we could go on to win this teophy if we try. it will get rid of the not winning a trophy and if we dont get one this year by the time we could win one next season it would be 10 years since our previous one, which is too long. I dont think we have the depth of squad to win the fa cup, pl or cl so its our most realistic chance. the pl is for me the priority but how likely are we to be top in may?
Winning this competition for me, will be meaningless. If we win this and come 5th it will be a terrible season. If we don't win this, but win a different trophy, or do not win a trophy and come 2nd or even 3rd and it will be a very good or reasonable season in my opinion.
Personally we should be going to win the Premier league. I think it's very gettable this season. I can't see one team that is head and shoulders above anyone and we are showing good consistency in the league. But we need to bring in a couple of players this Jan window to give us a realistic chance of doing it. At the moment we have no one to replace either Pod or Walcott which is a reflection on our poor squad depth. We have good cover in defence and midfield but our front-line players are poorly stocked. Relying on untested youngsters and Bendy, is not acceptable at such an early stage of the season.
Comparing our "second team" with the one that was advancing to the quarters/semis of the CC in 2007,2008 etc. is pretty depressing. I think we need a trophy this year, and CoC and FA Cup are our most realistic chances.
Who cares... our reserves and youths of 2007/08 ended up contributing nothing in terms of trophies. We need the FA to allow premier league teams to enter 'B' teams in the lower leagues like in Spain.
Sure but with Everyone fit its not too bad. --------------------Szcezney------------------- Sagna------Mertesack----Koscielney-----Gibbs -----------Wilshere---------Ramsey------------ ----------------------Ozil------------------------ Walcott-------------Giroud-------------Carzorla --------------------Vivianao--------------------- Jenkinson---(Sagna??)----Vermaelen----Monreal --------------Arteta---------Flamini---------------- ----------------------Rosicky---------------------- TheOx---------------Sanogo-------------Podolski The fact we dont actually have 4 centrebacks is pretty ridiculous though. Its clear we should have adde another CB and striker though
This is a solid point. I saw the numbers the other day and we are clearly in front of the injury table again. I don't think Sagna's performances at CB have been bad enough to warrant the claim "Ridiculous". He is certainly good enough to be a 4th choice CB. I think he is a better 4th choice, than some player who isn't playing regularly for us. Given the signing of the U21 "Wonder Kid" CB, it seems that we are working on getting CBs in the pipeline. I agree another striker in January would be nice. FYI, Giroud is currently rated #9 of all players in Europe on Whoscored, ahead of Christiano Ronaldo. Not sure how they work that out, but at least somebody loves him!
Our first and second team are quite good - and if you just look at our best match-day 18 it compares to anyone in the league. We just lack that full quality in depth to deal with an injury crisis (and let's be fair to Arsenal here - we have more injuries than any other club currently, it isn't just the odd player or two).
Actually, Palace have more than us (for the only time this season we are not winning that particular league) and Newcastle have the same.
