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Round one: Squad must step up against Palace tonight

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo It’s League Cup action tonight as we play Palace at home and I think I speak for everyone (maybe) when I say:

Play all the squaddies Mikel!

I’ve chosen my words carefully here, because the usual response with a game like this is ‘kids’, but I think we’re in need of some rotation tonight and I suspect that’s what Mikel Arteta will endeavour to do. We have had a few players who haven’t been dropping too many minutes so far this season and given the volume of injuries we’ve already sustained so far, utilisation of players and keeping enough minutes in their tanks to be ready to first team action, is vital.

So, your Kiwior’s, your Josh Nicholls’, your Jorginho’s, your Sterling’s and your Jesus’ – all of them need a run out tonight and hopefully we can see some signs in life for some of them. Because the way this season has gone so far, ensuring that some of these players keep their engines oiled is as important as resting a few of the first names on the usual team sheet.

Maybe.

But we do need to mix it up tonight, regardless of what Palace do. Glasner played a pretty strong team in the last round and so I suspect he’ll be knowing that we need to rotate and will see this as an opportunity for a bit of a scalp, so despite what he said about Eze being touch and go, I think he’ll play him. IN the last round they flanked Mateta with Nketiah and Eze and given that Turner and Eddie return to an old stomping ground, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Glasner go for them tonight, in an effort to see if they can deliver something extra with that added incentive of showing their former employers what they are missing.

Eddie, in particular, will have a point to prove, because I suspect he’s looking at Gabriel Jesus’ form and saying “and you swapped me out for this guy?”

It’s true though, Jesus form has been pretty shocking since he returned from injury a few months back, but tonight should represent an opportunity for him to get a few more minutes in his legs and he needs to show Arteta that he is a viable option. He was a little better against Monaco, but he still fluffed his lines when in on goal twice last week, so if he gets a similar chance tonight he simply must take it, because those rumours about Arsenal listening to offers will not go away if he drops another six out of ten performance.

Our team line up should have a fair degree of rotation, as I’ve already mentioned, so what I’d like to see from Arteta tonight is:

Setford

Nicholls – Heaven – Kiwior – Tierney

Jorginho

Nwaneri – Merino

Sterling – Jesus – Trossard

I’d give Setford a game as I think we should be building him up as a future player for us, given he arrived from Ajax in the summer. I’d not risk Saliba or Gabriel, although I suspect one will play given the senior nature of Palace’s probably line up. But I definitely wouldn’t be risking Timber, Partey or even MLS; he played against Monaco, he played against Everton and if Calafiori is still out at the weekend, then he might get called on to play at the weekend away to Palace. So for tonight I think it is finally time we gave KT some minutes. It is a lower risk game, we might find we still have a player in there, plus it adds a degree of experience to what I’ve got as quite an inexperienced back line.

Then, in midfield, it’s the wisdom of Jorginho, the trickery of Nwaneri to continue his education in this competition (and hopefully his goal tally), followed by Mikel Merino. I’ve gone for Merino because he just feels to me like he needs more minutes under his belt as he adapts to our league from Spain (yes, I know he played for Newcastle, but that was a while ago now). It also adds a little more experience in the team, which is why I also think Mikel will opt for a front line full of it. Sterling needs minutes, Arteta has admitted that himself, Jesus too needs to start centrally and he needs to prove he isn’t a busted flush; after his essentially negligible appearance against Everton it feels like he needs a goal and a performance more than anyone else. Then, on the other side, I think we have to go for Trossard or Martinelli. I’d be cool with this swapping around and starting with Leo on Saturday, or if Arteta tells them both that he’ll give one 60 minutes and one 30 minutes and it’s a dress rehearsal for a start on Saturday, I’m cool with that too. But whoever it is, they need to show up, because we haven’t seen enough from an attacking and product from any of those four senior pro’s so far this season.

So now is the time to step up. I want us to win this game. You want us to win this game. We want these players to show that we have a bit of attacking depth. But the mindset has to be right and we have to go there to dominate a Palace side having just come off the back of a really good 3-1 win against Brighton away from home and probably fancying on making this a big night for them too.

They will be up for this; they’ll know we’ll have more of the ball, the attacking impetus will be on us and they will know that there’s an opportunity for a ‘smash and grab’ game. They have the talent and the pace to do it, so we have to be ready to keep them quiet when they try to hit us in transition.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.