Morning all.
One defeat does not a season make! I know we have had more than one defeat this season but if one took any notice of what the football outlets have to say, Arsenal might as well give up on the three competitions we as a club are still in. Will the title race be affected by our loss in the Carabao Cup, will Southampton suddenly thrash us off the park and will we lose our next few Premier League fixtures and hand title on a plate to Man City? It seems the answer to all three is a resounding yes. It’s not of course, as in two weeks time it’ll be back to business for Arsenal because that’s what good footballers do. Head up, keep calm, carry on and do not let one defeat in a Carabao Cup Final define a season.
The media are simply judging this Arsenal on previous seasons and how we faded away when the going got tough. Of course time will only prove whether or not today’s Arsenal is stronger and more prepared but one thing we do know is that the squad is stronger and deeper than it’s been before under Mikel Arteta. What we saw on Sunday though, in my opinion anyway, was a lack of flexibility from the sidelines. All it needed was a message from the manager or his staff about how to beat City at their own game. They packed the midfield, we resorted to hoof ball in attempt to bypass it. It didn’t work, in fact it played into City’s hands. Arteta appeared to have no answer which I think is a concern. Something to work on over the next two weeks perhaps.
Jurrien Timber and Ebere Eze missed Sundays match through injury as a result of which neither have been called up for their respective countries. Yesterday, Gabriel, William Saliba and Leandro Trossard withdrew from international duty too, all three having picked up injuries. Allegedly.
Many other Arsenal players will be away on international duty though. Ben White has finally been welcomed back into the England camp but he won’t see Bukayo Saka or Declan Rice right away as they won’t be joining their teammates until the weekend so thankfully, will only play one fixture at most. David Raya, Piero Hincapie, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Christian Norgaard, Martin Zubimendi, Viktor Gyokeres, Kai Havertz and Christhian Mosquera will all be away for the next ten days. Myles Lewis-Skelly and Tommy Setford will be with the Under 21’s while Max Dowman will be with the Under 19’s.
Most, if not all of the above fixtures are friendlies, so I really hope the international managers are sensible with their team selections over the two games.
Our next game is on the south coast against Southampton. The only positive I can think about them is that they are fighting hard to end the season in playoff spot which might be a distraction going into this game. They currently sit 6th but with Wrexham level on points, Derby County just three points behind in 8th and with just seven games to go, I’d imagine promotion is more important than the FA Cup.
Likewise, I’d imagine both the Premier League and Champions League sits higher in the list of priorities for Mikel Arteta. However, if you were in his place, would you field our strongest team on April 4th, including David Raya in goal?
Lastly, good luck to the women’s team who take on Chelsea tonight in the Champions League quarterfinals 1st leg at The Emirates. Disney+ are broadcasting the match which is good news for Sky Sports subscribers as they’ve added Disney for free…
Catch up in the comments.