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Photo from Freepik.
Mikel Arteta and his players begin this season’s League Cup campaign tomorrow night with a home tie against a very good Brighton side. The south coast side have had a mixed start to the season that’s for sure as one day they have beaten Man City, Newcastle and Chelsea, the next they have lost to Man Utd. With no European football to worry about, Fabian Hurzeler is very likely to field his strongest side in both domestic cups as well as the league.
I’m pretty sure Brighton fans would love to see their club win this competition. For what it’s worth, I’d love to see Arsenal win it too.
The League Cup often gets dismissed by Arsenal fans, after all, we as a club need to focus on bigger and better things but I believe that’s the wrong approach. The mindset at Arsenal is clearly “do not concede goals” and tomorrow will be no different I’m sure, regardless who starts the game.
Once upon a time, when an Arsenal manager rotated his players, the term “playing a weakened team” was kind of true because often there was quite a gap between the level of the first 13/15 players and the rest of the squad but now, I honestly don’t see a weak link throughout this current Arsenal squad. All the players are different within their own position but I like that, I think it’s a positive.
I read somewhere, I can not recall where now as I’ve slept, that the game on Sunday needed Marin Odegaard for his creativity which is fair enough, but I think he wouldn’t have found it easy to unlock a solid Crystal Palace team. I also thought, if the same opportunity fell to him would he have buried the ball in to the net the way Ebe Eze did? We’ll never know of course, but my point is, what one player is good at, another is equally as good but in a different way.
I’m sure we’ll be having a similar conversation when Kai Havertz returns to the squad and plays up front instead of Viktor Gyokeres. Or Gabriel Jesus for that matter.
It’s easy, and I’ve done it hundreds of times whilst watching sport, to believe whoever is not in a team would do better than those who are but sometimes, the opposition is just very good at what they do which I think was the case on Sunday.
Back to the game tomorrow. I really hope to see us win this tie and all which follow including the final at Wembley. Winning breeds winning, it builds confidence, belief and makes a group of players more determined to win the next game, and the next and the next and so on.
Arsenal aren’t going to win every game they play, I’m pretty sure about that but when a loss comes, it’ll be easier to come back if that loss is an exception rather than the rule. Which is why these League Cup fixtures are as important to win as a Premier League or Champions League fixture. Yes, I’m sure Mikel Arteta will rest/rotate a few players but in my opinion, not because he thinks this is a weaker competition but because finally, he has a group of players which he can switch in and out without the team being weakened.
When it comes to different competitions during a season, I don’t think it should be either/or, it should be all.
Catch up in the comments.