Often managers get criticised for their substitutions.
They either do them too late, too early, take off the wrong player, or bring on the wrong player.
Last night we have to praise Mikel Arteta for his brave substitution – taking off Ben White for Calum Chambers.
Prior to the goal, Arsenal had swung in some dangerous corners, but Ben White got no-where near any of them.
Within 30 seconds of coming on, Chambers rose high at a corner to score his first goal since 2019.
In a blink of an eye, Chambers had changed a game that was on a knife edge. Arteta changed it with the substitute.
A few minutes later, Marcelo Bielsa made a simialr change – swapping centreback for centreback. But his change did not quite work out as Arsenal went on to win 2-0 following a fabulous finish by Eddie Nketiah.
2-nil and through to the quarter finals of the 2nd biggest cup competition in England. We continue our march on to glory with Arteta as he seeks his 3rd trophy in 18 months.
The League Cup is often a competition derided by fans and media as one that “top clubs do not care about”.
Since 2000, the trophy has been lifted just 5 times by times who have not been crowned champions during that era – Swansea City, Birmingham City, Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Blackburn the smaller clubs to have won it. 5 of the last 6 have been won by Manchester City.
It is not that the big clubs do not take it seriously; they almost always win it. It is that they rest and rotate players due to European commitments. They put out an XI they think will win the game. And more often than not they do.
The problem for the League Cup is those mid-table Premier League sides, relegation threatened side and Championship promotion chasing sides also end up putting out a weaker side.
Take tonight. it is West Ham United against Manchester City.
With the form the Hammers are in, their strongest XI would probably role over City’s second string in Stratford. But David Moyes will likely put out his 2nd string which will see advantage City.
We saw it yesterday as Southampton made 9 changes to the side that drew with Burnley at the weekend. Their 2nd string took Chelsea to penalties before eventually going out. Would their first string have seen off the European Champions?
I would be so frustrated if I was a fan of one of these “smaller” clubs. Seeing my manager throw away the best chance of a trophy in decades.
These sides are not in Europe, so do not have a great deal of fixture congestion.
Getting to the final adds just 4 games to the fixture list before Christmas and 3 games in the New Year. It realy is not much.
Instead they throw the game, putting out a weaker XI and denying their fans a chance of a Wembley day out and a trophy.
Arsenal and Chelsea are already through – alongside Sunderland. With the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City and Leicester City still in the competition, we will probably reach the semi-final stage with the “usual suspects” still in it.
Without Europe, Arteta has been putting out a second string so far in the competition- but last night was still a strong side with almost every player capped by their country.
I expect in the quarter finals Arteta will increase the strength of the side further – potentially bringing in the likes of Alex Lacazette from the start.
Enjoy your Wednesday. Enjoy 8 unbeaten in all competitions. And look forward to Leicester City on Saturday.
As expected with the Carabao Cup matches, Mikel Arteta has made nine changes to the Arsenal side that featured in the victory over Aston Villa last Friday, and from that team, only Ben White and Emile Smith-Rowe keep their starting places. By the way, just in case anyone has forgotten, VAR will not be available in this competition until the semi-final stage.
Although it could be said that the visitors put us under pressure at times during the first half, nothing was delivered, and in the end, we managed to regroup successfully and at times looked comfortable both on and off the ball as we managed to end the evening victorious. And, let us not forget, we kept a clean sheet against a Premiership club with nine replacements in the team, with eight matches undefeated across two competitions. A good evening all round.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, 30th October at 12.30pm(Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.
We kicked off proceedings, and within seconds Oli Watkins received the first yellow card of the evening when he threw Gabriel to the ground unnecessarily. It could be one of those nights methinks. After that unsavoury incident, both Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Bukayo Saka came mighty close to opening the scoring when both of their inspired efforts came to nothing, sadly. Arsenal applied pressure to the visitors’ defence, and it looked as if they had no answer to our relentless, goal-hungry play. We had a goal disallowed after eight minutes when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang managed to get the ball in the net, but unfortunately referee Craig Pawson cancelled it out because Alexandre Lacazette fouled an Aston Villa player (apparently) just before the disallowed goal. The game started to turn into a physical battle of wills, with Arsenal getting the better of the visitors time and time again. After nineteen minutes, a Bukayo Saka free-kick into the Villa penalty area found Thomas Partey, who was desperately unlucky in hitting the bar with his trusty right foot from almost point-blank range; four minutes later, Thomas Partey opened the scoring (and his Arsenal account also) anyway, when a Emile Smith-Rowe corner found his head and he managed to glance the ball into the net. Having scored the opening goal, we made every effort to break down the Villa defence in order to grab a second one. Having said that, on the half hour, Nuno Tavares ran down the left wing, unselfishly crossed the ball into the Villa penalty area, but sadly Bukayo Saka failed to score in a one-to-one situation with our old goalkeeper, Emi Martinez. However, we continued to dominate, and as shot after shot rained down on the Villa goal, there appeared to be only team on the pitch tonight at the Emirates, and it certainly was not the visitors! Complete control. On the stroke of half-time, Albert Sambi Lokonga received a controversial yellow card for a foul on John McGinn; however the resulting free-kick came to nothing. Deep into injury time, Matt Targett went straight through Alexandre Lacazette, when attempting to clear the ball. Craig Pawson had a look at the pitch-side monitor, subsequently gave the penalty (quite deservedly), and despite objections to the fourth official from Villa manager Dean Smith, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang took the penalty, which was unbelievably saved by Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez, but he was straight on to the rebound in a flash and unceremoniously whacked the ball past his former Arsenal team-mate and into the net at the second time of asking. Craig Pawson blew the whistle for both the goal and the half-time break, and we went into the hiatus deservedly in the lead.
The second half started pretty much where the first one finished, with Arsenal showing their class and dominance again. To be fair, the visitors tried to make a better fist of things, but we managed to contain them. After one or two unlucky attempts on goal, ten minutes after the restart, after Emile Smith Rowe intercepted John McGinn’s error on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area, he ran down the pitch as a couple of passes were bouncing around in pinball fashion, before the ball reached him racing down the left-hand channel. Emile Smith-Rowe lined up a right-footed shot that looked like it took a deflection off Tyrone Mings’ leg before hitting the left post and the back of the Aston Villa net for our third goal of the night. Brilliant and superb. What a player. Although the visitors came back in the game just after the break, the match was now so heavily weighed in our favour, that was starting to look halfway to a rout. Just after a pointless booking for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when he tackled Douglas Luiz rather strongly, Martin Ødegaard replaced an injured Alexandre Lacazette after sixty-seven minutes, and the Arsenal express train just continued. Albert Sambi Lokonga made way for Ainsley Maitland-Niles with eighteen minutes of the match remaining, and his mere presence on the pitch fired up the chaps even more. With three goals to the good, the match started to level out a bit now, and every time we went forward we looked extremely dangerous, and our ability to move into the forward positions is truly a sight to behold. Douglas Luiz fouled Bukayo Saka on the edge of the penalty area, and the subsequent free-kick from Martin Ødegaard was acrobatically saved by Emi Martinez. Not again. Just nine minutes from the end of the match, after a bit of a mix-up on the edge of our penalty area, Jacob Ramsey struck a right-footed shot that went past Aaron Ramsdale into the net, giving him absolutely no chance to save it. This goal gave the visitors the impetus and desire to get something out of this match, when in all essence, they looked as if they had no chance to do so. Now was the time, if there ever was one, to start employing game management, and with just minutes to go, we did just that, in order to preserve our lead and take the sting out of any possible Villa attempt to score, of which there was one or two, all of which went happily wide. In injury time, a limping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was replaced by Gabriel Martinelli, who immediately tore into the fray. Our hearts were in our mouths when, with a minute of the match remaining, Aston Villa had a free-kick awarded to them on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area; thankfully Jacob Ramsey’s inspired effort went over the bar, and seconds later, Craig Pawson blew his trusty whistle and we ran out worthy winners. And in doing so, we moved into the top half of the Premiership table, in ninth place. A good night’s work all round.
A superb win, well deserved, no doubt about it, and tonight there were several players that played unbelievably well, namely Bukayo Saka, Ben White (who was immense again at the back) and Emile Smith-Rowe, of course, whose talent and skill positively lit the stadium up with their brilliance. For eighty minutes, Arsenal were literally the only team on the pitch, but then Aston Villa scored a consolation goal, and we started to wonder if history was going to repeat itself. Thankfully, we pulled ourselves together enough to regain control and collect the three points, which was badly needed. This win should give them the confidence to defeat Leeds United on Tuesday, and Leicester City next weekend; but we’ll see. That’s football.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Leeds United at the Emirates on Tuesday, 26th October at 7.45pm (Carabao/EFL Cup). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 