League Cup | She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

So we are out of the League Cup. A great start to the game with a sensational free kick by Alexis Sanchez was followed up by with a penalty to Southampton after a poor challenge by Tomas Rosicky and a stunner by Nathaniel Clyne (who deserves an England call up).

A disappointing result, but there are plenty of positives, as well as some negatives, to take from the night.

Positive – Going out

The League Cup is very much the ugly duckling of the 4 honours we begin the season chasing. It always brings up the conundrum of how we should approach it. Play youngsters to see how they do against top opposition, or play a strong side to try and win it. Both have their merits.

Getting knocked out is by no means a disaster.

For a Champions League side, the beginning of a season is always congested. Play on the weekend, play mid week, see your stars fly to the four corners of the world for internationals. Repeat.

Whilst not all the top players might play in the League Cup, they train as a team so will have to prepare together, even if they are not playing. Last night Ospina, Bellerin, Chambers, Wilshere, Rosicky, Podoslki and Sanchez from the 1st 11 and Chamberlain and Cazorla coming on will be involved in the match day squad against Spurs.

By being knocked out, we have now freed up two mid weeks between now and the end of the year. Two mid week rests might not seem much, but lets put that into context of the first 5five months of the season.

Had we made the quarter final of the League Cup, we would have only had two mid weeks off between now and the FA Cup 3rd round tie in the New Year.Not much time to get a little refresh. By being knocked out so early, we now double that time off. It should leave us that little bit fresher for upcoming games.

We now have the week between Sunderland and Burnely free, and perhaps more importantly, the week between Newcastle and Liverpool. It might not seem like much of a silver lining at the moment, but were we to win all four of those games, you could argue that not playing a League Cup tie between them contributed to the victories.

And these thoughts don’t even take into account the fixture congestion making the semi-final or final creates.

Negative – Going out

I want to win every trophy. Whether it is the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup or League Cup. I want us to win it. We are in football to win things. There is nothing better than a day out at Wembley.

Also, the League Cup has always given us an opportunity to blood younger players against decent sides. You have to wonder when Hayden, Bellerin or Akpom are now going to get a chance again, or will they return to he youths before a January long move to some dump like Carlisle? The League cup is brilliant for their progress, an it’s over before it’s really begun.

Also, the League Cup provides a brilliant opportunity for youngsters to watch the games. For Dad’s to take their son’s. With Premier League and Champions League games becoming more and more expensive. One adult and 2 kids can go to the League Cup for less than £50. The League Cup is a good breeding ground for our future fans. For many kids last night, it would have been their first game.

With Arsenal now out, in the same way you wonder when the kids will get their next chance to play, you also have to wonder when the kids will get their next chance to watch live.

Positive – Arsenal 2nd 11 v Southampton’s 1st 11

Only Alexis Sanchez would be guaranteed a starting place in Arsenal’s strongest 11. Meanwhile, Southampton had arguably their strongest possible 11 out, bar a debutant left back. They are 2nd in the league and last night was their 5th win in a row.

It was certainly not a defeat on the scale of Bradford or MK Dons beating Manchester United. It is no disaster or embarrassment to lose to a very good Premier League outfit.

A lot can be taken from many of the performances, and we should now be confident that many of the players on show last night can be rotated in against mid-table and lower sides and we should still perform. The performance of the youngsters impressed the most (more later).

We played well against a strong Premier League outfit

Negative – The Seniors

Lukasz Podolski and Tomas Rosicky were disastrous.

Firstly, the German. I barely realised he was playing. He showed why we have attempted to offload him the last two summers. He is still only with the clubs due to circumstances conspiring in his favour (injures). He put in the tepid lazy performance that has plagued his Arsenal career. This season will be his last at Arsenal.

Tomas Rosicky has not played much, so maybe I am about to be too harsh, as he probably isn’t match sharp, but he looked old last night.

Slow decision making, 2nd to react to every loose ball, he looked every year of his 33 on this planet and more. A lot might have been down to lack of match sharpeness, but for me, he took the place in the starting 11 that I would have liked to have seen go to someone younger, to see what they can do.

I have long been an advocate of keeping around senior players, but the time has come for him to step aside and give youngsters sub as Oxlade Chamberlain or Gedion Zalelem a chance.

I would not be upset if both players left us next summer. Last night they let their younger team mates down.

Positive – The Youngsters

We played three 19 year olds in defence last night, and none of them looked out of place.

Unfortunately, injuries mean that Bellerin and Hayden won’t get a loan move to another Premier League club. Then again, training against Sanchez, Ozil and Walcott every week, alongside Mertesacker and Kosicelny, might be better for their development anyway.

All 3 did not look fazed at all, and all look to have a bright future at Arsenal, even if it is as a squad player.

Negative – Joel Campbell

A youngster who I feel does not have a bright future at the club is Joel Campbell.

A lot of hype has been around Campbell since he joined us in 2011. He became the forgotten man last summer, only to burst back into our conscious with a wonder goal against Manchester United.

A good World Cup later, and his stock was high. Hindsight shows we should have cashed in at this point.

Yesterday he showed exactly why he is not good enough for Arsenal, and why he has struggled on loan at 3 different clubs in 3 different counties.

Maybe now our fans will stop hyping up players based on YouTube videos and the odd good performance. He is senior to both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Serge Gnabry but junior to them in talent and ability.

Another to be sold next summer, unfortunately at a lower price than we could have got this.

Positive – Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Whilst he only played 15 minutes (or so) he looked a class apart in comparison to Joel Campbell. Barely 21, his brief cameo should get him a start against Spurs, seeing Arsene Wenger returning to 4231 with Sanchez Ozil & Chamberlain behind Danny Welbeck.

With Theo Walcott now out until middle of October at the earliest, Oxlade-Chamberlain should be given a run in the team on the right wing. He deserves it.

Negative – Where are the Local Lads?

A longer blog for another day perhaps. The talk throughout the game between myself and others was “What has happened to the local boys?”. We played without a single player from London (let along North London or just Islington) again.

Yes, it is part of the wider picture of problems in English football, but the lack of local boys at Arsenal is worrying. The two players that we often claim as our own – Carl Jenkinson and Jack Wilshere – are from Harlow and Stevenage respectively.

In our first team squad we have six Englishmen (seven if you include Jenkinson), but only one can really be said to be an Arsenal Academy graduate (Jack Wilshere). Just two are from London (Kieran Gibbs from South of the River – Lambeth, & Theo Walcott from Stanmore). I honestly can not remember our last Islington born player.

I know GC has some very strong views on what he believes is a problem in our youth set up, and something that needs to be addressed. Hopefully he will write something fuller on it soon.

Positive – Moving On

Well, me mum always said end every day with a positive, and it is the same with this blog. I don’t want leave it on a sour note.

We lost to a very good Southampton side to a penalty and a screamer. Disappointing but not a disaster.

But what is the biggest positive of the night? Between the match last night and you reading the blog this morning, there is one less sleep till Spurs. Now that is something to be joyful about.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

Writing after a defeat is always tough. Especially a defeat where we did not deserve to win, where we have been knocked out of a competition. It can go one of two ways. I can become a depressing emo and write about how useless we are, or I can go completely the other way and be blinded by my love of Arsenal and bury my head in the sand, and find excuses for the loss.

There is a fine line and getting the balance between both is tough. Rather then attempt to get a balance, I am going to write both sides of yesterday’s story.

Wenger’s Fault

Arsenal lost to Chelsea, and there is only one man to blame. Arsene Wenger. The way he treats the League Cup is a disgrace. It is a trophy. A trophy that he has never won due to his disdain for the trophy. We have not won a trophy for 8 seasons. In that time we have made 2 League Cup Finals. Both times his team selection has let us down. And let us not forget Bradford last year.

He dropped 8 players from the game against Crystal Palace. He played Nicklas Bendtner and Ryo Miyaichi. This was not good enough.

Yes, it is a squad game and he should be rotating, but the squad clearly is not good enough. And it is Arsene Wenger who built that squad. In the summer, we all said we needed to buy 4 or 5 players. A goalkeeper. A right back. A top central midfielder. A winger. A striker. And what did Wenger do? Buy Mesut Ozil and get Mathieu Flamini on a free.

And the reason we lost to Chelsea? A mistake by our goalkeeper. A mistake by our right back. A lack of protection in midfield. And playing Ryo and Bendtner. Had we signed the players we needed, our squad would have been stronger. We failed to invest. Arsene Wenger failed to invest.

Top managers have Wenger’s number. They always have. Fergie and Mourinho use the exact same tactics when playing Arsenal. Defend deep. Defend well. Then let Arsenal make a mistake. And Arsenal always make a mistake. Take advantage of that mistake, score, then go back to defending, then pick Arsenal off on the break to kill the game. How often have we looked the better team against another top side, only to lose 2-0? A lot.

Arsene Wenger is at fault for yesterday’s defeat. He has let the fans down by not investing all he can in the team. Wenger Out.

Money Rules

Arsenal lost to Chelsea. C’est la vie. Whilst the performance was not brilliant, a few things must be remembered. Firstly, Arsene Wenger was correct shuffling the squad. Due to injuries, we have a very small group of players. It is therefore important to rest players when we have a chance. And the League Cup is a chance. Over the next 10 days we play Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United. All of these games are more important than the League Cup. The League Cup is the least important trophy.

Even getting top 4 is more important than the League Cup. Do not believe me. Ask yourself a question, would Mesut Ozil of signed for Arsenal we last season we won the League Cup, but finished 5th? The answer is no. The best players are attracted by Champions League football. We can now, going forward, afford the best players, so it is more important that we continue qualifying for the Champions League then winning the League Cup. The better players we buy, the more chance of winning the league. Winning the league is the ultimate goal.

Yes, Chelsea’s B side was stronger than the B side we put out, but it is unfair to compare the two sides. Chelsea currently have 1 injury, Marco Van Ginkel. Yesterday was basically there full 2nd string. Meanwhile, Arsenal had Flamini, Arteta, Walcott, Sanogo, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Serge Gnabry (I am excluding Diaby) unavailable for selection. 7 players.

Now if you imagine our strongest starting line up is:

Szczesny
Sagna Mertesacker Koscielny Gibbs
Flamini Ramsey
Walcott Ozil Cazorla
Giroud

The would have left us with a side last night of:

Fabianski
Jenkinson Koscielny Vermaelen Monreal
Arteta Wilshere
Gnabry Rosicky Oxlade
Podolski

That is a side which is fair superior to that which started yesterday. A more balanced central midfield. More width and pace. And a better striker. We would have performed a lot better, especially in the last 3rd, where we got to with ease but struggled to break through.

And then we have the cost of both sides. The Chelsea side which played yesterday cost them £174.6m. The Arsenal side cost £62.3m. Over £100million difference. Of course Chelsea are going to look stronger, look better.

And the figures are similar throughout the entire squads of both sides. The Chelsea First Team squad cost £332.4m to put together. Arsenal’s meanwhile cost £180.9m to put together. A difference of £151.5m. Chelsea’s wage bill is also £30m higher then Arsenal’s. It should be of no surprise that Chelsea looked better than us on the night when you take into account these figures.

Yes, you could argue that we have more money to spend, but do we have enough to compete? We had around £100m to spend this summer. Even if we spent all of that, our squad would still of cost £100m less then Chelsea’s. As for the wage bill, we have no way in competing. Need I remind you that Arsenal made a profit of £6.7m last year. Had we had a wage bill equalling that of Chelsea’s, we would have made a loss of over £20m. We would be putting our club at risk.

To put something else in perspective, Chelsea have £61.1m worth of players out on loan. Remember the XI which started for Arsenal last night cost £62.3m. Chelsea are clearly at a financial advantage when it comes to their squad, and that came across on the pitch.

That fact it took individual errors for us to lose last night, and for much of the game we competed with them is testament to how good our players are and how well Wenger has done in assembling the squad. Football is all about money. The teams who pay the highest wages, have the most expensive squads, tend to win. The doped clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City are at an advantage, however our league position shows we are catching, we are competitive.

Last night was a poor defeat. But there is no need to point the figure of blame at anyone. The reason for that defeat is that Chelsea had a better side, a deeper squad. And that comes down to how much money they are able to invest in their squad. Money won.

What side do you fall down on?

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC