Normally the Capital One Cup is one in which Arsene Wenger likes to blood some youngsters. Had we drawn different opposition, and had we not just lost twice in a week, I suspect we’d have seen a different team to the one he’ll put out later on.
Although, to be fair, he makes the point that a lot of those that might have played are out on loan already. The likes of Chuba Akpom, Dan Crowley, Isaac Hayden, Serge Gnabry etc would usually view this as a chance for first team action, but they’re out developing via first team football elsewhere. He says:
At the moment the youth-team players, many of whom are ready to play for us, are away on loan. The next players who have the talent are not completely ready to play at that level. With the difficulty of the opponent as well, you do not want to throw them into a game where they look out of place.
The only youngster likely to be involved is Alex Iwobi and if he gets anything more than a place on the bench I’d be very surprised. Francis Coquelin misses the game because of the knee injury that he picked up against Chelsea, but other than that there are no new absences. Per Mertesacker returns while Gabriel is available after his suspension was rescinded (more on that shortly).
I suspect there will be some changes. Obviously we have to replace Coquelin, with Arteta likely to get the job. I’m assuming Cazorla is suspended so that requires a re-working of midfield. Maybe Ramsey in there with him, the only other real option is Oxlade-Chamberlain but I think he might start from the right. Up front there are suggestions of Giroud replacing Walcott, with the manager backing the striker to respond to some recent difficulties, but that’s almost as far as I’d go.
Full backs, goalkeeper, Alexis, Ozil – keep them all in I say. The importance of this game goes beyond that of the tournament itself. It’s a North London derby in a week when we’ve lost twice. It’s still early in the season, fatigue shouldn’t be an issue and it feels as if these guys need something to spark themselves into life. Alexis needs a goal, Ozil could do with one of the chances he creates put away for an assist, and the entire team needs a lift.
Whatever the injustice of last Saturday, it doesn’t change the result, and results need to change. Go as strong as possible, worry about Leicester on Thursday morning. Arsene Wenger says:
It is an opportunity for Arsenal to win an important game and for the players who play for the club to defend our club and qualify.
Picking the strongest team possible will give us the best chance of doing that. I’d like to think that what happened against Chelsea will have an effect. Even though Gabriel hasn’t been punished and Costa got the three match ban he deserved, there ought to be a sense that we’ve been hard done by. A little bit of us against them could go a long way – especially against ‘them’ tonight.
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Meanwhile, yesterday came the quite remarkable news that Gabriel’s red card for violent conduct had been rescinded by the FA and his suspension lifted. Let’s be honest here, I don’t think anyone was expecting that, but apparently new video evidence, the ESPN Brazil footage I linked to the other day, was used in his defence and the FA made the decision to overturn the red card.
Scenes, as they say. I thought if we were really lucky he might get a one game reduction but to have it completely wiped clean is pretty much unbelievable. Hilariously though, he’s still facing a charge of improper conduct for his objections to a red card which the FA have admitted should never have been issued. It does seem counter-intuitive, of course, but his reaction to the dismissal was based on what happened on the day and the charge was issued accordingly.
Anything more than a fine would be bring further embarrassment for the FA so I suspect that’s how it will play out. Especially when they’ve subsequently banned Diego Costa for three games for violent conduct, further evidence that Mike Dean got it all wrong on the day. We wait to see if there are any consequences for the referee, he’s scheduled to officiate this weekend and it’d be a turn of events if they demoted him.
However, such a high profile display of ineptitude would, in any other job, lead to some kind of action. The PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited – a company remember) are the ones who can do that, but like any fiefdom their first thought is to protect their own interests, so it would surprise me as much as Gabriel getting off if they did anything more than give him a week off next week, before bringing him back with nothing said.
As for those defending Costa saying it wasn’t violent conduct, it’s ludicrous. I’ve written here many times before about that term is far too broad, and there really ought to be a sliding scale of punishments. Some violent conduct is worthy of a one game ban, some of it should see players suspended for 6 or 8 or 10 games, but as it stands the rule is that it’s a three-match ban and that’s it.
By any standards what Costa did falls into that classification. Twice he put his hands in Koscielny’s face – and how often have we heard those same pundits say ‘Well, you can’t raise your hands, everyone knows that’? He also bumped him over off the ball. It’s violent conduct, and that’s a three-match ban. End of story.
Chelsea say they’re ‘extremely disappointed’ about the judgement, probably exacerbated by Gabriel having his suspension overturned, and while I’m sure this has been issued to help foster a bit of siege mentality among the squad, they’ll know fine well that Costa brought it on himself. If he keeps his hands out of Koscielny’s face and doesn’t backhand him before knocking him over, he’s available for them – so it’s all on him.
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Right, that’s about that for now. We’ll have full live blog coverage of the game for you later on. Check back here for a post with all the details, or bookmark our default live blog page and the updates will begin automatically with team news about an hour before kick-off.
Until then.
