Morning folks. If you want to use today as the start of the week, it’s a hell of a few days ahead for Arsenal.
Today it’s Man Utd in the FA Cup 3rd round, we have a North London derby on Wednesday, before the visit of Aston Villa on Saturday. Which is to say, if today’s team looks a little odd, it’s probably because of the two games we have following it. The issue, of course, is trying to find the balance between rotating a little and getting the result we want – because make no mistake, this is a competition we should be out to win, especially after the Newcastle disappointment in midweek.
The FA Cup remains Mikel Arteta’s only silverware to date, and that’s a success he badly wants to replicate. Somewhat bizarrely asked in the build-up to this game being out of the FA Cup might give his team a chance to go on a mid-season break (wtf?!), Arteta’s reply was forthright:
We want to be in the FA Cup
We haven’t been particularly fortunate in terms of the draws in recent years. After a disastrous 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in 2022, we drew Man City in the fourth round after beating Oxford, and last season it was Liverpool in the third round. That was a game we probably should have won, but we were going through that little goalscoring funk before the trip to Dubai, and two late goals saw us go out early in the competition.
I don’t think you can say we haven’t taken the FA Cup seriously, but that record is still something to put right. In typical fashion though, we have big opposition who come into this game on the back of a confidence boosting result and performance against Liverpool last week. United’s season has been shambolic so far, but they have a smart new manager who has had plenty of time to prepare his team for this game, so it’s going to be tough.
Speaking of rotation, Arteta is taking it on a game by game basis, rather than prioritising one competition over another. He says:
I think we have rotated a lot for different reasons and we’re going to have to continue to rotate because of the amount of games that we have and the level of the players that we have. So I don’t see any competition. It’s about momentum, it’s about feeling, it’s about what we need in the occasion as well to give ourselves the best chance to win. So my selection is going to be based on that, not in the competition.
In truth, there’s not a huge amount he can do today. Players like Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino who were unused in the Carabao Cup in midweek could come into this one ‘fresh’, and in the forward line, it’s about trying to find a combination of players that works. If it’s Kai Havertz up front, I wouldn’t be at all averse to seeing Gabriel Martinelli on the left, and Gabriel Jesus on the right. He’s played there plenty in his career, and could give us something different from Martinelli and Leandro Trossard when they’re played out there.
Beyond that, I can’t see much else in the way of change/rotation. Without Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka, we’re pretty limited. Maybe today is the day things start to go well for Raheem Sterling if we need him, but the ideal scenario – with all due respect to him – is that the players we have out there do the job. As I said, I think this is going to be a difficult game, it’s kind of a free hit for United who can come as underdogs and just have a go. If they lose, it’s just another small thing in the list of many big things they need to put right at this moment in time. With a large allocation of away fans, this could be a hell of a cup tie and atmosphere.
But, after a disappointing midweek performance and result, we really need to step it up today. We don’t want to be going into Wednesday talking about how we have to take stock and go again, so hopefully we can produce the goods – especially in front of goal – and maybe we might get a kind fourth round draw if we go through (it’ll probably be 1970 Brazil, but hey).
As ever, you can follow the game with us on the Arseblog live blog, and we’ll have a report, player ratings, reaction, goal clips, and lots more on Arseblog News afterwards.
Fingers crossed, catch you later for the game. Come on you reds in white!
