Arsenal must use Youth and Experience to compete in Capital One Cup
Chelsea have beaten Manchester City 2 – 1 at Stamford Bridge thanks to once again another Joe Hart howler. Now they set their sights on the Capital One cup match against Arsenal at the Emirates. And although are going to play the second string, it will not be an easy game for Arsenal.
Even though Chelsea will be playing the game only two days after their previous game, they will still field a very menacing line up. The likes of Willian, Mata and De Bruyne didn’t even start for Chelsea today meaning that we can expect those three behind Eto’o. That’s how ridiculously good their squad depth is at the moment and that’s why I don’t think we can take them lightly. Without starting any of the same players, Chelsea can field a side like this:
Schwarzer
Azpilicueta, Luiz, Ake, Bertrand
Essien, Mikel
De Bruyne, Mata, Willian
Eto’o
I personally don’t care much for the Capital One cup this season. It’s the least respected trophy of them all and is only cherished by fans of small clubs like Tottenham. We have bigger fish to fry and we need to capitalise on this good start we’ve had in the Premier league this season. Liverpool on Saturday will be well rested whilst we’ve had to play three games in Europe as well as them not having to play a cup game midweek thanks to being knocked out by Manchester United.
But we also can’t be humiliated by Chelsea under Mourinho. We all despise that club and the manager. We can’t allow our loyal fans to watch us get decimated by a far superior Chelsea team on the day. That’s just not on. I expect us to play a more experienced side (mainly our defence) to cope with Chelsea’s extremely strong attack whilst deploying some younger players like Akpom and Gnabry to ensure that our experienced players aren’t overplayed whilst our top youngsters get a feel for a big competitive game.
I’d be surprised if we managed to beat Chelsea on Tuesday but we can’t just take a beating regardless of our small squad. We need to employ a mixture of experience and youth and hope that we can overcome Chelsea’s superior squad. Something like this:
Fabianski
Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Monreal
Hayden, Frimpong
Gnabry, Rosicky, Miyaichi
Bendtner
That is not a bad side and should make for a good game and avoid a real hammering. If they can get us through to the next round, it will be a nice bonus.
