Arsenal’s young guns set sights on Middle Eastlands
ByA question is always posed to the many Arsenal fans who bemoan our somewhat amplified and misguided crisis of a trophy drought. ’Would the Carling Cup do?”
My sense is that winning the Carling cup will still not be good enough for the ”We must win a trophy now or else we must bring in the sugar daddy with a transfer war chest” brigade – despite evidently closing the door on the argument that Arsenal hasn’t won a trophy since 2005. This is one of them cases that we can’t have our cake and eat it. Without a shadow of a doubt, Wenger has had numerous opportunities to field a full strength team that is capable of emphatically winning the Carling cup, yet time and time again, he has elected to use the league cup as a vehicle to blood Arsenal’s fringe players.
Ask any long term strategist and they’ll tell you that Arsenal’s policy in the Carling Cup, while not a guarantee for trophies, is one of the most valuable development tools any manager can have in world football for the reason that it provides first class invaluable experience that is impossible to buy if you even tried.
Many teams have recognized the merits of Arsenal’s persistent policy to the point where the league cup is now seen as a platform to provide valuable playing opportunities for fringe players and up-coming reserves – though different clubs have mixed results. Some clubs like Chelsea, Tottenham and Aston Villa take the Cup very seriously and field full strength teams at every available opportunity. In the case of the latter 2 (as well as many other premiership clubs), the Carling cup is the most realistic opportunity for silverware in any given season – so it’s understandable that they will throw everything at it. In Chelsea’s case, I’d hazard a guess that they’d struggle to string together a reserve side that is competitive enough to challenge the best of the second stringers, but that would be conjecture really. Chelsea wouldn’t be that woeful if they strung together a reserve team, would they?
Tonight’s game at Eastlands won’t be any different in the sense that Wenger will field a typically Carling cup side with a sprinkling of experience to help guide the youngsters. The temptation after Sunday’s defeat would be to field a full strength side to exorcise the demons from Sunday, but that would not only be unfair to the young team who have so far beaten the Baggies and Liverpool emphatically to earn the right to play today – it would also be a knee jerk reaction to a situation that needs calm heads. We won’t achieve anything by sending our big guns to Eastlands – they’re best utilized by preparing for the visit from the ‘big’ men from the Potteries on Saturday.
Wenger admits that the injuries to the first team squad has influenced his approach for tonight’s team to play Abu Dhabi City, but he is confident of putting out a team capable of winning. At least for Abu Dhabi City, their cycle of 7 consecutive draws will be brought to an end, and we’re hoping our Carling cup team will put them out of their misery. The pressure is more on them than on the young Arsenal side, who let’s face it, will be disappointed if they don’t collect the honours from tonight, but nevertheless, will need no more motivation than the chance to progress to the semi-final of their prime competition. Tonight’s match is their cup final and an opportunity for our boys to put themselves in the shop window for the manager and fans alike.
Wenger also took some time to comment on the reflection that the team has done since Sunday’s defeat and rightfully so – he avers that we need to stop talking and do our business on the pitch in the games that follow. They say talk is cheap, and in the dip of form that Arsenal are in right now, the only talking that’s needed is on the pitch. There is clearly a danger that the lack of belief in this team from the outside might dare to become a self fulfilling prophecy if it ends up transmitting to the players.
We will however have to get used to daily headlines about players that are on their way to Arsenal in January, especially after Wenger confirmed that Van Persie’s injury has forced him to go into the January market for a relief striker at least. I sometimes think that journalists are so pressured by their editors, you’d find a group of them in most pubs around Fleet Street huddling in a corner and inventing rumours about players linked with certain clubs. They qualify such diatribe with attributions like ’a source close to the club said’ or ’Arsenal (fill name of preferred club here) has long been linked to (fill name of player here)’. Linked by who if not themselves I ask.
The ridiculous rumours so far are that in January, we’ll be after Ruud Van Nistelrroy or Carlton Cole – (Note: Typically the so underwhelming big lump of a centre forward stereotype that has become a mainstay in English football). I guess you can’t hold it against the journalist for this sort of pressure – they also have kids to feed and a roof to put over their heads.
The Carling Cup side though, will have a lot to play for tonight as City are a good team who will provide stiff competition if only to unbruise their battered egos. Of course there’s the small matter of Money-bye-ego who will want another opportunity to prove to Wenger that shipping him out to a non-Beyonce type club was not a cool thing to do at all.
Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
You’re right to highlight the invaluable experience the Carling Cup affords the youngsters Darius. I hope Wenger doesn’t abandon this policy in the quest for a cup.
Arsenal, with some adjustments, are perfectly perfectly capable of contesting for the league title, and I’d rather we focus our attentions on those bigger prizes. It is ironic that the fans clamouring for cups and titles have so little ambition as to settle for the Carling Cup. Have they given up so much on The Arsenal?
One thing that has been bothering me a lot has been our poor injury record over the past few seasons. Now, it could just be bad luck. But I wonder if it’d be worth analyzing the situation to see if the frequency and duration of injuries we suffer are abnormally high relative to the normal.
I’m thinking of writing to Danny Finklestein over at The Times and seeing if his “Fink Tank” column would find it worth their while to analyze our injury record.
As for the night’s game, a fan can, and should dream: Wouldn’t it be great if the kids could hand out a footballing lesson and progress to the next round?
Saloner.
I seriously hope Wenger does not try to field any semblence of a first team. I really do enjoy the Carling cup perhaps because it’s not exactly a situation of pressure and the team have a licence to express themselves, and secondly just to enjoy the talent on show.
With regards to your point about injuries – I think Arsenal has to take the approach that having injuries is a constant in any season. We have to hope that they’ll be minimal, but we have to work on the basis that players will be hit by the injury gremlins.
I subscribe to the school of thought that our injuries are partly due to our style of play. The pace, quick turns, and slick moves around the pitch at speed take a toll on our players and it’s a price we have to pay if we want to watch Wengerball.
There is also another theory abound that our players are mostly at that age where their bodies are growing and maturing and for what they do, they’re bound to get more injuries than most, and their bodies are likely to settle in in their mid 20′s. But again, this is just a theory I’ve heard bandied around.
Of course there’s the compliment other teams pay us by taking our players out cold because they really can’t cope with Wengerball and the only other alternative is to do a Ridgwell or Taylor on our boys.
I thoroughly agree with both of you.
Injuries have been a curse for many years. Does anyone seriously doubt that AW & the medics have been doing their utmost to improve matters. It is a fact of life. All clubs get some but we appear to have more than our fair share. I doubt that we have ever had less than 6 serious players out at any time in the last 5 seasons. We certainly have never been able to play our strongest side on paper, since the Invincibles.
However it is always good that some who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity get the chance to play & impress. In fact how would AW keep all these players happy.
The official squad tonight:
Tomas Rosicky
Carlos Vela
Aaron Ramsey
Alex Song
Mikael Silvestre
Jack Wilshere
Lukasz Fabianski (GK)
Vito Mannone (GK)
Emmanuel Eboue
Armand Traore
Fran Merida
Kyle Bartley
Francis Coquelin
Craig Eastmond
Emmanuel Frimpong
Kerrea Gilbert
Mark Randall
Sanchez Watt
I don’t know what has happened to Senderos but it look like Song at CB with Troare LB.
This could range from a WHL style drubbing to an amazing win. I always look forward to these games as they are fun with the pressure off a bit. A really impressive performance tonight could put anyone in contention for a place on Saturday.
AA in particular needs to be looking over his shoulder in my opinion.
Just a clarification Flint and Darius:
I didn’t mean to suggest the staff aren’t doing their utmost with regard to injury prevention and quick rehabilitation: Wenger’s interest in both statistics and sports science is well known.
I also accept that injuries are part and parcel of a physical game like Football.
That said, I cannot get over this nagging feeling that we consistently seem to be more cursed than most (in the league) with these. It could be just my imagination of course.
If the folks over at the “Fink Tank” oblige, I’d be happy to have my fears denied.
Here is the mail I wrote to Dr.Ian Graham, one of the brains behind the “Fink Tank” column:
Dear Dr.Graham,
I write to you hoping to persuade you to carry out a players’ injuries
analysis as part of your Fink Tank series.
I’m an Arsenal fan, and over the past few seasons I have had a nagging
feeling that Arsenal, for whatever reason, seem to suffer more
injuries than “normal”, given their match load.
I was wondering if there are statistical models that could clarify the
question, and whether it would sufficiently interest you to run such
an analysis over at the Fink Tank.
I hope my query catches your fancy.
Regards,
Karthic Dixit.