Arsenal came through a really tricky game at Everton at the weekend and now have to navigate another such game, albeit at home, to Crystal Palace tonight in the League Cup. Both sides know that victory will take them into the semi-finals, where they will need to get past Chelsea to reach Wembley and have the chance to compete for the season’s first piece of silverware. The starting lineups will given a clear indication of how seriously both Mikel Arteta and Oliver Glasner are taking this competition, as they both try to juggle domestic and European commitments while maintaining competitive.
For Arsenal, being trophyless in the past 5 seasons has left them in a position where they cannot turn down opportunities like this, with only a handful of games between them and a trip to Wembley. Crystal Palace on the other hand are probably still feeling the buzz from last year’s FA Cup success and their fans will be hoping for more of the same this season.
This game is therefore shaping up to be a hotly contested match in which both teams will want to give their fans an early Christmas present by sailing through to the next round and avoiding a confidence draining defeat right before the busy festive period begins.
Areas of encouragement
Arsenal are still lacking defensive reinforcements, but the rest of the squad is actually in reasonable health which should allow them to rotate their forward options and put out a fresh and hungry team. In contrast, Crystal Palace’s squad is being severely tested by injuries, AFCON departures and just a massive amount of minutes in some of their players’ legs due to their European exertions this season. I’m sure whatever team Oliver Glasner puts out will be a formidable one, but if it comes down to freshness, Arsenal should have Palace beat hands down here.
Arsenal also looked a lot more solid at the weekend, keeping a clean sheet in the process, which should hopefully give them something to build on.
Areas of concern
Crystal Palace were soundly beaten by Leeds at the weekend and that doesn’t happen to this Palace side very often, so I’m always mindful of a backlash in situations like this. We all know that the Palace players will fight to the last to go through so we must make sure we match their intensity and desire.
Arsenal will likely ring the changes, with several players hoping for their first minutes for a while however, over rotation can lead to a disjointed performance so Mikel Arteta will have to get the balance right.
This relatively new format of straight to penalties after 90 minutes also causes me great concern! That just seems too quick to jump to what is essentially a lottery to me. Arsenal need to get the job done in 90 minutes as I don’t think my nerves can take a penalty shootout at this stage of the season!
What I’d love to see
When you make the number of changes that I’m expecting Arteta to make, you can sometimes get a very disjointed performance, with lots of new partnerships on the field that take a while to gel. This squad has been training together for a while now and there have been another of other games where heavy rotation has been the order of the day, so I’m really hoping to see a fluid performance from whoever is picked to start. I think that will go a long way to winning this game, as I expect Palace to go very strong for this one, so that could be an area that gives them a real edge.
I’ve also love to see Ethan Nwaneri given a start, as I think his cameo appearances have warranted more minutes than he has seen to date.
Being greedy now, but I’ve also really like to see the so-called ‘fringe’ players shine and give Arteta a selection headache coming into the next round of games. The likes of Noni Madueke, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus really need to push the current starters all the way, so it would be fantastic to see some strong performances from them (if they actually start).
What I’d hate to see
Aside from penalties, which would be really stressful and also mean that the game hasn’t really gone our way, I’d hate to see any more injuries. We’re starting to get everyone back now, so the last thing we need is for anyone else to go down.
Key Battle
Players always seem to play with a point to prove against their former teams and I see Eberechi Eze starting this one, so he should be really on his game tonight, especially given the fact that he hasn’t played much since his sudden withdrawal against Villa at half time. The key battle for me is therefore going to be how Adam Wharton handles Eze and how much space the former Palace man is afforded throughout the game. If Eze wins this one, I think we should have a great chance to go through. Eze’s performance will hopefully dictate how much attention Wharton can give to starting attacks as well, so a strong Eze performance can have a key impact at both ends of the pitch.
Lineup and Team News
At time of writing, there has been no further injuries reported and I don’t expect any of the injured players to make it back in time so the squad should remain largely unchanged from the weekend. Kai Havertz is now back in training but this one will likely come too soon for him.
The defence is where is gets a bit difficult to predict, as we are short on numbers back there. In goal, surely Kepa will be given another chance to shine between the sticks and ahead of him I think there may be a bit of rotation, possibly more than some people are expecting. Myles Lewis-Skelly will definitely start at left back, Riccardo Calafiori will then slide across to centre back and I would then expect Christian Norgaard to partner him and then a first start for Marli Salmon at right back. Arteta may decide to risk either William Saliba or Jurrien Timber, but I think that’s’ what that would be – a risk – and one which should be avoided at all costs.
With a makeshift defence, we need to have some experience at the base of midfield, which I think will be Declan Rice, with Martin Zubimendi maybe given a run out late on, in place of Rice to share their minutes.
Ahead of them, Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze will likely be recalled in midfield (although I really hope to see Ethan Nwaneri in one of these slots) and then I think the front three really picks itself, with Madueke, Jesus and Martinelli all coming in with a point to prove. The bench will be loaded with the usual starters, should things not go to plan!
Predicted lineup:
Arrizabalaga
Salmon
Norgaard
Calafiori
Lewis-Skelly
Rice
Merino
Eze
Madueke
Jesus
Martinelli
Substitutes:
Raya
Saliba
Nicolls
Hincapie
Zubimendi
Nwaneri
Gyokeres
Odegaard
Trossard
PREDICTION
Definitely falls into the category of ‘only the result that matters’ and despite the anticipated rotation, I’m expecting whatever team Mikel Arteta picks to be good enough to see us through to the next round. I’m going 2-0 to The Arsenal.