Carabao cup tie provides opportunity for much needed respite


Arsenal enter in to the League Cup at the second round stage for the first time since the 1995/96 season tonight, with an away trip to Championship outfit West Bromwich Albion providing an opportunity to right the ship and look to build momentum ahead of the daunting weekend trip to current Premier League champions Manchester City.

Traditionally we have fielded weakened sides in the league cup, using it as an opportunity to blood some of the young players who are knocking at the first team door, but with the vultures in the media circling and smelling blood, I just don't think that is an option for Mikel Arteta tonight. Can you imagine the Jamie O Hara or Gabriel Agbonlahor TalkSport monologues if Arsenal were to lose tonight? For that reason I fully expect a line up as close to our strongest first team as possible, with maybe one or two changes from the weekend. Likely candidates for those changes for me would be Martinelli out and Balogun in, and Tierney out with Tavares in. Both of those players went off at the weekend with leg cramps, and this is exactly the sort of situation Tavares in particular was brought in for. If you can't rest your first choice left back in the second round of the league cup, when can you?



I also hope we get to see the debut of Aaron Ramsdale. He's already facing an uphill battle with a large number of the Arsenal Twitter mob annoyed that he isn't Andre Onana or just anyone else, so a strong showing first time out will be crucial to help win some of those fans over. He's an Arsenal fan who plays with a smile on his face, so I really hope it works out for him. We may also see a second debut for Mrtin Odegaard, who's visa issues are resolved, and potential returns for Gabriel, Lacazette and Bellerin, who are all back in full training ahead of the game.

While a win would obviously lift spirits and hopefully get us rolling in the right direction, a defeat could well be catastrophic in terms of squad morale and the pressure would absolutely ramp up on Arteta, and rightly so. He can therefore leave nothing to chance tonight and must ensure as smooth as possible a route in to the third round, with hopefully some goals, a clean sheet and some attractive football to boot. Although lets face it, at this point we'd probably take a scrappy 1-0 win or a shootout victory.

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