Arsenal take on Liverpool tonight at Emirates Stadium in what is sure to be a memorable occasion. It may only be the Carling Cup and the likes of Robin van Persie, Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard might not be on show, but it should be something to savour nonetheless.
The above will be true if the incredible 6-3 victory at Anfield from three seasons ago is repeated, in which Julio Baptista scored four goals in a bizarre match. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has said that he feels his current squad is much stronger than the one which capitulated then. Tonight will tell.
Both sides faced tricky tasks to reach this stage. Arsenal beat West Bromwich Albion 2-0 in what was ultimately a convincing victory but only after the sending off of former Gunner Jerome Thomas and the introduction of Mark Randall and Carlos Vela, who just seems to thrive on playing in this competition. Liverpool, meanwhile, required a David N’Gog strike to edge past a gamely Leeds outfit and seal their place in the draw.
Now they meet and it should be something to savour. Liverpool are on a high following the pivotal win over Manchester United on Saturday and, even though the majority of the players who featured in that game won’t be involved tonight, the good vibe will surely reverberate around the whole squad. Arsenal are looking to fulfil Arsene Wenger’s belief that this can finally be the year when they end their trophy drought.
Wenger is certainly taking this competition more seriously than he used to. In his post-match press-conference at Upton Park, the Frenchman stated that it will be a ‘mixed’ side against Liverpool and he subsequently revealed that Samir Nasri, Lukasz Fabianski, Eduardo and Nicklas Bendtner will all start the game having recently recovered from injury. Fran Mérida is set to feature having watched the West Ham game from the paddock behind the substitutes, although the bad news is that Jack Wilshere, Nacer Barazite and Armand Traore, who all featured in the last round, have been ruled out through injury. The back four of Kerrea Gilbert, Philippe Senderos, Mikael Silvestre and Kieran Gibbs is likely to remain intact, whilst Vela and Aaron Ramsey should also start. Francis Coquelin should beat off competition from Mark Randall, Craig Eastmond and Emmanuel Frimpong to start in the anchor role.
Liverpool will hope to hand a debut to summer signing Alberto Aquilani, although the midfield player is not ready to start a game just yet so will take his place amongst the substitutes. N’Gog, who sealed the win against United on Saturday, could start as could Ryan Babel, Jay Spearing, Martin Kelly, Philip Degen and Andriy Voronin. Defenders Andrea Dossena and Sotiris Kyrgiakos, a Euro 2004 winner with Greece, have recovered from injury and could be involved.
It should be an encounter to savour and, for some of Arsenal’s youngsters, an opportunity to test themselves against high-quality opposition. Both sides will go full throttle for the win and some of the young Liverpool players who lost to Arsenal over two legs in the FA Youth Cup final may seek revenge.
Predicted team:
Fabianski
Gilbert-Senderos-Silvestre-Gibbs
Coquelin
Ramsey-Merida
Bendtner-Eduardo-Nasri
subs: Szczesny, Randall, Watt, Sunu, Bartley, Frimpong, Eastmond.
Update: Vela is not in the squad
If we go 2-0 up, we should give Merida (for Nasri) and Watt (Bendtner)
and Sunu (for Vela/Eduardo) some gametime. looking fwd to this one… want to see what Merida, Coq and Watt do against a mixed L’pool side.
It seems absurd to me when bloggers don’t spellcheck their articles. Otherwise it would have been a good read.
I only made two mistakes in the whole article, and they were tiny ones. They have been corrected now.
Wasn’t trying to be a bastard! I just think- it takes like 20 seconds to re-read what you have written. Quality control and all that.
Just a few general things regarding Liverpool…
To me, Liverpool’s victory over United on Sunday was as inevitable as it was untimely for us. Every season, the most mediocre Big Four team seems to pull off a massive win over another Big Four team (usually the league winners) that briefly ‘galvanises’ them, giving their supporters false hope. Think Man United 04-05 (vs us twice, including ending our unbeaten run), Arsenal 06-07 (United twice), Arsenal 08-09 (United and Chelsea) and Liverpool this season. It’s like some sort of truly pathetic consolation prize. Invariably the results provide only brief respite, but the annoying part is these anomalies do seem to galvanise the team at first.
Superstition nonsense aside, I simply don’t rate Liverpool. The only reason I have in support for them beating us tonight is the probably irrelevant ‘I just can’t see a big four team losing 5 out of 6′.
It has been said before, but there is a conspicuous dearth of creative players at Liverpool. It’s a characteristic that’s been synonymous with their first team for quite some time now, and having seen their youth a few times, I would almost be so bold as to generalise that stigma to the whole club. Albert Riera, to use a first team example, is a metronome (by spanish and big four standards), and it’s a digrace he has received international honours. For a player bereft of vision and intelligence he is good at what he does, I’ll give him that – I see Riera as a beneficiary of Liverpool’s rigid structure – but you will never, ever win the premiership with someone like Riera first choice.
With this in mind, and considering the respective technical abilities of Arsenal/Liverpool, I would be extremely disappointed if our youngsters don’t dominate possession tonight. So long as we pressure them off the ball, so long as we aren’t passive and so long as our mindset is proactive rather than reactive, we should be fine.
As an additional note, I should say that people who criticised Arsenal’s off the ball movement last season would do well to watch a tape of Arsenal 08-09 vs Liverpool 09-10 (or any Liverpool team for the last 10 years). Do so objectively. You’ll find that we were static because we weren’t moving the ball forward quickly enough (and not quickly enough in general). Liverpool, on the other hand, lack ATTACKING (not defending, obviously) sophisication – they can’t move the ball quickly or more off the ball intelligently. They are slower, more predictable, and much more direct than us.
That said, I actually bet quite a substantial sum on us to lose tonight. Lol. Superstition wins out in the end. Don’t get me wrong, I hope I lose the bet – this is the only time I’ve ever bet against Arsenal.
The 18 man squad does not include Vela – why?
Wheres Vela? Why is he not in the squad?
Swine flu?
Jeorge I would not have said sorry….. the article was class as always thanks for the time and effort you put into this great site.
What I find “absurd” and rude is d**kheads like samuel picking up on the smallest of things and moaning…. get a life!!
Cheers for calling my a dickhead there John. And I complimented the article.
We gooners are supposed to think of ourselves as better than the simpleton supporters around us (most notably Spurs fans.) Just as our club does it the ‘right’ way, I do not think we should lower our standards to the point where people cannot even spell correctly. This is not an insult directed at Jeorge by the way, I think this is a magnificent website. It is aimed at the commenters and the moaners whose comments are downright unreadable when trying to discuss our club. Don’t call someone names for wanting higher standards.
Afobe came off the bench to score for England U17′s.
i’d like to see Nicklas get an oppurtunity to play as the target man in the front three with Eddie on the left and Nasri on the right.
I did intially think Nasri would play deeper, where I assume most of his first team oppurtunities will lie this season, but with Merida and Ramsey needing game time i’m sure he’ll line up as part of the front three and be replaced at the hour mark by Watt.
The front three will rotate positions throughout the game so Bendtner will get his chance in the middle at some point.
I think Merida will play in the front three and Nasri in midfield. The only problem is that Nasri, Merida and Eduardo all like to play left. Actually it seems quite often that we have two left strikers with no right striker, just like when Rosicky and Arshavin were on the other day.
This problem can me fixed by playing like this:
Nick–Dudu–Merida
I think this might be the solution with Coqueling playing behind Nasri and Ramsey. What a shame we don’t get to see Wilshere and Vela tonight, just really hope the little Mexican doesn’t have the piggie.
I’m pretty sure as established footballers (especially Arsenal ones) they have the ability to perform reverse balls and with the vision and technique these guys have got it doesnt matter if they like to play on the left hand side.. Wenger likes them to continuously rotate and cut in anyway.
Besides most of the flair/attacking players aren’t predominantly one footed and either flank suits them. I imagine it will be those 3 up top at some stage though.
I was looking forward to this so much becouse i wanted to see watt, wilshere, vela and some more youths but now when Bendtner and eduardo is in the team the chances is very small.
My team will still include watt though.
Fabianski
gilbert-senderos-silvestre-gibbs
coquelin
bendtner-ramsey-merida-nasri
watt
I hope we outclassed liverpool.
Eastmond starts.