- Arsenal’s injuries ahead of the league cup final
- Arsenal v Manchester City and a referee with an “interesting” view of fouls and cards
By Tony Attwood
There is a general view in the media that Arsenal need to win the League Cup because Arteta has only won one trophy with Arsenal – the FA Cup, but has come second in the league three times running.
Yet this is simply another “Arsenal are desperate” approach, aimed, I’m sure, at making Arsenal fans, and anyone in the club silly enough to read the papers, nervous.
These articles are always full of “will be” statements, as in “Arsenal will be nervous because….” but of course there is no evidence for this. In fact, what evidence there is suggests that Arsenal should be nerve-free, in that they are still in four competitions, which in itself is a remarkable achievement.
Indeed, coming second in the league three seasons running when up against a team that was built on utterly unrestrained purchasing power is a phenomenal achievement, which, of course, the media, who remain beholden to ManC, cannot acknowledge.
And then we have the notion thrown in that Arsenal will inevitably slip back in terms of points per game in the weeks to come, so this is their BIG CHANCE before that slippage happens. It’s a clever tale and generally (although to be fair, not always) promoted with some data to back this up such as the points gained before and after the League Cup final.
But in fact articles of this nature are simply a load of twaddle as in fact, in the last four seasons, two of the winners of the League Cup have then followed that victory with a dip in form, but the other two have taken the victory as a stepping stone to an improved set of performances in the league. So in 2021/2 Liverpool went into the League Cup final having 2.31 points per game in the league up to that point. They then got 2.67 points per game in the 12 games left at the end of the season.
Then again, last season, Newcastle United approached the game with 1.68 points per match before that event, but then, having won the Cup, across their remaining ten games, gained 1.9 points per match.
Now, it is true that in the other two of the last four seasons, the points per game gained by the winning team went down, which shows that there is no pattern. Some clubs take a League Cup victory as a stepping stone to further success, others take it as the completion of a successful season, and then relax, and the club slides backwards. I guess it depends on the manager.
One of the big advantages Arsenal have, however, is that the media has been so negative about them this season that the scribblers don’t have much ammunition left in their arsenal. As it were. They’ve pretty well thrown everything at Arsenal that they can, and it is more than likely that anything written in recent papers will not affect the players or manager at all. Everyone will know, this is what you get when you are Arsenal.
Raya
Timber Saliba Gabriel Calafiori
Rice Zubamendi Eze
Saka Gyokeres Trossard
The Metro also tells us that “Alan Shearer has backed Arsenal to end their long wait for silverware by beating Manchester City in today’s eagerly anticipated Carabao Cup final.”
Sports Mole as usual, has their most detailed analysis of the forthcoming game, and it ends with the prediction of a team that is just a little different from above…
Kepa;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Rice; Saka,
Eze, Trossard; Gyokeres
And just one more. Football London gives us
Raya;
Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Rice, Eze;
Saka, Gyokeres, Trossard
So there we are. The first of our four possible trophies this season reaches the final stage. And there is a little bit of recuperation time before the next match which is… the FA Cup quarter final away to Southampton on Saturday 4 April at 8pm. And then after that… well no, I don’t know about the players, but I am not sure I can cope with all of this…
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These articles are always full of “will be” statements, as in “Arsenal will be nervous because….”
Usual media tripe. Anyway, I’m not sure why because although I keep hearing about how the ‘League Cup’ belongs to Man City on the basis they’ve won it 8 times. I’ve not heard so much about how Wembley belongs to Arsenal because they’ve won 13 of their last 14 visits.
And that run was between season 13/14 and 22/23, a period over which we were generally labelled crap ‘bottlers’.
If only a few of the teams that aren’t bottlers (everyone else by all accounts) could boast such a record!!
Then we have: “Alan Shearer has backed Arsenal to end their long wait for silverware by beating Manchester City”
Well it’s 5 years actually, which in the great scheme of things isn’t that unusual. In fact only recently Man Utd went 5 years between 17/18 and 21/22 before breaking that run with an EFL Cup.
Liverpool went 6 seasons without a trophy between 12/13 17/18
Most teams, even extraordinarily successful teams such as Man Utd Liverpool and Arsenal have ‘lulls’. But of course when it’s Arsenal it’s an unacceptable disgrace. Same old same old.
Of course Man City have been avoiding these ‘Lulls’ in recent seasons simply because they’ve basically had 2 first teams for the last 15 years or so. Possibly illegally?
As to the question who needs it most. I haven’t got a clue.
Cheer up! If the fates were really cruel to us they’d have made us Spurs supporters…
Better team first 20 minutes. Equal until half time.
Totally out played first 25 of second half. Better last 20 minutes, but was that on the back of Manc sitting back?
Alas, our 2 big guys up top were just not up to it today. Never an outlet to relieve pressure when under pressure. Passing not great either, by anyone.
Overall poor performance and the better team won.
Even so we still had to deal with a poor referee who let Bernado kick Saka off the park in the first half. Had nothing to do with the result but still poor from the ref.
We must remember the odious Silva is immune from cautioning. I agree with Nitram – Martin in reverse? he clatters into the back of opponents which seems to be acceptable.
Pity Peter Storey, Alex Forbes and Archie Macaulay aren’t about! He’d only do it once.
I also agree with Nitram.
A few additional reflections:-
Ref quick to book Hincapie, but not MC players fouls on Saka, or O’Reilly for off-ball aggression on Trossard.
Narrow margins decisive, eg MC keeper triple-save early on v Calafiori and Jesus hitting post and bar.
Haaland completely dominated by Saliba.
Arsenal lost control and shape in early 2nd half.
Missed Odegaard, Eze. Merino and Eze?
Agree with selection of keeper, but Kepa’s one error was crucial.
Dissapointed, but no need for pessimism re future games.(provided no injuries on international “duty”.
We were poor but the Oilers still only managed two shots on target against us. BBC assessment, “desolate Arsenal”. “What is beyond doubt is the better – much better – team prevailed on this day.”!!
Seriously! I mean fucking seriously!
We were well below par but bossed the first half. The Oilers mustered just two shots on target in the whole game! Yes they deserved to win but, “much better team”. FFS!
I’m too old, I shouldn’t be surprised by this sort of media garbage…..but seriously. As I said they deserved to win but “much better team”…..I want a couple of kilos of whatever these dumbfucks are smoking!
I was hoping for a better show from our players , but I think that the team selection was wrong . That the goals came due to the absence of our right sided defender is telling.
We were very poor in the second half. The League Cup has never been our favourite trophy .
We just have to move on and try to win our other games.
To me, the referee paved the way by booking Hincapie early. From that moment on the right side of the Citeh attack had free way…
On the other right side, the Arsenal one, Saka was being mugged every time he had the ball. And he was not the only one.
That being said, we were way below our normal level. Was it because of that level of aggression that came from City ? And missing both Eze and Odegaard was a real issue.