- Ipswich v Arsenal League Cup; 8pm 15 September, and where the money comes from
- Ipswich v Arsenal: with the referee it is going to be very tough for Arsenal
By Tony Attwood
Ipswich Town joined the Third Division South in 1938 and almost immediately the UK went to war with Germany. I am not sure if there was a connection.Post war they started a period of jiggling between the Third Division and the Second, and then eventually the Second Division and the First. They won the First Division in 1962, and the Second Division (Championship) in 1961, 1968 and 1992. They got a couple of third divsiion south titles in the 1950s too, as well as being runners up in the Third Division in 2023. So adding in being Champions of the Souther n League in the 1930s, and winning the FA Cup in 1978, not to mention the Uefa Cup in 1981 they have got around a bit in terms of having silverware to show off.
Last season they came second to Coventry in the Championship and so the yo-yo effect continued…
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coventry City | 46 | 28 | 11 | 7 | 97 | 45 | +52 | 95 |
| 2 | Ipswich Town | 46 | 23 | 15 | 8 | 80 | 47 | +33 | 84 |
In fact it has been a few years of bouncing around from place to place for the club, and in case my earlier account is not clear, this involves getting promotion from League 1 in 2023, being promoted from the Championship in 2024, being relegated from the Premier League in 2025, and being promoted again in 2026. What busy bees they have been with all this popping up and down!
One of the interesting things is that in the 2023/4 season in which they were promoted from the Championship they scored 92 goals. Then in the Premier League, they scored just 36, but last season coming back up again they scored 80. They are in short a perfect example of the growing gap between the quality and performance of clubs in the Premier League and those in the Championship.
But rather amusingly their local derby (that being the game against the nearest rivals) is against the mighty Tottenham Hots (71 miles away) who I may have mentioned in the past are 17th. I shall watch for that one with much interest.
But back to the goings up and gongs down, they have now had four consecutive seasons of being promoted or being relegated. I hope they have taught Tottenham a thing or two.
But seriously, part of their problem must be the size of the ground and thus the limit on the amount of money that can be taken for each game. For their seating capacity is 30,056, which is of course under half of that at Arsenal’s ground. Mind you, the size of ground isn’t everything – since Tottenham’s ground is quite a bit larger than Arsenal’s and they have come 17th in the league for the last two seasons, and are currently sitting 17th again (or at least were last time I looked). I may however have mentioned that before.
And so to the team….
The Standard says it all loud and clear: Mikel Arteta will tonight rotate his Arsenal‘s line-up .
Kepa;
Timber, Konsa, Hincapie, Lewis-Skelly;
Zubimendi, Guimaraes;
Madueke, Merino, Eze;
Gyokeres
Now Yahoo Sprouts, sorry Sports, has the headline “Arsenal starting XI vs. Ipswich Town: Who will start in Carabao Cup match?” which is a bit silly since that is the question I am asking them so there is no need for them to ask themselves. But still they tell us that “being in so many competitions can be a blessing and a curse.” So the Curse of the Tractor Boys is here for all to see. Or is that the curse of being Arsenal?. Could make a good film as the corn rises up and strangles…. but no, back to the football.
And they spell out the issues: “Ben White has a groin issue and centre backs Cristhian Mosquera and William Saliba continue to work through knocks…” But in the end there is only one change
Kepa Arrizabalaga
Timber, Konsa, Hincapie, Calafiori
Zubimendi, Guimarães
Madueke, Merino, Eze
Gyökeres
which as it turns out is only one different from the first list we saw.
Tal;ksport run the story that “Ipswich boss Gary O’Neil has said ‘we’ll give it a right go'” and really sometime one wonders a bit about the standard of both speech and journalism in the United Kingdom. But they do at least come up with a slight variation on the last listing
Kepa (GK);
Timber, Konsa, Gabriel, Hincapie;
Zubimendi, Guimaraes;
Madueke, Merino, Eze;
Gyokeres
So there we are. The Tractor Boys against the Gunners. That sounds a bit unbalanced, but you never know.
Great report Tony.
As you have previously mentioned before, Ipswich have heavily invested almost £190m in bringing in 14 new players, which is a huge gamble for them and their rich owners.
They like to play attacking football which is good to watch, but they are vulnerable in defence, which will suit Gyokeres as he tends to score more against vulnerable defences.
I think the last listing is the most likely.
There is of course some youngsters not mentioned that may play a part after I noticed that Ben White and Mosquera were missing yesterday’s training and I saw some promoted Academy players training.
We have some youngsters that may play a part depending on the scoreline in Max Dowman, and promoted Academy defensive players Dixon and Marli Salmon. Those 3 exceptional youngsters having more of a chance in playing than the fresh inexperienced but quality Harriman-Annous, James scalon and Demiane Agustien, seeing as we are facing a tough premier side so early in the competition.
Prediction: Ipswich full of energy with lots of goals in this open but aggressive energetic game.
Arsenal win Either 0-4 or 1-4. End to end exciting game, with Gyokeres out to prove a point to his manager. We will miss Oderguard keeping up the energy and technical directing, but I am still expecting a good game as long as we remain compact, show high energy and make no silly mistakes. I ipswich will become another Arsenal scalp.
Gooners forever
I’ll go with either score DaveG
But before we get too excited I would say the referee details really do have me a bit worried. Tony
Tony,
I was right about the prediction but I was right about Salmon and Dowman at least. I thought 3 of the academy players I mentioned would have a great chance of playing, but two out of the three is a good guess and makes the game more interesting and balanced.
I think we will be alright with Peter Bankes track record with us.
As far as I am aware, he has never issued us a red card or awarded a penalty against us, and we have won most games under his refereeing.
On the flip side, Ipswich has only won one game out of the nine games Bankes has refereed with them.
If we were playing Liverpool or Everton I would be worried as Peter Bankes is a Scouser.
As we know there is no VAR to worry about as that only comes into play from the semi final stage.
Unless Bankes has been tapped up by the referees union, as they seem to have it in for Arsenal and Arteta, especially in recent games. You would almost think they were on ManC115 corrupt payroll considering they have been the beneficiaries of their officiating recent wrong decisions, but that’s just unproven opinions and conspiracy theories of course they would try to have us believing! As we know, they are all honest!
Let’s hope the Referee is straight and unbiased and we are not talking about him after the game.
Gooners forever.
As predicted an easy game for Arsenal with plenty of goals.
Max Dowman and Salman had a great game. Not so well for Gyokeres, Eze and Skelly, but they did ok.
Another great game for Arsenal with end to end play as predicted from Ipswich being attacking and opening up at the back, as they do, which suited Arsenal.
If I had any negatives would be Arsenal should have controlled the final 5 minutes by seeing the game out and leaving at least two or three defenders at the back, but they only left one defender and lost their compactness the last 5 minutes, with Arteta shouting at them to regroup back to goal and then paid the price, by conceding a second.
Arsenal did well with the score 1-4 up to the 91 min with 1 minute left, then they got over confident, lost their compactness, made a silly mistake and left one on one at the back allowing Ipswich to score their 2nd on 91minutes game finished 2-4.
That was the only real blip the last 5 minutes, probably due to the inexperienced young player changes towards the end, otherwise a great masterpiece Arsenal performance, with Arsenal pretty much dominating for apx 85minutes, as we knew it would play out.
Another great performance. Another Arsenal scalp. Plus with spurs loosing again, another great night of football.
Gooners forever.
I agree, Dave.
However, nice at least that Chuba Akpom made his mark – more evidence of the outstanding Arsenal academy.
Was last nught a Full moon or something, because something really perculiar happened.
Not only did Arsenal concede 2 goals in competitive match for the first time since last April, but even weirder, the Tiny Totts scored a goal. SPOOKY
But then, perhaps I shouldn’t be so sensitive.
Peter Bankes failed to show up. Sam Barrott was the referee, although Sky Sports only seemed to spot this in the 84th minute. Myles was pulled back by Chuba Akpom in the build-up to Ipswich’s second goal. Myles was not happy with the officials.