Mickey Mouse Cup. Spurs are shit.
It’s that time of year again — the glorified reserves tournament (for Arsenal, anyway) known as the Carling Cup. I wrote about my feelings on the way the club approaches this competition last year, and since nothing has changed and I’m on nurse duty for MLSGF, who had her wisdom teeth removed this morning, I’ll just direct you to what I wrote last year:
Well, the Carling Cup is here. I think the Carling Cup is always a little weird for Arsenal fans. I know I don’t really view it as nearly as important as the other 3 competitions, and it’s hard for me to get too worked up one way or the other about it. When Burnley knocked us out of the competition last season, I remember my reaction was largely one of indifference.
It also brings up a lot of questions about the integrity of the competition, fixture congestion, and the best way to develop young players. We will, inevitably, be criticized for not fielding anything resembling our first team. To put it simply, I think we have no designs on actually winning the competition–instead, our goal is simply to get a look at some of our younger players in competitive action, and to get those players some experience in a knockout competition. Critics will say we are wrong to do this, and that it devalues the competition to have the best teams not trying to win, and the best players sitting out the competition entirely.
We will counter by saying that fixture congestion makes it impossible to play the first team players in every single competitive match. Especially with the World Cup shortening the season a bit, the fact is that, barring an early knockout in either the FA Cup or Champions League, our players are pretty much going to be playing every weekend and a midweek game virtually every week until May. Asking players to play every one of those games is borderline inhumane, but will also result in injuries and fatigue to the point where those players wouldn’t be nearly as ineffective at the end of the season as they were at the beginning.
To combat this, the big clubs have basically two options–they can either (1) play some version of their first team in all competitions, but “rotate” players through so everyone gets the occasional match off; (2) give all the players the same match “off” by dropping them from the sqaud in one competition. Arsenal, obviously, have chosen option (2).
And finally, option 2 is not just a measure to rest the first team–it’s also a great chance for the younger players to get some senior team action. It’s an important development tool for the club, and it’s great for the young players because they can show what they can do against senior opponents. Many of Arsenal’s key players (Clichy, Fabregas, Bendtner, Song, and Denilson) who came through the youth program first shot to prominence in the Carling Cup. Last season, Vela and Gibbs played well enough to cement a place as important members of the senior squad, and Jay Simpson played well enough to be an attractive loan target for West Brom and later QPR.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it’s the most “winnable” trophy of any of the 4 competitions in which we play, so I’d like us to put a little bit more into trying to win it. On the other hand, I do think that would entail incurring injuries or resting players in the games in close proximity, which would weaken us in other competitions. And our youngsters wouldn’t have nearly enough of a chance to prove themselves.
But it is what it is–Arsenal is not trying to win this competition, so it’s hard for fans to be too upset if the club does, in fact, lose. It can still make for good watching, though, if for no other reason than because it gives you a rare chance to see our brightest prospects testing themselves in game action at a high level.
It’s even more frustrating this season because we drew Tottenham. It’s a very tough first-round draw — Tottenham finished 4th in the league last season, and have done pretty well in this competition recently, winning in 2008 and making the final the following year. They take the competition seriously, fielding something close to their first-team. Their first team which beat our first team at WHL last spring. It will be interesting to see if they stick to this strategy this season — this is their first season in the Champions League, and they’ve already shown signs of struggling to deal with the fixture congestion. It’s a good bet that they’ll play more of our second-stringers than usual, which may give us a chance.
I have to say, I’m somewhat surprised by how much I want to at least force a replay in win this one: (1) because it’s the North London derby, and I hate to lose it no matter what; (2) because I don’t want to give those asshats another excuse to release a six-disc Redknapp-approved gold edition commemorative edition collector’s DVD of a 2-1 win in the Carling Cup; and (3) I think this is the most exciting group of Carling Cup players we’ve had in a while, and it would be a shame if we didn’t get to see them show what they can do because of a tough first-round draw.
I suspect we’ll only see a few first-team guys tomorrow. Reports are that Wojo will be our Carling Cup keeper this season, so we’ll hopefully get a chance to see him. I suspect Djourou will get a run out, as will Gibbs. Vela will almost certainly start. Our guys who were introduced with the first-team on members’ day but who haven’t officially been confirmed as first-team players — JET, Eastmond, Lansbury, Nordtveit — will likely play, too.
Szczesny
Cruise-Nordtveit-Djourou-Gibbs
Randall-Eastmond-Lansbury
JET-Afobe-Vela
Bench: Mannone, Aneke, Evina, Yennaris, Sunu, Murphy, Henderson
I would have put Denilson in there had Song not gotten a suspension for Saturday’s match. Denilson could still be involved, as he still hasn’t started a match all season. Eboue’s been mainly used as a substitute for league matches thus far, so maybe he could get a start, too. But I think the bulk of the squad will be guys who have been regulars for the reserves this season. For those interested in such things, also keep an eye out for the numbers on players’ backs. Guys like Eastmond, JET, Nordtveit, and Lansbury could be sporting new, lower numbers.
It’s a tall order for a bunch of guys under 20 to go into White Hart Lane and come out with a win. But they’re a talented bunch, and funny things have a tendency to happen in derby matches. They’ve got nothing to lose, and there are few ways they could make such a positive impression on Gooners at such a young age than embarrassing Spurs in front of their own fans. Here’s hoping they can do it.
Come on Arsenal.
Source:arsenal.theoffside.com
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