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Arsenal confirmed team to face Leeds Utd – Nketiah and Martinelli lead the line

We are all waiting with bated breath to see who Mikel Arteta picks for this evenings game against Leeds Utd.

It is imperative that Arsenal keep up our unbeaten run, but it is also neccessary that our fringe players get some game time to keep them on their toes and believing that they will get promoted very soon, and some of our first XI may need a rest.

It’s a difficult decision of course, but on top of that, Arteta knows that the domestic Cups are our best route to any trophy this year and must make sure the team is strong enough to get through to the next round, the Quarter-Finals.

So, this is the Predicted Arsenal XI that Patrick chose this morning, which should be strong enough considering the injuries that Leeds Utd are dealing with:

Leno
Cedric Holding Mari Tavares
Maitland-Niles Lokonga
Pepe Odegaard Martinelli
Nketiah

So now we only have to compare that with the team that Arteta chose, which is right here….

Other than Ben White and Smith-Rowe, the rest are all reserves!

Nothing to worry about I hope….

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      2. It’s all about resting players but not sure about Nketiah, strong team for League cup, should win. Is Odergaard injured?

        1. Eddie Nketiah has scored six goals in seven appearances in the League Cup – two in two for Leeds and four in five for Arsenal

        2. I would have put Lacca ahead of Nketiah. I dont see Nketiah having any future at Arsenal and what about seeing what Balogun can do.

    2. I also prefer Balogun to get another chance as a CF, but maybe Arsenal are still trying to convince Nketiah to stay?

      Smith-Rowe should’ve been rested, since we’ll need his energy in Leicester and we’ve got Hutchinson, Salah-Eddine or Flores to play CAM

    3. Eddie Nketiah has scored six goals in seven appearances in the League Cup – two in two for Leeds and four in five for Arsenal

    1. Because with Tierney injured Tavares is needed for the Leicester game and can’t be risked to pick up a knock tonight. I’m sure we could have found someone better than Kolasinac though.

  4. Why are we resting players in any competition when we have no European football and we aren’t going to win the league? I’m all for giving fringe players a game but this is too many changes at once!

    2. Because players are humans too. They can break down if over used. Also we have a crucial match against Leicester. This is good enough to win this tie.

  5. I don’t understand why Arteta continues to use Nketiah who is not signing a new contract. He had a lot of chances and couldn’t take them.

    He had an opportunity to leave for CP but decided not to leave so why is Arteta still giving him chances in place of Flo. Don’t understand

  6. Leeds have a decent side out with Greenwood on the bench.
    Eddie loves a goal in the cup…. COYG and no injuries please!

  7. I hoped to see patino but this guy arteta is unpredictable ☹️ IL get to see Salah-eddine though👌

  8. I get that Aubameyang, Tomiyasu and Gabriel are probably being rested all together out of the squad but where’s Odegaard and Mari? Are they injured from sitting on the bench???

    Odegaard should be in for ESR and Mari is the LCB that should replace Gabriel.

    Also if Ben White and ESR can both start this game after the Villa game, why not Tavares as well who is the future and needs to take this opportunity of Tierney’s injury to get game time?

    Oh Arteta … hope we win though

  9. I think we should have rest Smith but the coach knows better so I’ll wait till after the match before saying anything. COYG

  10. Mostly predictable line up. Tierney injury concern means Kolo plays. No Odegaard…must have a slight injury. Cedric Nketiah Niles Kolo Elneny may not all be going on loan/sold in Jan as has been widely predicted with FA Cup and injury cover needed. But they are in the window so with Saudia Arabia Newcastle watching may be those 5 will be heading north after we thrash Leeds 9-0 🙂

  11. If only opinionated fans could pick the team…without any information or access to the teams players, medical info, opposing team, tactics and strategy, player attitude, illness, or even whether or not a player has hemmoroids, then we could win more games. Arteta choices suck no matter who or why he picks them, right?

  13. Let us hope our reserves are inspired tonight. Will be interesting to see how good AMN is in midfield. I am not convinced that he is sharp enough for midfield but it would be good to be proved wrong.

  14. ESR shouldn’t be starting this game full-stop…he’s simply to valuable League-wise to risk for a Cup affair

  18. Not much to say really … nketiah showed some nice touches white and holding composed enough .. but Pepe elneny kolasinac naitland miles should be sold fairly soon

  20. A bit disorganized because they rarely start the game together. But some of them looked sharp, apart from Pepe, the weakest link in the game

    If Nketiah keeps playing like that in the second half, Balogun can only replace Martinelli on the left wing

  21. this game has a really weird feel…so open yet not a lot of real chances given…some really loose passing, some unusual open spaces to run into, very little structure, as everyone is seemingly allowed to roam anywhere(it’s been a long time since I saw both our CBs go on deep runs in the final third) and no end product for either side, minus the one shot that produced a good save by Leno…I still don’t quite get why Elneny is allowed to oft-times take up positions so deep in and around the box considering we’re playing a team who will counter at any given opportunity…not sure exactly what to expect come the second half and I dare anyone to suggest otherwise

  22. White, AMN and Leno looking good..
    And I’m sorry but only Pepe can dribble past someone and then stumble on the ball!!

  24. it’s so amusing to see Arteta supporters come on here to slag Marts for seemingly no reason whatsoever…most of the play has been run up the right side towards Pepe, when it does come to the right no one comes to, no one makes an overlapping run, likely because Arteta fears the possibility of Kols coming to far forward, which is problematic as that’s the only thing he brings to the equation, and no one creates space for him so that he can cut inside on his more dominant right foot…as such, I’m not exactly sure what you expect him to do when he only sees the ball in isolation in such deep positions…some even made fun of him when he got an arm to the face, yet never once have I heard those same individuals make similar remarks when Laca is flopping all over the place

    1. Agree mate
      How any fan can come to any conclusion about players being in this squad compared to being in the first team is pathetic IMO .
      This team is made up of second string players and no matter how they perform will probably not get a look in as first team starters .

  25. Martinelli will get himself a reputation

    I’ll agree with GAI – for now- that this 11 are not used to playing together regularly.

    It’s also a case of the two teams being sloppy a lot of the time. Both as bad as each other

    Now White is injured 😡

  29. It’s a combination of tired players and players that aren’t match fit at all that barely even get 5 mins a month.

    Not surprised we look so disjointed. Strange game, glad we finally in front.

    2. he appears a bit more at ease now that there’s some tactical flexibility when it comes to playing our from the back

    3. He’s a shot stopper and a really good one! I feel for him that he was forced to play in a way that really doesn’t match any of his strengths.

      Hope he succeeds wherever he ends up going.

      2. No doubt PJ…he was really up against it, considering that he had a largely unsettled backline that year and a couple of players who were known for giving up the ball cheaply in their own end…not to mention he cut such a contrasting figure to Emi, from a commanding presence sense

    1. That was terrible and brilliant at the same time….I was convinced it was missing. Lucky his mishit got some spin.

  32. A defensive mistake and a fortunate finish after good work by EN in the first place.. but I’m not complaining

  34. Good to win but two pretty unimpressive line ups, and Leeds were particularly really poor…..they may well be in trouble this season.

  36. Eddie will always be better than your Balogun. Give Nketiah a break! He’s not good but he always prove himself. Call it a lucky goal but he did a masterstroke.

    Cheers Eddie!!!!

  37. Important win, in that we managed to get the result without putting at risk many of our first-teamers…wouldn’t have started White or ESR, to be on the safe side, so hopefully both are good to go come the weekend

    would have liked to see us roll out the same formation from the Villa game, with Marts tucking in behind Eddie, especially considering the potential for this to be a rather disorganized affair with the amount of changes on both sides, but based on what we witnessed it might not have looked much different anyways

    on a side note, the Eddie “goal” typifies why we should have moved on form him some time ago, in that if it weren’t for the most fortuitous of spins, this would have been blooper fodder for years to come

  38. With his goal for Arsenal, the second in the game by us Nkethia has once again proved tonight in the Carabao Cup match competition so far this season that he’s one kind of a Gunner who Arteta can rely on him for goals scoring for Arsenal when the team needs to score an insurance goal that will kill off the opposition team’s resistant resisting Arsenal in a Cup game like the one us have witnessed at the Ems played tonight.

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