Is the loss to the Hammers a blessing in disguise?
Good morning my fellow Gooners, is everyone over the loss last night? I know I am as frustrating and disappointing it was there is no point dwelling over it.
So we are out of the Carabao Cup, is it a big deal? Not really, in my opinion!
I don’t know about any other Arsenal fan but after our 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United on Saturday, I knew that the loss to West Ham was going to come.
Call it negativity, call it pessimism, call it what you will, but I genuinely knew that we were not going to win the game.
Why you may ask?
Well I don’t actually have an answer to that, but as soon as the game ended on Saturday I said Eddie Nketiah won’t be scoring in the next game, and we won’t be scoring more than one goal in the game if we do manage to score.
And any time we are due to play West Ham I don’t look forward to it, they are somewhat a bogey team for us and our performances against them over recent seasons have been inconsistent, so we never know what the result will be it just depends on the day.
A chance to win a trophy can never be just swept under the carpet and not taken seriously because the competition isn’t your Champions League or FA Cup or even the Premier League, but a trophy is a trophy and we had a good chance to win it. But we faltered and I guess everything happens for a reason because had we gone through we would be facing Liverpool at Anfield and you don’t need me to tell you about our form there. So I’d rather come out now then the next round.
At the end of the day losing is never nice we all know that, but it really isn’t the end of the world Gooners, let’s get the loss out of the way now and then bounce back against Newcastle on Saturday.
If we had to lose one game this week I know which one I would rather lose!
Onwards and upwards we go as there’s plenty more to look forward to, here’s hoping hey Gooners!!
Shenel Osman
@sh3n3l_
it was a terrible performance by all, and wake up call after the stroll against Sheff Utd
am I happier it was in the League Cup than against Newcastle on Saturday = yes, if you call that a blessing in disguise
taking 4 games out of our calendar at a busy time of year will be helpful for sure
but perhaps the biggest blessing if you like was no more injuries – my head was in my hands when Arteta sent on Saka, Martinelli and Odegaard when 3 nil down chasing a lost cause – reminded me of Saliba’s season ending (and our title charge ending) injury against Sporting in the Europa League last season
you can’t win every game, and on balance I’m OK with it being last night
I dont agree at all with Shenels blessing in disguise theory! By logical extension of HER thinking, you couild exit ALL competitons early and play a youth team strength in the Prem andtherefore exit them all, plus be relegated in the Prem, but what good does THAT do our club!!
Wrong thinking Shenel!
Winning breeds more winning and increased team confidence. Losing so dismally breeds lack of confidence. REALITY!
Jon, you say “By logical extension of HER thinking, you couild exit ALL competitons early and play a youth team strength in the Prem”
How in a million years is that logical extension????
He didnt mean the logic exist in this Universe Pat…
I’m not at all fussed about this result, but more our performance, which made it appear that the side we put out had never met each other. Did they train together for this game? They all play well enough when called upon in the PL, so why when given the chance to make claims for regular first choice calls from Arteta did they look so very third rate?
Good question Jax💯
Agree. The performance was the worrying part.
Loosing a cup game away to West Ham is not a disater, but the way it happened was embarrasing.
Would’ve beaten them conviniently if the gaffer had set the boys up to go for it but reverse seems the case for reasons best known to him. No need to go into meltdown though cos we’ll get back up like we never fell on saturday. The boss’ philosophy in full flow, i’d enjoy the ride if i were you. COYG!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 fascinating
Spurs and City seem very happy.
Losing can never a blessing, whether in disguise or otherwise! Indeed my fear is that this loss will turn out a big curse for our season. Reasons?
– It couldl burn a big confidence hole in the dressing room
– It could be a template to other teams on how to go about playing Arsenal and beat them..
It’s bad news all around.
Yes, because now the players have fewer games to focus on and we can minimize injuries/ fatigue
I suspect Arsenal’s and Man City’s training intensities for the Carabao Cup were much lower than the ones for the EPL and UCL games
I believe Guardiola and Arteta just used the Carabao Cup games as experiments/ exercises
Gai, I kind of agree with you. Westharm didn’t have a single shot on goal at first half and then in the second they scored two goals. That match had unseriousness of the players written on it. Arteta even acknowledged he tried in training to convince his players to take the match serious that speaks volume of their attitude towards the game. I am sure Newcastle game would be different. We saw what they can do by Odegard’s goal.
Yup, I’ve never seen White making an error like the silly own goal
The players should travel to Newcastle soon, so I guess they tried to avoid injuries in the Carabao Cup game
So why Not play at least 5-6 academy players in these matches. They will get much needed experiences and we get to know their level.
Wenger used to play Academy players for such matches. That way players were becoming ready to play at next level.
Arteta is achieving nothing. He is clueless.
Every single Cup game we play is a big deal. Preseason games that aren’t supposed to be a ‘big deal’ still leave us with short term depression every time we lose. When we see our coach bury his head in the sand, and persists with Havertz and Jorginho in a cup game, we literally go psychotic. Arteta must know that just like him, fans have a huge stake in the team. He can’t flagrantly throw away R65mil into the sewer by completely ignoring obvious, glaring failures of certain players and flout established football standards. He possesses no magic powers, but has shown potential to be a great coach. No one expects him to attempt any superhuman feats at Arsenal by turning mediocre players into world class performers. Jorghino is past his peak, Havertz just isn’t good enough as proven by his time at Chelsea. He’s not a developing player anymore. Smith-Rowe could’ve given us so much more yesterday, but Havertz had to play because our delusional coach thinks he’s a great player. Can he just get real?
Emile is injured again. Why does no one ever believe this?
So is Partey, right? Watch if both will still be with us by end of January. I think they’re both being eased out of the door, but guess who’s not going anywhere; our two ex-Chelsea players whose only justification to be at Arsenal only resides in Arteta’s mind. Never to be understood by anyone else. There’s a cynical infatuation with Chelsea in our beloved Arsenal corridors.
Perhaps he means even with his knee injury he “could’ve given us so much more”
Mohlanko it’s you who needs to get real. With the injuries we have in midfield,who were you expecting to play? Rice needed a rest, then you are only left with Elneny who is just from injury and possibly not match fit. Did you want Arteta to play an injured Smith Rowe? You’re being delusional with baseless conspiracy theories.
Easiest chance for a trophy and a great tournament to blood our many talented youngsters which weren’t played.
Word it however you want, exiting is a huge disappointment and wasted opportunity for experience.
It wasn’t a blessing in disguise.
We’ll probably bow out of the FA Cup early and people will say that’s a blessing too.
We are Arsenal we can’t pick and choose what trophies we go for.
Any trophy is good for us.
The only blessing here is that this match has exposed the glaring disparity in quality across our squad.With the carabao exit I can’t wait for the Jan transfer to see what our management will do.We are carrying excess baggage for no reason.
1.Thomas partey has to be replaced by an equally quality player as we gradually see him off,he is quality and a great pillar but his injuries mean we are always a player short.He should be gone by next season.
2.ESR,Vieira &Nketiah should go on loan.They need minutes at a lower level to allow them rediscover their form.
3.Jorginho,Cedric,Havertz are taking up places in the team meant for young Versatile and promising players. This three should be moved on like yesterday.
4.Elneny is a puzzle it’s unbelievable he was given a new contract.Does Arsenal pay him to play for Egypt?I rate him above Kai,Vieira&Jorginho & now that he is not sellable let him earn his money by playing in the mid 3 of Rice,him&Odegaard as he heads to retirement.
5.A C.F is a must buy in January. G.J should be used as cover across the forward line.
6.Zinchenko should be permanently moved to the C.A.M position and never be used as L.B we have enough cover in Timber,Kiwior and Tommy for that position
7.If we win nothing this season then we have no business retaining Arteta as our manager.
Some really valid points Cliff. Well said, however I fear Arteta and Edu may have blown their budget for now so I wouldn’t expect too much in January from what has historically been a sterile transfer window for us. At worst it could add to our accumulation of deadwood.
Dejavu. This was uttered a year ago every time we got out of a cup run. Blessing in disguise is pretty much irrelevant to me. It’s no different to having UCL, EPL & FA Cup in the last 5 months of the season. Even West Ham is pushing for it despite having European games being played at a later date compared to UCL.
Regardless of youth or first team or reserves, if we truly desire the cup, we could have played like we want to win it.
Garbage, no blessing in disguise. The players do not dictate which games we win and which we don’t.
They take their salary every week, so we need to win every game.
Man City made a clean sweep of the trophies and that is the way for Arsenal or else we will become 2nd hand losers.
I don’t feel this is a blessing in disguise. It’s a trophy, and regardless of how much value is given to it, it’s silverware. Not to mention that this is seemingly the competition that will give fringe and bench players game time, I wish they took the opportunity.
Maybe it was lack of playing time and playing against West Ham side with more chemistry, but there was no cohesion in this group. Zinny gave away so many balls in the final third and Trossard was sending crosses to no one. You could tell they weren’t used to each other’s movements. Harvertz looked lively for maybe 10 minutes and then reverted back to playing hot potato when he was given the ball.
Hopefully Arteta will find game time for these players to get and stay sharp because they looked terrible yesterday.
Plus Arteta himself shares in the blame with his team selection.
Terrible, not a performance we should expect from an Arsenal team on any day.
Arteta is no fool. He knows the game of deception. He rightfully played understrength team with underwhelm instructions. He can’t say it openly but I can. Carabao Cup is a waste of time. Despite the result, I’m impressed on how the secondary team control the proceedings at Upton Park. I’m happy to see backup players get game time to boost their momentum. Maybe Arteta owned Moyes something.
So why did he bring on Martinelli, Odegaard and Rice in the last quarter of the game?
If this cup is a waste of time, why risk getting these players injured?
Exactly so KEN. Another silly conspiracy theory busted by simple logical thinking. MA plainly did NOT want to throw away the game and wanted to win the CARABAO, as most fans agree.
But his own foolish starting selection and even more foolhardy decision to needlessly risk injuring his benched stars by bringing them on, but ONLY WHEN the game was already lost, was crazy!
👍👍ken and Jon.
So why not play academy players. at least those guys could have got experience.
Arteta should be sacked
If every comment you write is just to finish with…Arteta should be sacked…. then stop.
Either give us solid reasons why he should be sacked and who should replace him. Otherwise stop trolling….
What a joke tbh, a blessing in disguise, pffft.
Is this the same blessing that saw us leave multiple competitions last season and still fail to win the PL or is this a another blessing?
I am not at all concerned at us being out of the Carabao Cup. Imo one less tournament to worry about considering we do not have the strength in depth to compete in all competitions. The two main comps are the EPL and the UCL and the FA Cup could be used to ‘blood’ some of the younger or bench squad. My opinion? Concentrate on winning the EPL then everything else falls into place, guaranteed UCL and as Premier League champions we can attract the best talents. Hark back to the late 90’s and the great footballers who joined us!!! Mind you even with those great players we were relatively rubbish in Europe which just adds to my argument. I just want us to be EPL champions again.
It was a poor performance, especially second half but in the great scheme of things, it is not the greatest cup comp and we have bigger fish to fry. Get over it, its the Caribou cup.
I suspect the players to take the cup loss lightly .. we were heading into the game with multiple absentees and
fatigues, I was glad to see Kiwior do well, he is good on the ball, and will be useful later in the season !!
I have no problem with Arteta rotating, but I think he underestimated the trouble caused by classy players like Kudos and Paqueta in that Tomi should have started at LB to control the threat of the Ghanaian in particular.I think the tactic of using Zinchenko as an inverted LB has outlived its usefulness and it’s time he was used as the left sided central midfielder with Rice as DM and Odegaard as AM.In essence, Zinchenko should be used in the position he undertakes successfully for his Country.In the absence of Partey I feel Arteta needs to reappraise his midfield set up and strengthen the team by selecting our best back four.
UNTIL Timber returns and will probably be used as the inverted defender playing in midfield- but the difference being that HE,unlike Zinny, CAN defend – then I agree with your post, Grandad!
Arteta should be sacked. With him Arsenal will not succeed. We go 1 step ahead and 2 behind.
A manager that got you into UCL should be sacked because we are out of carabao cup? , your reasoning needs to be checked if you can’t provide a tangible reason for him to be sacked. Mind you, we still top our UCL group after 3games, and still second in EPL after 10 games…. stop these negativity towards our manager. This is his fifth year as a manager, and he is competing with managers with several years of experience in Europe. Please let’s give him respect for that. If it’s hard for anyone to see improvement in Arsenal’s recent squad compared to years back, then the individual needs to be checked. Even our rivals are jealous of our assembled squad.
Wether you believe it or not, MA is taking our beloved club to a higher level.
Another trophy that arrogant Arsenal has thrown in the bin due to an anaemic display by a supposedly strong squad. This is made even worse by Arsenal claiming to have strength and depth due to funds spent on the squad. Postecoglou a new manager with a thin squad was slated for losing to Fulham having made 9 changes to look at players. Yet many Arsenal fans just laugh it off Arsenal being out of the Carabao Cup. Arsenal should have been able to perform against West Ham with the players selected. Look at the final 8 for an opportunity lost.
Crazy OG, just crazy. Wenger got slated for not respecting this competition, but at least he tried to use our young players.