Former Arsenal player Ray Parlour is of the opinion that Arsenal should take the Carabao Cup seriously and field a strong team against Nottingham Forest tomorrow evening.
Parlour was speaking about last seasons run to the quarter-finals as well as what Arsenal should do this season.
“I think he mixed the team with experience and youngsters,” Parlour said about last season
“There is no problem with that, it is good to give the youngsters game time and they have some very good youngsters at Arsenal – Reiss Nelson, (Ainsley) Maitland-Niles, Joe Willock and Emile Smith Rowe. It is great to see players like that come into the team.
“But you can also see how important the competition is to teams like Manchester City and it is another trophy to talk about at the end of the season.
“It is a magnificent achievement to win any competition and for Arsenal and Unai Emery, and the rest of the top six, they should be – and probably will be – taking it seriously.
“There are a lot of games and you get injuries through the season so it is a bit about balancing the squad.”
Normally I would agree with that assessment but these are not normal times, the club simply cannot be messing about in meaningless competitions, not when domestic cup trophies take second place to the Champions League.
The consequences of not finishing in the top-four are too great to be wasting energy and risking players in competitions that have a very temporary feel-good factor.
It is fine for Man City to want to win the Carabao Cup, they are more or less guaranteed a top-four spot and have such squad depth that their B team could probably reach the final, Arsenal simply does not have that luxury.
Winning a trophy at Wembley is great but it in no way makes up for failing to qualify for the Champions League and therefore I feel the club should focus first and foremost on the League with the Europa League a close second. After that, if the club puts a good run together in either of the domestic cups using youngsters and fringe players only then fine.
But no way should they be risking any big-name players unless they are using the games to get up to match fitness.
Youngsters should be given a run in these two domestic cups, so that they can bedded in gradually. Freddie has worked with them all, so it should be viewed as a serious project, keeping future in mind.
exactly….
why should we risk our first team?
And what has our first team won us except embarresment? By the way, Unai is not serious about the EPL or was serious about the Europa final. Bet this chap will be over and out by Notts.
Carabao cup is pretty much worthless, even FA cup can’t save a manager’s job. Don’t risk important players on this competition
It’s not as huge as PL, FA cup, CL or Europa League
Yes. I want to win it BUT we need to rest our starters and play some youth players. Mixture of youth and experience
……..Martinez/Macey
Niles…Mustafi..Mavrapanos..Bola
………Xhaka…Wilock/Guendouzi
Reiss Nelson..Ozil…Smith-Rowe
……….Martinelli
For UNITED play:
LENO,Chambers,Holding/Sok,Luiz,
Kolsanic, Torreira, Guendouzi/Wilock, Ceballos, Pepe, Saka, Aubameyang
3 to 4 seniors max and the rest youth
Isn’t Niles banned for the Forest game? You said so yourself…
………….Martinez……………
Chambers…..Holding……Mavropanos…….Bola
…….Xhaka….Willock……..
Reiss Nelson…..Ozil…….Smith-Rowe
………..Martinelli…………
So I agree with most of your team. Unless he plans to play Chambers at United in which case I would use Mustafi as a RB.
We have to last long in the competition so as to sharpen our youth. So mix youth and experience.
Can we try Holding and Chambers at the back? We now know who Martinez is.
Off topic but I read somewhere that the reason emery took off YOU KNOW WHO was tactical so as to avoid him getting a second yellow and miss starting the United game…#Arsenal is doomed with this man in charge
Emery needs time just like any new manager
even the new players need time to settle and gel
And how much time were top class managers – Conte and Sarri given?Jose won Utd. the Europa yet parted company when the results were not matching the board’s expectations. Robert de Mateo won the UCL and parted ways. Claudio Reineri won LC the title and next season parted ways.Results matter boss, not the efforts. For 200M spent, if Unai cannot deliver the Carabo cup with our talented youngsters and fringe players and a top 3 finish, for the next 20 years he will win nothing. At least Arsene won 3 titles( would have won one more had it not been for Eduardo’s horrific injury), 4 FA cups and would have won the UCL (was it not for someone’s stupidity) and League Cup (was it not for Kos’s stupidity).Two seasons Arsene could not deliver CL (with below average teams) he stepped aside, so Unai has to meet the same fate too. Since the season is young, we need to replace Unai immediately before he wrecks our season where we cannot be in contention for anything.Six games and we are SEVEN points off the leaders (some fans say “just two points of MC”, MC is not the benchmark,the league leaders are.After six EPL matches, among the top ten clubs, we stay at joint number ONE spot for conceding 10 goals.Even Sheff Wed have conceded six. If that is not an indication of our team set up, then what is? Even if you bring in Rob, the defense will be exposed by the midfield.Remove Auba’s 6 goals and see where would be. Unai is a failure and AFC needs an upgrade, and upgrades are available.Trust Josh, Raul and Edu to make the right decision.
Well said, Loose Cannon. You are anything but your nic!
Adeski, a second yellow meant he would miss the Forest game not the Man U game. Just a friendly clarification.
Senior players should be included at all in any of the domestic competition. If Arsenal can not get to 4, they will never be. We then become a mid table team. Already 3 years without CL football. Can not take one more year of this.
Youth should be getting the chance they deserve
looks like you are not even watching the game but just criticising
the gap between the top 6 is still wide….one can see it clearly after Dec
with Utd going downwards….chelsea and spud getting inconsistent…..we have a good chance for top 4
Top 4 not guaranteed with Brendon Rodgers /LC and Peregrini /WHU improving. And by the way after immense spending, top 4 is not what AFC should be aiming.We should be aiming top three and the tile when the likes of Unai, Xhaka, Socrates, AMN, depart end of the season.
Really is that so?
pls mr unai,what has ozil done that zhaka has not done? pls 4give and giv him game time as u did with zhaka.
Arsenal need to treat every Competition with the respect it deserves, at the end of the season every club’s success will be measured by the number of trophies they have shelved. And that’s were things get interesting for Unai. So the choice is his, either to jump on every opportunity that present itself or to leave it late and crumble. Yet again we will be talking about a trophy less season, jubilating on how close we came, missed the champions league qualification by goal difference, Lost Europa league final on penalties.
And every faithful gunner shall say we have improved from last season.