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Spurs have enough motivation to beat Arsenal in Caraboa Cup

Unai Emery played a very weakened team in Sunday’s defeat to Southampton, especially in defence as our injury problems get worse in every game, and we will probably have to rest some of our top players when we take on Tottenham on Wednesday. We were fantastic in the last North London derby when we came from behind to keep our unbeaten run going, and it is obvious that the Tottenham players are still smarting from the defeat at the Emirates and are looking to make amends in the Wednesday’s Caraboa Cup quarter-final.

Hugo Lloris, the Spurs keeper in that game, is definitely looking for revenge. “Maybe it’s the good thing that we lost the Premier League game a few weeks ago because it is more motivation for us,” Lloris said in the Independent. “There is no more bad feeling than when you get a defeat. You always try to analyse and make things that we will not repeat again. It is another opportunity and we will try our best to go through.

“Every game that you lose it hurts, but of course when you lead 2-1, it’s true that Arsenal is playing very well this season and it is a difficult team to beat but I think we have the quality to do it.

“It is important to take every competition seriously, whatever the competition is.

“Of course there is priority in the season but it is a League Cup game and if you go through there is a semi-final and a good chance.

“And then it is a derby so it is easier to prepare for because there always excitement and enjoyment to play that type of game.”

“We need to believe and we have a chance,” Lloris added. “We have a lot of respect for them but every game we try to win. It was the case when we played Barcelona away, it was the case last season when we played Madrid or Juventus away and every game you want to compete and win.

“There are different circumstances and you try to adapt, but with the same motivation and willingness to win.”

I think Spurs were very surprised at how Arsenal played their hearts out to beat our rivals, and whoever plays on Wednesday will be just as wound up to bounce back and beat Tottenham again. How sweet would it be to beat them again….

Sam P

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78 Comments

  1. If TH-14 was our Manager then iwould expect the following line up on Wednesday
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Iwobi
    Subs don’t need them
    Emery Out Now

    2. No Phil, this would be our line up, with Iwobi given the freedom to play in his best position and wreck havoc.

      —— Cech—–
      Niles–Mus–Kos–Monreal
      —-Xhaka–Tor—-
      Mikki–Iwobi–Auba
      —–Lacca—–

      1. Geez!! So Iwobi is the perfect No 10 and player to play behind the striker?.. Initially I thought Sue and Phil are just reading too much meaning to your comments but it’s clear they’re not..
        “with Iwobi given the freedom to play in his best position and wreck havoc.” man WTF are you saying? Iwobi’s best position is the RW and still he can’t create shít from there, and you want him playing the No 10 when he can hardly make a perfect Through ball?..
        I’ll rather AMN play that No 10 instead of Iwobi

          1. I should STFU?? Wow, I will do so now, you know why? I’ve learnt when debating with dimwits the best way to end it is to tell them “You’re right”.. So TH14 “You’re damn right!!”. I rest my case

            1. No man youre taking it the wrong way. I meant Stfu in a more subtle way not STFU. One of the reasons I hate text debates is because it cannot accurately convey tone and emotions.
              Another thing Eddie, name calling is really bad and toxic. Stop it okay .

            1. Oh come on Sue, he ran the show against Bournemouth, he was man of the match against Leicester and Vorskla. Iwobi has been impressive this season.

              1. But Ozil won us that game against Leicester!! Sorry Th14 but all I can think of is how things change for the better when he’s subbed

                1. Like he was subbed for Ozil against Southampton you mean?
                  ???
                  Iwobi is a very good player. The problem he has is not trusting himself enough – that confidence thing.
                  Yes, he can wreck havoc on the opposition, and he sure wrecks havoc on his fans’ hearts too – sometimes though???
                  He needs very serious work on his shots on target, because as it is now, he is better not shooting at all.

                  1. He’s better not playing at all.Showed a bit of an improvement early season and now back to his absolute worse.Rubbish player who is OUT as soon as Riess Nelson returns next year

                    1. I really thought he had turned the corner after the first couple of games. Wrong, he’s back to his worst, he still can’t cross a ball and still does not know where the goal is. He runs around a lot but to no end and frankly he is just not good enough.

            1. The problem wth Iwobi is he can’t kick a ball. Brilliant until he has to pass, shoot or cross. The guy had a trick and can beat a man but after that there’s not much hope of anything productive coming from him.

    3. Phil ,The clearly biased TH14 must be Nigerian and it seems to me most of his Arsenal supporting countrymen cannot and simply refuse to see anything wrong with “their” player. It is nationalism and rather ugly. I remember when some from Nigeria accused us who are not Nigerian of racism over Iwobi, merely for criticising his effectiveness. That was ludicrous and insulting to us who care NOTHING for mere skin colour at all. I have spent my whole adult life fighting nauseous and ugly racism in all its forms and will always do. But I recognise that biased nationalism is also ugly, unfair and immature. It is NOTHING whatever to do with racism or nationality from those who rightly see very clearly that Iwobi is playing very badly. Trying to convince such as TH14 with his closed mind is pointless and I propose to ignore him from now on. Iwobi will surely be gone from Arsenal by next season. Emery is no fool and can see the truth but without help from Kroenke his options are limited this season.

  3. OT:
    Reply ↓

    Raja Danish
    December 17, 2018 at 3:56 pm
    i think emery will sign a defender in january and then in summer. he will sign wingers and no 10 also and will ship out deadwoods and ozil type players who have low workrate he wants to build a style of pressing like dortmund and now liverpool but he needs players of high workrate for that but he will build his own team full of fighters but it will take time and he knows best that which players he needs in upcoming transfer windows to complete his jigsaw. The players which i would like to sign in central midfield position to replace departing ramsey will be Hector Herrera full of high workrate and stamina and more importantly a good leader on the pitch. to replace elneny with doucoure again player full of high workrate and intensity. sell ozil with a good re-sale value and sign pablo fornals from villareal again a young talent full of quality and a good no 10 with high workrate who will track back unlike ozil. If mikhtaryan fails to adopt high pressing style of emery then sell him as well and sign miguel almiron from MLS who is a good CAM and has a high workrate and good pace and skills for a counter attacking side. for wingers we need to recall back reiss nelson from hoffenheim and sign one good winger who is pacy direct and a natural dribbler like leon bailey etc. For defenders we need to sign a top class Centre back my wish is to sign kalidou koulibally from napoli. COYG!!!!!!

      1. yeah he is too pricy may be selling ozil could give some money to sign him just like liverpool did with van djik. koulibally is one the best defender in the world if not the best. Any other defenders apart from him which you would like arsenal to sign?

        1. Raja, Emery will probably be after a top class CAM in the summer; I don’t think his proposed method of play supports a number 10. Otherwise he would play Mezut Ozil more often with Aubameyang and Lacazette up front.

  5. Better focus on the next EPL game, because Arsenal are out of the top four now

    Just play the youngsters and the fringe players in the League Cup match

    1. how about this bro??
      Hector Herrera (CM/CDM) Free as a replacement for ramsey
      doucoure(CM/CDM) 15M replacement for elneny
      pablo fornals(CAM/RM) 20M replacement for ozil
      miguel almiron(CAM/LM) 15M replacement for mkhitaryan
      leon bailey(LW/RW) 30M
      kalidou koulibally for centre back but he is very expensive however we can still sign him if we sell ozil at good price.
      This team will be full of fighters and players of high work-rate and stamina and they will suit emery’s demanding high pressing game.
      Thought on this guys??
      COYG!!!!!!

      2. Who do you think will ever pay top money to sign Ozil now almost thirty, who can’t get in even our first eleven? Get real please. Sheer fantasy to fool yourself in this way. They would have to take on his huge and unwarrented contract(which NO ONE will) or he won’t choose to leave . Why would he, as he is idle but has the comfort of a huge weekly wage he will never get elsewhere. Please think before posting nonsense!

        1. jon I agree; China would be the only chance. I just hope his own sense of personal pride causes him to be able to try to prove Emery that Emery should play him. I know that you will say I’m not being a realist; however Arsenal, and particularly Aubameyang and Lacazette, would improve with Mezut Ozil at his best. I just can’t see a player such as Ozil (with his ability and credentials) being happy taking his salary and wasting away on the bench.

  7. Th14,just don’t go into an argument you will never win,iwobi is average we all know that but we were playing 2:2 and the coach decided to introduced the best no10 in the world,and what did he do,he changed the match only it was against us,trying some stupid back heel pass.

    1. So Ozil tried something deep in the opposition half that didn’t work, they get the ball and our defence can’t deal with it, Leno goes walkabout and then flaps in the air and can’t reach it, all of that means it’s Ozils fault does it, interesting take on it for sure, in fact please make sure we tell the whole team not to try anything out of the ordinary in case it leads to a goal against wherever you are on the pitch.

        1. I see the Ozil bashers are out again. If he doesn’t fit in with Emery’s style of play then he should sell him in January just don’t play him out of position it won’t work because he is not a versatile player. But he is a great No.10 in the right team, just ask Christiano Ronaldo who was livid when he left Real. Any player who has made over 1000 good chances in his career so far deserves respect not ridicule.

          2. Andrew What you outlined at Real in deep in the past. And with due respect, we do not have a Ronaldo nor are remotely of Reals standard of when he played there. He is just not comfortable in the high tempo, high work expected Prem. He has neither the physicality nor mental toughness any top player – which he is, though does not show it much – needs in order to succeed in our PREM. He is older now and comforted into idleness by that stupid and wrong wage hike given under Wenger, which means we are unable to sell him, as he won’t choose to give up that weekly wage and he knows he won’t get anywhere near it at his age, elsewhere. That is plain realism! We should have sold him last season when we had the chance. All he is now is a financial liability.

      2. I disagree with your analysis.

        The Arsenal players had all taken attacking positions when Ozil lost possession leaving us on the back foot while trying to recover. Would have been different if Ozil had trapped that simple pass instead of trying something elaborate. This happens to be his only skill (the dummy) he pulled it off against Leicester, he also got 1 right earlier in the match but why try it again for the second time in the same match? (very predictable) He cost us the match not the defence or goal keeper.

        1. So Ozil cost us the game did he?He was on the pitch for 20 minutes.No excuses for an inexcusable dummy in the centre of the pitch but to say that one single error was the reason we lost is wrong.
          We had ZERO CB’s that were match fit.Kos obviously needed more game time before a tough Premiership away game.Lichstiener is NOT and never has been a CB.Xhaka filled in and was not that bad considering he is an average CM at best.We lost because we had no defenders-it’s as simple as that.
          But if it suits some to blame Ozil then they are wrong.

        2. Th14 is it possible you’ve identified another reason why this one incident in your eyes cost us the game, (if you really believe that), when you say in your first line ‘the Arsenal players had ALL taken attacking positions’ Perhaps someone needs to consider what happens if we lose the ball and consider the defensive side of the game, but then again as Phil quite rightly points out we had no defenders, or I guess overall it’s probably best and easiest as usual find some way of blaming Ozil

          1. We had a make shift defense… Ozil knows that…he watched majority of the game from the bench, he comes on with 20 mins left, so why put them under unnecessary pressure? It was avoidable wasn’t it? He looses the ball close to his own half and boom we have an unfit Kos struggling to keep up with Austin. Mind you Austin just came on and was fresh whereas Kos shouldn’t even be playing 80mins giving the fact he’s just coming off an injury. Be my guest and blame him for the goal then. Errors leads to goals. It was the 89th minute for God’s sake. It wouldn’t have happened if Iwobi was left to play 90mis I’m sure.

            1. Th14 your wisdom shines through when the rest of us are apparently blind, Ozil is to blame ……… for everything and Iwobi is magnificent. I feel enlightened thank you.

              1. Ok, had a chance to think and I’m back to my original comment which I believe to be absolutely true and although I didn’t originally comment on Iwobi, I’m afraid he is not of the standard we as a club should be entertaining, he brings absolutely nothing to the team and although I hope he does come good in the future, I don’t believe he ever will.

  8. Oh my goodness. One loss in more than 20 games and all of a sudden everyone has lost every strand of confidence in our team.
    People are sounding so defeated just after one defeat.

    What a depressing group of knee jerkers

    1. If we can’t get him I’d like Everton’s Idrissa Gana Gueye. Always thought he is solid and a good tackler. Would cover Torreira and even pair them up for tough away games. Certainly better than El Neny I know that.

    2. I totally agree on the docoure guy… I think that’s what arsenal needs.. A powerful ball carrier to the opposition half.

  10. I don’t care if it’s only the league cup, we MUST put out our best lineup because it’s Spurs! Our best moment as fans under Emery, was the mauling we gave them! So please, let’s go for it again!

            1. Unfortunately Sue, for every one of those, Aubameyang spurns a lot of chances. He should be on over 20 goals so far and has cost Arsenal points from those misses.
              Similarly Iwobi and Mhikataryan have also been wasteful in front of goal.

                1. Aubameyang as always been like that.. We can’t change that. He will miss lots of chances but will score plenty as well.

              2. Ozzie, He certainly misses a lot of chances he should put away; a far larger percentage of misses than one should expect from a striker of his undoubted quality and goals record in his career. To me , he does not work anywhere near hard enough. Compare him to Kane, Aguera , Salah and see the huge difference in their workrate to his. He is still a good striker but not at their level, simply because of his less work and more bad misses.

                1. jon, he appears lax to me in his attitude; I sometimes worry about his mental toughness and concentration. He could be anything if he concentrated.

  11. FFS Iwobi’s best position is LW but he still isn’t consistent enough in order to play him week in, week out. He certainly needs competition on the left flank and surely not Auba! If we want to get some upgrade to him, we need to dig deep and pay over the price.. Where are all these articles about Özil and Ramsey getting sold by the way? We could really use the cash in order to bring in a LW and another CB in the January transfer window. Cause by the way we are playing so far, it’s not going to end nicely, we need an extra push in order to secure a top 4 spot or a Europa League Cup win.

    1. Currently Iwobi’s best position is in the U23’s or a loan to the Championship to toughen up. Unfortunately the concern with Iwobi is that he is another example of a young footballer paid too much money too soon, being distracted by the high life of London. He needs to refocus and work hard to upgrade his skills, otherwise he won’t make the grade at Arsenal.

      1. Emery has given him the freedom to express himself and take on man to man, which is what we have been missing at times this season. I don’t think he can play on that high tempo 90′ long though. Maybe introduce him around the 60′ minute, when the opposition starts getting tired? Unfortunately he is the only one proper senior Winger we have at the moment, although I would introduce this new kid, Saka(?), against lower teams, cause he seems like he has great potential, or I would do a Wenger and play Kolasinac or even Xhaka at his position, till we buy an upgrade.

        1. Iwobi best position?

          ArsenalGR says “the only one proper senior Winger we have” when he’s never dribbled past an opponent in his life and has the first touch of a brick wall.

          Other’s say he’s a No 10, a playmaker. Absolutely laughable.

          The rest of the known universe can see that his best position is Left Back . . .
          . . . in the freakin’ dressing room.

          1. Haha, well I think you’re exaggerating a bit but that’s ok. He is no Saha by far! He did play a role at some of our goals this term though, was also named MOTM a couple of times, so I wouldn’t just right him off completely… I think the fact that he plays with such freedom from the coach makes him look at times magnificent and at times wasteful. He is no Hazard either! But at the moment Iwobi is the best option for the LW position, till we buy a proper Winger.

            1. Must have been a fluke!! Either that or he slipped Gary Neville an invite to his next party if he gave him MOTM ??

              @GunnerJack ‘left back in the freakin dressing room’ ….. love it! Brilliant!

      2. Iwobi is payed 40000 a week . Lingard is payed a 100000 .
        It is true Iwobi is not arsenal quality but to be fair half of arsenal team aren’t .
        Ozil . Xhaka, Mustafi,Chambers,Miki ,Ramsey ,Elneny etc.
        when we get to the promise land all mediocre players will be replaced

  14. It’s so sad that nobody knows iwobi’s best position. He is best as a WB, no not wing back, it’s Water Boy. ???

    1. Its actually bad news Sue.. would have loved him to stay and continue their rot. The last thing Arsenal need is a resurgent Manure hot on our tails.

      1. Another unbeaten streak and we won’t even need to look at the rear view mirror, just have to look forward and concentrate on overtaking our two neighbours.

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