In the first leg of this Europa League tie, Arsene Wenger picked a very strong Arsenal side to cope with the rigours of below zero temperatures and a plastic pitch, and they left Sweden as comfortable 3-0 winners. But tomorrow, Wenger has to consider making changes to the starting line-up with the League Cup Final against Man City coming up on Sunday, butwould he risk playing with a completely second string X!?
According to the ex-Gunner Charlie Nicholas, the Boss can afford to play his usual League Cup side with lots of Academy players coming in. “He won’t want to play anyone who is going to play in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday but he might be forced to have a couple of bigger hitters on the bench.” Nicholas said.
“I like the look of the young lad Eddie Nketiah in the Carabao Cup but he hasn’t had a sniff in the Premier League because the first team go through hardships. It’s like the young lads get punished for the senior players’ failures.
“I’d expect to see Danny Welbeck through the middle, Ainsley Maitland-Niles in his proper position and then Alex Iwobi maybe the only one who will threaten to start on Sunday. The kids will try to put on a show and they should have enough to win comfortably.”
To be fair, I don’t think any of Wenger’s possible teams should be capable of losing by three goals against the Swedish minnows, but as the Europa League is now our best chance of getting back into the Champions League should we still be using some of our first team?
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