On Wednesday night, Arsenal take on their London rivals West Ham at the London Stadium in the Carabao Cup fourth round. The Gunners beat Brentford in the last round a few weeks ago to set up this clash.
Having ended 2022–23 trophyless, the Gooners will be hoping Arteta and his side treat the clash with the seriousness it deserves. After all, winning the Carabao Cup is easier given that their main rival, Manchester City, who have won the trophy in 5 of the last 8 years, exited the competition.
Versus Brentford (in Carabao in round 3), the Spaniard fielded a strong line-up. Even if William Saliba, Declan Rice, and Bukayo Saka were given the night off, first-choice stars like Aaron Ramsdale (at the time), Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White, and Kai Havertz all started alongside quality players for a capable line-up, but it was disappointing that Arsenal only won by a goal.
Last season, Arsenal didn’t reach Round 4, so their reaching it is progress. And they can easily win it.
If Arsenal can go past West Ham, they may find themselves facing teams like Mansfield Town, Port Vale, Exeter City, or Middleborough. Going past any of these teams shouldn’t be hard.
The aim is to win the Premier League and the Champions League, but the Carabao Cup may also present the Gunners with a chance for success. Lifting in March could boost their confidence in the homestretch of the Premier League and Champions League.
That said, winning the Carabao Cup will start with Mikel Arteta fielding his strongest lineup tonight. Imagine Arsenal lifting the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup, and the Premier League. Could that be the perfect statement for them, announcing they are now the real deal in English football?
Sam P
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I don’t know why but I just feel like we won’t win this cup
Your feelings were prophetic
We shoul do what we should do, like most other teams. Play mostly players not over played so far, youth and promising players until the semi, like most other teams and then reevaluate. It is not a top to competition and there are bigger fish to fry this season. Winning this competition does not improve our standing, it is a competition for experiment.
the Premier League remains our top priority
so ‘no’ not all out to win the League Cup
but ‘yes’ take it more seriously this year with 1) Man C and other strong PL teams out, 2) greater squad depth this season, and 3) let’s face we are not going to win the Champions League
so right now, in the circumstances, let’s give it a go
Yes. We’ll have an important EPL game three days later, so it will be risky to make the likes of Jesus, Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard, Rice and Saliba starters
The EPL game, is more important than this.
Not “all out” to win what is not even a secondary competition. Do this the way we always have. A few first choice players plus some bench regulars and some academy hopefuls.
I agree that arsenal should go all out to win the League Cup. Whether Man City is still there or not, Arsenal must make all out efforts to win the League Cup in order to enhance its trophy cabinet and also to bolster confidence amongst its players to win further competitions/titles. Also Man City shouldnt be seen as unbeatable as Arsenal aptly demonstrated by defeating them in the recent PL match.
The Carabao Cup is the least important competition we are in this season.As such, it is the perfect opportunity for players like ESR, Trossard, Kwior etc who for one reason or another have been used lightly , to demonstrate their ability in what is still likely to be a competitive match.For what it’s worth my personal selection would be as follows:-
Ramsdale
Tomi,Saliba,Kwior, Zinchenko
Jorjinho,Rice,
Vieria,ESR,Trossard,
Havertz..
THAT team would go out of the cup Grandad!
If Arsenal win the Carabao Cup and City go on to win the league and champions league is anyone at City going to give the Carabao a second thought ? Is Arsenal’s standing in the football world going to be improved at all ? To increase your club’s prestige you have to win the trophies that matter, which in modern football, for the top teams, is really just the premier league and the champions league. To make the next step Arteta needs to win one of those two trophies. The rest is nice to win but doesn’t actually change anything.
You win £50,000 for winning the Caribou cup and quality for the qualifying round of the Ruropa conference league. Its not important. City or no City.
Fifty grand! Seriously?
Yes Sue, just read that that is the prize money. I was shocked. Obviously you earn more on top from the rounds and i presume TV money etc but that is the final prize money.
It’s 100,000 pounds for the winner while the runner up bags 50,000 pounds.
With all the comments, if we lose with 2nd string team if fielded,will Arteta be blamed?
By my calculations, the team I have listed cost Arsenal around £350m and can hardly be described as “second string”Its up to Arteta to justify his recruitment policy, and how on earth can be do so without testing the players in combat?.It’s a question of trust.
What if we lose in the event of giving them play time because second string players will always require more play time to reach the top performance.
Not making excuses but the decision could be difficult for the managers too and fear of failing while trying to use them, so they will rather use them as sub gradually or one change at a time
Yes let’s go for it
Give rest to one or 2 starters but let’s start a team good enough to win
I want trophies
All trophies are top trophies to me
“All trophies are top trophies to me”
Hear hear
I would really prefer to win something better.
I’m dissapointed at the many post above mine but thankfully it’s got no bearing on Mikel and the boy’s intentions regarding the competition so i’m rest assured the boys will do their best to win it. i’m confident though that we will win at least one of both cups and this will have absolutely nothing to do with our League or CL ambitions.
No stone should be left unturned.I feel strongly this is Arsenal season. Arteta should work harder.Winning Carabao cup will surely be the stepping stone to winning the Premier cup.
I know Arsenal will win all the trophies, out of all she out of one trophy so remaining fa,ple,and ucl lets wait and see if it will happen