Arsenal cannot afford to rest key players against Chelsea We will not be 100% sure until the teamsheets come out later, of course, but it’s fairly safe to say that both Arsenal and Chelsea will make a number of changes for their match at the Emirates tonight. It is the League Cup, after all. While the top clubs almost habitually rest their stars, ease back players who haven’t had much pitch time recently and give some valuable experience to their fringe prospects in this competition, Arsenal cannot afford to. Even though they are currently top of the Premier League by two points, they need to take the League Cup seriously, for two key reasons. Firstly of course is the obvious factor: they haven’t lifted a trophy since the FA Cup in 2005 and anything to break that duck, even the League Cup, would be a tremendous ease on the pressure on the club and Arsene Wenger. They’re off to a good start in the Mesut Ozil era, but come next summer the success of his move will be measured on what the Gunners have won. Secondly, they just cannot get away with fielding a weaker squad. Jose Mourinho, on the other hand, has such a squad on his hands that he could make 11 changes and still have a team which rivals the best XI Wenger can possibly put out, especially considering the players Arsenal will not have available through injury or suspension. Two of those absentees provide the biggest cause of concern as far as Arsenal’s chances of a run in this cup go – Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini. Flamini for me has been the reason the North Londoners have so far this season looked a little steadier at the back than the last campaign. Arteta, really, is the closest thing they have to fill the gap left by the Frenchman. And when you think of the ‘reserve’ attacking midfielders who’ll probably step in for Chelsea tonight – Juan Mata, Kevin De Bruyne, Willian – it’s going to be a long night for whoever has the unenviable task of stepping in to protect the Arsenal back four. With strikers such as Samuel Eto’o and Demba Ba – Fernando Torres will surely be given the night off – who are more than happy to drop back and join in with approach play, the Gunners midfield will have their hands full whether they rest players or not, so can they really afford to? I’m not saying Arsenal aren’t in with a shout of regaining the Premier League title. They’re top at the moment on merit and with such an exciting, unpredictable, open campaign so far they are definitely in with a strong shout. And of course, by the time they begin their FA Cup campaign they may be able to add more to their squad to make up for all the (necessary) departures of the summer and have a real go at that, too. But I do not feel Wenger and his men can afford to think ‘never mind this one, we’ll focus on ending the trophy drought with the next one’. They have to go all-out for any of the four trophies they remain in the running for. While, as you can imagine from all of the above, I strongly fancy Chelsea in this one, Arsenal owe it to themselves to give the League Cup everything they have. And if they do, there’s no reason why that mentality cannot reap rewards tonight - and beyond.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 16:32:51 +0000