Arsenal v Nottingham Forest: Carabao Cup Preview

After the very exciting comeback at home to Villa on Sunday Arsenal are very quickly back in action tonight when Nottingham Forest come calling in the Carabao Cup. As cup competitions go the Carabao Cup is at the bottom of the pile and it gives Unai Emery a chance to rest a few players. The number one priority this season has to be a top four finish and I can’t imagine he will risk the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in this game.

When we trailed Villa late on and we were down to 10 men it didn’t look good, but the players managed to find it within themselves to get the goals we needed. Massive credit has to go to Matteo Guendouzi for driving the team forward in the second half and to Aubameyang who yet again scored us the goal to take all three points. The result was just what we needed, but like our other performances so far this season it was far from impressive.

With only two days between the games the manager will have to use his whole squad which could see the return of a few players from injury. Rob Holding is the one most likely to get his first game of the season while both Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin are more likely to come off the bench at some stage. We should also see those who didn’t get a run out on Sunday getting a game from the start .

We might even see the rare sight so far this season of Mesut Ozil in the team while I would imagine Reiss Nelson and Gabriel Martinelli might get a game too. With Aubameyang surely having to be rested and Alexandre Lacazette injured Martinelli might even be the one to lead the line with Nelson on one side and maybe Bukayo Saka on the other. 

Saka was unfortunate to be the one sacrificed on Sunday when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off and he deserves a chance to show what he can do again after a very impressive display in the Europa League last week. Callum Chambers came on to play right back when Maitland-Niles was sent off and despite some defensive frailty he managed to score our second goal. I thought he was very unlucky to lose his place in the team after the opening game against Newcastle and he must surely be given another chance at some stage as the centre of our defence is shambolic at the moment.

I didn’t think signing David Luiz was a good idea and we have seen the worse side of his game all too often in an Arsenal shirt. He seems to have had a detrimental affect on Sokratis Papastathopoulos too because their partnership is one which scares the life out of me at the moment. If Holding plays tonight it will probably be alongside Shkodran Mustafi and he’s our only central defender who scares me more than Luiz or Sokratis.

Forest put four goals past us a couple of seasons ago in the FA Cup in what was one of Arsene Wenger’s worst results in his many years at the club. We had a young and inexperienced team that day and there was no experience on the bench in case we needed to call on it. I imagine the manager might just have a little bit of back up tonight in case things aren’t going our way.

Forest have started the season quite well with 15 points from their eight games and they’re currently in the top six in the Championship. They have only lost one game and they have only conceded six goals in their eight games so they’re not going to be a pushover. We have some pretty good players available tonight though and I don’t see why we can’t make home advantage pay and progress to the next round.

I’ll be happy to see Holding, Bellerin and Tierney make their first appearances of the season though and to see some of the young guns get a run out too. Progression to the next round is always preferable, but I’m not so sure we want too many extra games at the moment. The younger players will still get a few run outs in the Europa League group games I suppose even if it does go pear shaped tonight. 

I might not sound overly confident, but I suppose watching Arsenal so far this season has given me that lack of confidence. Having said that we’re in the top four and won our toughest Europa League group game with what looked like relative ease if you only saw the score line. I’m still very worried that we won’t take advantage of the crisis at other clubs to cement our place in the top four and bring back Champions League football. Enough of the doom and gloom though and here’s hoping for a great performance and a victory tonight.

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.

Araenal's Premier League Trip To Everton Previewed

A hectic start to the season continues for Arsenal today with a trip to Everton for an evening kick off. With the season only a week d Arsenal will be playing their third game and they have two more to come in the next week before the first international break. It's not an easy task for the team with players returning late from World Cup duty and injuries already starting to have an effect.

At least the team managed to keep going at home to Palace last week and get a late winner to get the season off on a firm footing. The 0-0 draw away to Besiktas on Tuesday wasn't ideal, but it leaves Arsenal as firm favourites to progress to the group stages of the Champions League. The downsides from those two games were the injuries to Mikel Arteta and Kieron Gibbs as well as Aaron Ramsey's red card against Besiktas.

Everton drew their opening game away to Leicester and don't look to have strengthened from last season. They beat Arsenal far too easily towards the end of last season though when they briefly looked like they might pip them to fourth place. In the end Arsenal finished ahead of them with relative ease, but can expect another rough ride today.

Too often last season Arsenal failed to react when good opponents came at them and Everton are bound to use the same tactics again I would imagine. Arsene Wenger needs to have his team prepared and rating to go from the first minute to counter whatever Everton throw at them. They are a very good team at home in particular and they cannot be allowed to dominate Arsenal like they did in that 3-0 victory last season. 

Calum Chambers is very much an inexperienced centre back and he could have a very tough ride from Romelu Lukaku. He slipped badly to let Demba Ba in against Brsiktas and it's an awful to expect of him so soon in his career. There isn't much choice for Arsenal in the centre of defence though with Per Mertesacker not ready to play yet, Thomas Vermaelen sold and no other replacements bought yet.

The Arsenal defence is stretched to the limit already with the injury to Gibbs to contend with too and some serious work in the transfer market had to be done before the window closes. It will only take one more injury for Arsenal's defensive options to reach crisis levels with the season only a week old. Hopefully that won't happen today with the return leg to come at home to Besiktas on Wednesday night.

With the Besiktas game in mind there might be a few changes today, but at least one of them will be enforced. Mathieu Flamini will surely fill in for Arteta and I wouldn't be surprised if the only other change saw Alexis Sanchez move to a central striking role with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming in on the right side of the attacking trio. That would see Olivier Giroud drop to the bench which might not be a bad idea as he still doesn't look to have got his touch or game going so far this season. The need for more defensive height at set pieces could well see Giroud keep his place though or possibly Yaya Sanogo come in for him.

It's been common knowledge for more than a while that Wojciech Szczesny needs some competition to keep him on his toes. It was thought that the arrival of David Ospina would be the spur he needed, but he has been far from commanding in the last two games while Ospina has been injured. If he is finally going to shut the doubters up he needs to play well whether his place in the team is under threat or not.

It's not going to be easy for Arsenal going to Everton so early in the season and in the middle of two such important games against Besiktas, but the players availableare still more than capable of getting a result. A win would be the ideal scenario, but avoiding defeat wouldn't be a disaster either. Arsenal will face some harder games away from home this season, but most of their away trips will be under easier circumstances. I'll be happy to see Arsenal take a point from Everton, but as always I want them to win.

That's it for today.

See you tomorrow.