Liverpool (Carling Cup) Preview

By: Martin | October 27th, 2009

Carling Cup tomorrow, with a home matchup against Liverpool.

As I’ve said previously, I feel a little conflicted about the competition. Do I want to win? Yes, of course. But I have mixed feelings about how we treat the competition. Because, to be clear, Arsene Wenger does not really care about winning the Carling Cup. He views it as an opportunity for younger players to get to play–in that sense, it’s kind of a glorified reserves league for Arsenal. And if the manager isn’t too concerned with whether the team gets knocked out of the competition, it’s hard for us fans to get too worked up (or as my co-worker says, “be-jiggedy”) about it if we lose.

Still, I have to admit, I enjoy watching the matches when I get the chance. Part of it is the novelty of seeing a group of young players I haven’t gotten to watch very much before, but I think a lot of it is although the players are not as good or as skilled as the regulars, they are at a stage in their careers where a good performance or two can have a big impact on their career trajectories, and they know they will only have a few opportunities all season to play in the first-team, so they play with a real palpable drive and passion.

This match is a little bit odd. Usually at this stage, we’re playing a bottom of the table team or a lower division team, for whom playing us is one of their biggest, if not the biggest, fixture of the season. Their players are usually very motivated by the opportunity to play in front of such a big crowd in a match with so much exposure. But Liverpool are largely in the same boat as us–they’ll be playing youngsters and reserves, and have about the same motivation to win as we do. As Ben Folds would say, it’s a battle of who could care less.

In terms of team news, as usual, there’s some good, some bad. Let’s get rid of the bad first–Rosicky, Denilson and Djourou are still down with injuries, and Traore and Wilshere are out with minor knocks. The latter two are disappointing, especially Wilshere, who has shown a world of promise but hasn’t gotten much in the way of first-team opportunities. He’s precisely the type of player that benefits most from our Carling Cup strategy, and it’s too bad he won’t be able to show what he can do against Liverpool tomorrow.

In good news, though, Nasri and Fabianski is back, and will both start. Nasri had a good first season for the team last season, and is still quite young–he could really be a difference maker down the stretch for us. Even more important, he could keep Diaby out of the lineup. Bendtner and Eduardo, who both came on as late subs against West Ham, will supposedly start. My best guess at a lineup:

Fabianski

Gilbert-Senderos-Silvestre-Gibbs

Coquelin-Ramsey-Nasri

Eduardo-Bendtner-Vela

That’s assuming we go with a 4-3-3, which is far from certain. But honestly, at this point, isn’t Vela like the all-time leading goalscorer in the Carling Cup? I think he’s only scored a goal or two in every other senior competition, but it seems like he scores for fun in the Carling Cup. He’s like Crash Davis. Got to get him in the game somehow, right? Hopefully we’ll have enough quality to get through Liverpool–the home field advantage should help, and they’ll be playing reserves as well.

The big news for Liverpool is that it should be the first start for £20 million man Alberto Aquilani, who was brought in to replace Xabi Alonso over the summer but has been crocked since he last played for Roma (in the Champions League match against Arsenal, ironically enough). He’s a quality player, and will be looking to put in a good performance to convince Rafa he’s ready to play regularly, but hopefully he’s still rusty enough from the lay-off that he won’t damage us too bad.

Right, well, that’s about it. Come on Arsenal.