West Brom Preview

By: Martin | September 21st, 2009

Well, the Carling Cup is here. I think the Carling Cup is always a little weird for Arsenal fans. I know I don’t really view it as nearly as important as the other 3 competitions, and it’s hard for me to get too worked up one way or the other about it. When Burnley knocked us out of the competition last season, I remember my reaction was largely one of indifference.

It also brings up a lot of questions about the integrity of the competition, fixture congestion, and the best way to develop young players. We will, inevitably, be criticized for not fielding anything resembling our first team. To put it simply, I think we have no designs on actually winning the competition–instead, our goal is simply to get a look at some of our younger players in competitive action, and to get those players some experience in a knockout competition. Critics will say we are wrong to do this, and that it devalues the competition to have the best teams not trying to win, and the best players sitting out the competition entirely.

We will counter by saying that fixture congestion makes it impossible to play the first team players in every single competitive match. Especially with the World Cup shortening the season a bit, the fact is that, barring an early knockout in either the FA Cup or Champions League, our players are pretty much going to be playing every weekend and a midweek game virtually every week until May. Asking players to play every one of those games is borderline inhumane, but will also result in injuries and fatigue to the point where those players wouldn’t be nearly as ineffective at the end of the season as they were at the beginning.

To combat this, the big clubs have basically two options–they can either (1) play some version of their first team in all competitions, but “rotate” players through so everyone gets the occasional match off; (2) give all the players the same match “off” by dropping them from the sqaud in one competition. Arsenal, obviously, have chosen option (2).

And finally, option 2 is not just a measure to rest the first team–it’s also a great chance for the younger players to get some senior team action. It’s an important development tool for the club, and it’s great for the young players because they can show what they can do against senior opponents. Many of Arsenal’s key players (Clichy, Fabregas, Bendtner, Song, and Denilson) who came through the youth program first shot to prominence in the Carling Cup. Last season, Vela and Gibbs played well enough to cement a place as important members of the senior squad, and Jay Simpson played well enough to be an attractive loan target for West Brom and later QPR.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I think it’s the most “winnable” trophy of any of the 4 competitions in which we play, so I’d like us to put a little bit more into trying to win it. On the other hand, I do think that would entail incurring injuries or resting players in the games in close proximity, which would weaken us in other competitions. And our youngsters wouldn’t have nearly enough of a chance to prove themselves.

But it is what it is–Arsenal is not trying to win this competition, so it’s hard for fans to be too upset if the club does, in fact, lose. It can still make for good watching, though, if for no other reason than because it gives you a rare chance to see our brightest prospects testing themselves in game action at a high level.

West Brom is a very, very tough first match-up for Arsenal. The Baggies finished bottom of the table last season and were relegated to the Championship. Manager Tony Mowbray left for the greener pastures of Celtic. But West Brom has bounced back, and currently sit top of the Championship table. They’ve used their attractive brand of play, tallying 20 goals in 8 games, 5 more than the closest competitor. There’s a real probability that this is the best club in England outside of the Premiership, and they’ll be motivated by the chance to claim an Arsenal scalp in a knockout competition, even if it is just our second team. They’ll come out looking to play football, and will be looking to create chances against an inexperienced defense.

This game will present us with the first glimpse of several first team players this season. Obviously it’s hard to know exactly which reserves and youngsters rank where on Wenger’s ladder, but here’s my best guess at what we’ll see tomorrow:

Szczesny

Gilbert-Silvestre-Senderos-Gibbs

Wilshere-Ramsey-Merida-Traore

Watt-Vela

Come on Arsenal.