Some rotation, but seriousness, for Palace cup-tie

Morning all. It’s now again

We’re in Carabao Cup quarter-final action this evening, hosting Crystal Palace for a place in the semi-finals. There’s not much in the way of team news, other than confirmation we’ll remain without Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko, while a decision will be made about Declan Rice’s fitness before kick-off.

At this stage of the competition, I think there will still be changes to the side, but I expect those to be more further forward than at the back where options are limited. We know the right-back situation, and the only realistic way of resting William Saliba is to play Jurrien Timber at centre-half, so that’s a complication. Jakub Kiwior could come in, and this was surely a game Myles Lewis-Skelly had earmarked for a start – but the injury situation means he’s been needed from the off in the last two games too. Could Kieran Tierney even come into the equation?

In midfield, we could see Jorginho, and much like his young teammate, Ethan Nwaneri will be looking to get a chance in this one. His last two cameos from the bench haven’t been as impactful as he (and we) might have liked, but he tends to be more effective when he starts. In the front three, if we can’t play Raheem Sterling in this one, when can we play him at all? I think he’ll come in for Saka on the right, it’ll likely be Leandro Trossard on the left, with Gabriel Jesus up front.

That is a lot of experience, but it’s low on output of late. Trossard has 4 goals and 2 assists from 22 appearances this season; Sterling has a goal and 2 assists in 10 mostly fleeting appearances, and his only strike in an Arsenal shirt came in this competition against lower league opposition; while Jesus’s only goal in his last 34 games came in the last round against Preston. On the Brazilian, Arteta made it clear that while he has no problems with how he’s working, he has to produce in front of goal:

I don’t know if it’s confidence, but obviously he’s got that will that the ball goes in the back of the net and he starts to have some momentum in relation to that. Because at the end he plays in positions where he needs to deliver those moments, and he’s really trying.

Tonight would be a very good night to find his shooting boots again. For all the analysis and discussion and tactical chat about why we aren’t hitting the back of the net as often as we’d like, having a bunch of players who don’t score goals consistently is – for me anyway – ultimately the main reason. Until such time as we can do something about that, whether it’s January or beyond, it’s the manager’s job to get more out of these guys. And I wish him the very best of luck with that.

As for Palace, they’ve found some form after an iffy start to the season, and come into this one on the back of a good Premier League win against Brighton. We know where they’re dangerous, and in a cup-tie situation, you’d hope this is a more open game of football than the last couple we’ve played. Hopefully we deal with their threat, and use the space to create danger of our own.

As for this competition, I don’t think there’s any way we should be snobby about it. Is it the least important of the four? Obviously yes. Do we want to win the Premier League or Champions League more? Again, that’s obvious. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be trying to win this one too. We’ve built a really good team over the last few years, but we also need silverware. The title challenges were great, but the players want medals and the fans want trophies. This competition is one we should take seriously, especially given how close you are to a final if you win tonight, so fingers crossed.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. Join us later for live blog coverage, plus you’ll get the match report, goal clips, reaction, player ratings and much more over on Arseblog News.

Until then.

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