It’s EFL Cup action tonight as we face Crystal Palace at home, and it’s a match where you’d expect Mikel Arteta to make some changes. It’s more complicated at the back, where we don’t really have the numbers because of all the injuries, but we could potentially use Christian Norgaard there. Last week the manager was quite glowing about 16-year-old Marli Salmon, but it remains to be seen whether he is considered ready for his first senior start. Myles Lewis-Skelly will certainly also play at left-back in one of the more obvious and easy changes we can make there.
In midfield we have Mikel Merino, Ethan Nwaneri, Eberechi Eze and possibly Norgaard to use, and in the front three I expect to see Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli in the wide positions with Gabriel Jesus up top. Speaking about the Brazilian ahead of this, Arteta said of his readiness:
You can now see, not only during matches, but every day during training, how much he wants it. He will earn a chance soon.
And what he could add to the team:
I think that’s probably Gabi’s greatest quality: bringing people together, connecting with people and generating a lot of uncertainty for the opponent. When you watch him against Everton, his biggest quality is the number of spaces he was involved in. So we have to exploit that.
So, after being sidelined for so long, hopefully he’s a man determined to make up for all that lost time, and can put in a performance that gives the manager something to think about. Last week he was asked about the ‘headache’ of which striker to pick if they are all available, and he basically said the headache was the fact that his options were so limited.
Today is probably Jesus’ chance, but the latest training photos show Kai Havertz back with the group, which is more good news. We’ll have to wait and see how far away he is from making the jump from training to competition as it’s been almost a year since he started a game for us, but it will be good to have him back. The ideal scenario is that the level of competition between three potential starters at No. 9 drives them in a very positive way. It doesn’t always work out that way, but we can hope so.
As for Palace, they looked tired against Leeds on Saturday and finished on the wrong end of a 4-1 defeat. They have played six times in December so far, one game more than us, and could be feeling the effects. Cup matches can be strange games, though, and this one, just before Christmas, feels like one of those games with a slightly surreal touch.
A two-legged semi-final against Chelsea awaits the winner, and however you choose to combine that with a title race, you can be sure that this is a match and a competition that Mikel Arteta wants to win. It’s also a chance for some players on the fringes to get game time, and hopefully they can respond with the kind of performance we’d all like to see. I want Arteta to get multiple headaches, and I mean that sincerely, although obviously it’s just about team selection and not a plethora of crippling migraines. Let’s see what they can produce.
For more information about this game, we have a short preview podcast on Patreon a little later, talking to our Palace friend Dan from HLTCO. That should drop mid-morning, and if you haven’t had a chance in the meantime, you’ll find the Arsecast Extra below. And as always, we will live blog coverage and all the post-game stuff Arseblog news later.
Come on you reds!
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