The Arsenal (A) Carabao Cup Match Thread 19.12.17 19:45

ASLEFshrugged

Just finished work, sounds as if I didn't miss much...

How was Quina?

TwistandShout

horshamhammer said:

0 shots on target against Arsenal's reserves. A cup is the only trophy we are ever going to win, and we barely made an effort.

Shameful.

Couldn't agree more, so disappointing

TwistandShout

welovethehammers said:

Unfortunately couldn't watch the game... what did I miss?

'Unfortunately' - trust me you were 'fortunate'.

0 shots on target in a cup quarter final.

thornburyiron

We only had 1 off target so poor was our attacking. Having said that they only had 1 on target and that went in.
Lets hope we are more up for it on Saturday against Newcastle because they gave Arsenal a game at the weekend against their first team.

Cuz1

I’m sure Come full time Saturday tonight’s result be forgotten with another three points and a move up the table COYI

chicagohammer

Just traveling home now so unable to watch game, reading the above it does not seem like I missed much.

Ho hum,

welovethehammers

How was Masuaku at RB?

By looking at the lineup i can't see how we would have any creativity with Rice and Obiang in central midfield. Did it come across this way? Looks like one heck of a defensive line up.

baracks_a_hammer

Not being able to muster a single shot on target against Arsenal’s reserve side (who themselves didn’t play very well) is as abject as it gets. Utterly shameful and the club should reimburse the away supporters for that embarrassing display.

Is this what it is getting to though? The reserve teams of the big (bankrolled) sides battle it out for the cups whilst their first teams fight for the title? Very worrying for the game as a whole

Lukerz

I wouldn’t be too hard on the side. All of these phrases like ‘shameful’, ‘pathetic’ etc. It was a poor, scrappy game which highlighted at the minute we lack a bit of squad depth in the middle of the pitch. Let’s stop saying ‘Arsenal’s reserves’. We had a weaker team out too and Walcott, Welbeck and Giroud as a front 3? Those have scored countless goals against us over the years.

You can’t keep relying on Masuaku running up the pitch 50 yards as our only means of attack. But unfortunately there was not a lot in midfield and not a lot of balance. Rice, Quina, Obiang, Ayew and then no natural right-sided player at RWB. I think the lack of balance made us quite disjointed, but we stayed in the game, restricted Arsenal to only 8 attempts and the goal we lost to was more sloppy on our part. Taking Nobes, Lanzini, Arnie and Antonio was going to leave us toothless. That front 3 is very dynamic.

We need some more depth and some signings in January. I think there is a case for a couple of CM’s (definitely one) and a natural winger. Maybe another RB/RWB option too.

And without blaming the fixtures, given we’ve just had 3 games in 7 days and move into the hectic Xmas January period as of Saturday, having a cup quarter final sandwiched in between is hardly great planning by the organisers. Could it not have been pushed back or brought forward? Especially when the last game we played in this competition was October?

But confidence remains in tact going into Newcastle. That is a big game for us. 3 points and we’d be on 20 and have more points than games played for the first time this season.

TheMadcapLaughs

I think what the game highlighted was how thin our squad is in actual quality. We had 6/7 first team regulars missing, and on the face of it, and on paper, the replacements looked half decent, unfortunately they didn`t/couldn`t perform. It`s fairly obvious that Moyes & Co. are being paid on Premier League survival so the League Cup becomes almost an irrelevance (to Moyes and the board) but not to the fans. As others have said, we will never win the league, cups should be our small crumb of comfort, a chance for a bit of excitement and entertainment. Football at this level seems to have forgotten the fans in favour of Premier League survival and TV money. I had a really good stream as well last night, the blighters.

Welove: Cresswell played right wing back last night, which meant that any time he pushed forward in a bit of space he checked back inside and passed backwards. Masuaku played at left wing back.

grey_til_I_dye

Arsenal reserves?

Talk about looking for excuses to knock the club...

We are in a relegation fight, and a run of two games a week.

A couple of weeks ago we were going to get smashed by Citeh, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Now we're a disgrace because we lost 1-0 at the Emirates?

ASLEFshrugged

welovethehammers said:

How was Masuaku at RB?

Masuaku played on the left, Creswell on the right.

Lukerz

I think in an ideal world you play your best side and try and win the cup regardless of league position. But that’s not how football is played now. If we were sitting in the top 10, I’m sure we’d have had a few more first team players in the XI. But as this side has left us in the mess and waited until December to begin turning it around, they’ve almost self-sacrificed the chance of cup glory. Only a couple of months ago we were getting battered by Brighton in score and Palace in performance.

It also has to come from the top. If Sully said to Moyes ‘I want a cup win if you want to be taken on permanently’, the side last night would’ve been different. As it is he’s been told to keep us up.

It’s not nice but it won’t change in the modern era. For us to win a cup we have to be doing well at Xmas. We’ve been so poor Aug-Nov that we’ve almost been forced to give it up.

secrethammersfan

Great strategic move by Moyes. 6 changes, bringing in the new players, which means players and fans understand we weren't taking it seriously, and we can go against Newcastle with the confidence of the last three Premiership performances. You've got to focus on something, and unfortunately, this year, we need to focus on league placing. Because of this, we have:
-no loss of confidence, which could have happened if our first XI had got hockeyed by Arsenal
-a few of the young lads got a run out
-Hart got to play, so he can keep his row shut
-a bit of a rest for Arnautovic, Zabaleta, Antonio

Never nice to end a cup run, but I'm looking at the above plusses.

Lukerz

Anybody see the ‘exclusive’ in the Mail about Sakho having a row with Moyes about why he wasn’t playing more and Moyes then dropping him from the XI last night? Apparently we owe him £50,000 when he starts games. Only the Mail but saw it this morning.

Adam

We would have had to play Tottenham, Arsenal, Man City/Man U/Chelsea, Man City/Man U/Chelsea from the last 16 to the final in order to win the cup.

It’s nice to have a cup run, but our chances were very, very, very, very small to win it.

alderz

Adam ;ok

And the trouble with the league cup is that the two legged semi final means it isn't a case of just turning up on the day. I would fancy our chances in a one off against any of those, but over two legs? Extremely unlikely.

OldCastleSwift

To be honest, I'm surprised by some of the language being used by our fans across various platforms. "Disgraceful", "shameful", "pathetic". It's pretty mild on here compared to some of the Facebook pages.

I've been an advocate of this competition for clubs like ours. It represents our best chance of every winning a trophy. However, as has been said a number of times above, we simply have to prioritise the league. How would people feel if we went all out and played our first XI, still lost, and then lost to Newcastle due to fatigue or injury? I'm pretty sure that had Moyes played Arnautovic and he got injured he'd be hammered for playing our best player in a tin pot cup that we had no chance of winning anyway.

Of course, we may still lose to Newcastle, but I for one am glad that Moyes rested Zaba, Antonio and Arnautovic because they're key players for us and the latter two represent our best chance of beating the barcodes.

The reality is that every team has priorities outside of the league cup. This season in particular, there's probably only three or four teams that have nothing to play for at this stage. I think Moyes did the sensible thing in our situation and had we had less injuries then I think we'd have seen a few more first teamers rested.

I'm hoping that by sacrificing this competition, we can beat Newcastle, Bournemouth and West Brom, and with Shrewsbury in the FA Cup, we may be in a position to take that cup a bit more seriously, but the harsh financial truth is that we cannot afford to be League Cup winners in the Championship.

TwistandShout

grey_til_I_dye said:

Arsenal reserves?

Talk about looking for excuses to knock the club...

We are in a relegation fight, and a run of two games a week.

A couple of weeks ago we were going to get smashed by Citeh, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Now we're a disgrace because we lost 1-0 at the Emirates?

We're a 'disgrace' because in a knock out competition we had no attacking intent. We had nothing to lose. Arsenal had 2 young centre backs we should have been testing them from the start. I hate how we've thrown a cup quarter final... Yeah because we get this far in cups every year don't we...

Bazshuayi

That would be the Arsenal reserves that sailed through the Europe league recently...

Lets be real here, we just played Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City plus went from being called unfit and lacking effort to displaying plenty of heart/guts. The cup game came totally at the wrong time and I wouldve been happy if everyone was rested apart from Adrian!

Beating Newcastle and putting 5 points between us and them is massive!! If we can do that and basically do a quick 'Everton' winning a few on the bounce then the season wont be spent looking over our shoulders at the bottom 3!

Yep the cups the only thing we have a chance of winning but the league is so much more of a priority plus we have a lot of games on the horizon coming fast that we need decent points from.

Cup ;wave

Yeoldhammer

Lets be honest we wheel out the "League over Cup" every season though.

Bazshuayi

yep but this year is the first in a while Ive been scared of relegation ;puzzled

Yeoldhammer

I've not being alive that long and I seen us relegated a few times, not exactly anything new ;lol

TheMadcapLaughs

Perhaps if relegation wasn`t so "catastrophic" and the Champions League wasn`t considered the pinnacle of league club competition then we would take our domestic cup competitions more seriously. For those hovering in and around the relegation zone, and those hovering around the top four, the League Cup, and even more unfortunately the FA Cup, are considered inconveniences. It`s progress.

Bazshuayi

The funny thing is that when we're in the champo I end up enjoying it ;lol I just dread the thought of going down and staying there or even worse. Coincidentally, was talking to a bloke from Portsmouth today and thats a great example

TwistandShout

If our game on Saturday was 'do or die' where we had to get 3 points to stay up, i would understand it. But it isn't. Still 5 months of the season left. I just find it baffling

thornburyiron

I see it as not necessarily deliberately giving the opportunity up but more a case of needing to rest players and our not having a strong enough squad with quality to replace them.

Bazshuayi

we need our majority of points in the coming weeks as we then have another chunk of tougher games. A few injuries and reverting to poor displays and we're in trouble. If we dont beat Newcastle and cause that gap then I think we could possibly be struggling all season plus the good work in recent games undone. Just my opinion and whilst we'd all love to get to a cup final it'll just have to be the FA Cup ;wink

horshamhammer

TwistandShout said:

We're a 'disgrace' because in a knock out competition we had no attacking intent. We had nothing to lose. Arsenal had 2 young centre backs we should have been testing them from the start. I hate how we've thrown a cup quarter final... Yeah because we get this far in cups every year don't we...

Well said. Although I can't say I'm surprised. We even throw European games these days...

Pearces_Left_Foot

I went last night a very poor scrappy game 1 shot on target from both teams all night and that was a toe poke from 3 yards. Arsenal I think still fielded 9 international players unfortunately Quina and Rice in midfield were overrun at times and there was plenty of effort they did n't in anyway disgrace themselves. Masuaka was our best player again Hart's kicking was poor. Loads of empty seats makes me wonder why our allocation was so low when Norwich got 9,000 the previous round. Re team selection I think Moyes tried to get balance between experience and the need to rest players but our squad is a bit thin inidfield and against Arsenal we never really got hold of the ball for long enough to do much with it.