English Football League Cup
Leicester City vs Arsenal
Arsenal travel to Leicester City today to take on the Foxes in the Carabao Cup 3rd round. The Gunners have struggled at the King Power, amassing a poor 1-2-3 record since the Foxes returned to the Premier League in 2014. Of course, no fans in the stadium because of COVID-19 makes it a different story.
Arsenal have only won the League Cup twice in club history: 86-87 and 92-93. With the final coming at the end of February, Mikel Arteta needs to win this one to keep up his 1 trophy every 30-odd matches record.
Here are my hopes for today’s match, in order of importance: no injuries, squad rotation / minutes for younger players, actually winning the match. We say it every year but in this condensed, fixture-congested season it rings even more true: taking matchdays off the calendar by going out of a cup competition would not be the worst thing in the world. As a reminder, I always want Arsenal to win, but today, not winning would be significantly less unfortunate.
Both Cedric Soares and Kieran Tierney are being held out today for precautionary reasons. Sokratis misses out with a calf injury. Emile Smith Rowe is out with a shoulder injury, which is a bummer because I bet he would have started if he were fit. The long-term injuries are unchanged. Leicester will be without fullback Ricardo Pereira and centerbacks Jonny Evans and Filip Benkovic.
Arsenal have only won the League Cup twice in club history: 86-87 and 92-93. With the final coming at the end of February, Mikel Arteta needs to win this one to keep up his 1 trophy every 30-odd matches record.
Here are my hopes for today’s match, in order of importance: no injuries, squad rotation / minutes for younger players, actually winning the match. We say it every year but in this condensed, fixture-congested season it rings even more true: taking matchdays off the calendar by going out of a cup competition would not be the worst thing in the world. As a reminder, I always want Arsenal to win, but today, not winning would be significantly less unfortunate.
Both Cedric Soares and Kieran Tierney are being held out today for precautionary reasons. Sokratis misses out with a calf injury. Emile Smith Rowe is out with a shoulder injury, which is a bummer because I bet he would have started if he were fit. The long-term injuries are unchanged. Leicester will be without fullback Ricardo Pereira and centerbacks Jonny Evans and Filip Benkovic.