From today, I would like to start this series called ‘Flash Past’ which will be covering the match preview of Arsenal games. Now you may ask ‘What makes it different from other previews?’ Well, I will try to make it to do so as much as I can and I will leave the judgment to you guys J
My First Match preview will be for West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal in Capital One Cup. We play against West Brom at The Hawthorns in 3rd round of the ‘Capital One Cup’. Rewinding or Rather I should say Flashing past 4 seasons ago(2009-10), we met West Brom in the same round of the competition(talk about coincidence) on a Tuesday night 22nd September 2009, which was then called as ‘Carling Cup’. Arsène Wenger named a very youngsters dominated 18 men squad for the fixture and I list them now as follows.
Squad for Carling Cup:
Wojciech Szczesny, James Shea, Philippe Senderos, Mikael Silvestre, Kieran Gibbs, Armand Traore, Kerrea Gilbert, Kyle Bartley, Mark Randall, Francis Coquelin, Craig Eastmond, Emmanuel Frimpong, Nacer Barazite, Aaron Ramsey, Gilles Sunu, Jack Wilshere, Carlos Vela, Sanchez Watt.
Among them, only six of them(bolded) are still in the Arsenal team and they have become regular starters now.
Lineup Then:
There were few interesting things that happened in the match. I will first list down the starting lineup and subs of Arsenal and West Brom.
Arsenal
Starting XI : Szczesny – Gilbert – Senderos – Gibbs – Silvestre(C) – Coquelin – Ramsey – Wilshere –Traore – Watt – Sunu
Subs : Shea – Bartley – Eastmond – Frimpong – Randall – Barazite – Vela
West Brom
Starting XI : Kiely – Olsson (C) – Barnett – Zuiverloon – Jara – Koren – Thomas –Moore – Dorrans – Teixeria – Cox
Subs : Carson – Meite – Martis – Mulumbu – Wood – Reid – Bednar
Blast from the Past:
Arsenal won the match 2-0 with goals from Watt and Vela. Watt became the 85th debut goal scorer for Arsenal. Vela scored after coming off the bench in second half.Vermaelen was the 84th debut goal scorer which came against Everton just a week before this match took place while Samir Na$ri was 83rd also scoring against West Brom a season back.
Ex-Arsenal Winger Jerome Thomas was red carded before Half time for pushing Jack Wilshere. Both goals came for Arsenal in a span of 8 minutes in second half scoring in 68th and 75th minute.
You can watch the highlights of the goals of our last COC fixture with West Brom here.
Capital One Cup History:
Arsenal have a poor record in COC history qualifying for finals 7 times having won it only twice whereas West Brom has made it thrice to the finals and won once way back in 1965-66 when it was a two-legged tie. You can go through the finals’ results of Arsenal and West Brom below.
Carling Cup
2010/11 Arsenal 1-2 Birmingham City
2006/07 Chelsea 2-1 Arsenal
Coca-Cola Cup
1992/93 Arsenal 2-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Littlewoods Cup
1987/88 Luton Town 3-2 Arsenal
1986/87 Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool *
The Football League Cup
1968/69 Swindon Town 3-1 Arsenal*
1967/68 Leeds United 1-0 Arsenal
The Football League Cup
1969/70 Manchester City 2-1 West Bromwich Albion*
1966/67 Queens Park Rangers 3-2 West Bromwich Albion
1965/66 West Bromwich Albion 1-2 West Ham United
West Bromwich Albion 4-1 West Ham United
Predicted Line-up:
On Wednesday, Arsène can again use the more younger side & also the players who have returned from injuries and use this COC as a testing platform and also as an opportunity to give a chance to Youngsters. Personally, I would like to watch Ryo play an entire match. I am also expecting Viviano, our GK loan signing of the summer to feature in the starting XI and also Monreal to get his first start of the season. As Wenger told, Wilshere will be rested. Giroud and Özil may also be rested.Frimpong, Arteta, Bendtner will fill in for each of them. It has been ages since he played football but expecting a decent performance from him. We can also expect our new Youth signing Semi Ajayi to feature in the starting line up. He scored on his debut against Blackburn and put up a solid performance in a 1-0 win against West Brom for youth team earlier this month.
Scoreline Prediction:
3-1 win for Arsenal as it has become some sort of a favorite score line to the team. Come on you Gunners!
Once again, I wish the team good luck and also for this series to continue without any hindrance. Please leave your comments below
Signing off!
No comments:
Post a Comment