Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video
Arsenal are through to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup after a 2-0 win over Brighton last night.
Mikel Arteta rang the changes, making 10 in all from the team that beat Crystal Palace on Sunday. Eberechi Eze was the only starter from that game to keep his place, but he was deployed out on the left as Ethan Nwaneri played in the midfield role. There was a first start for summer signing Piero Hincapie, a first senior start for Max Dowman, and a full debut for young forward Andre Harriman-Annous.
As you might expect, we were a bit disjointed at first, and Brighton probably should have taken advantage. They had two glorious chances to score, one which Kepa Arrizabalaga stopped with a decent save (although I thought it was a poor effort too), and one from a break after an Arsenal corner which they put wide with just the keeper to beat. I think it’s also fair to say the visitors had the best of the first 45 minutes, with 10 shots to our 3, and what we did have to offer from an attacking perspective wasn’t particularly threatening.
Dowman was probably our brightest first half performer, running at their defence often and with good effect. He combined well with Ben White at times, and for 15 year old up against grown men, it was another demonstration of the talent and potential he has. Everyone knows that though, what was more interesting to me was seeing his defensive awareness and willingness to chase back, because we know that’s what the manager demands of his wingers.
It was also really pleasing to see the manager resist the temptation to turn to his star-studded bench at the break, and show faith in the starting XI. I thought both Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri found the first 45 a bit of a struggle. The former had some physical battles he came out of second best, and the latter wasn’t really able to impose himself in the opposition half. Talk about a game of two halves for both of them, and for Arsenal, though. We were much better after the break, Nwaneri started to get himself into positions where he could unleash that left foot of his, and Lewis-Skelly got to grips with the battle and started to influence things on the ball too.
The opening goal came after really lovely, patient football from us in the build-up, with 16 or 17 passes in front of a Brighton defence who sat in their own half with 11 men behind the ball. Often, when faced with this kind of defensive set-up, we’ve used set-pieces to crack the game open, but this time it was a superb back-heel from Mikel Merino who spotted Lewis-Skelly’s run off the back of Georginio Rutter. He played it across to Nwaneri whose first time finish beat the keeper to make it 1-0 with his first goal of the season. He’s now into double figures for Arsenal goals scored, a small milestone but worth noting.
Open play, and very nice open play too? Don’t mind if we do. This team isn’t a one-trick pony. It’s a multi-trick … er … horse. Or something. Just a lovely goal, and it was great to see the two grizzled veterans of Hale End combine to make it happen. It’s easy to forget that Nwaneri and MLS are just 18 and 19 respectively. There have been a lot of questions about their playing time this season, but they’re still so young in the grand scheme of things, so let’s allow them to develop in a ‘normal’ way. Contributions like last night will really help.
I don’t really remember Brighton threatening an equaliser, despite the fact they made changes to try and shift the dynamic of the game. Arteta responded in kind, and when Jurrien Timber powered down the line and into the their half, a good pass found the smart run of Harriman-Annous. It would have been the truly romantic thing if he’d scored, but the keeper made a save. Not to worry, Bukayo Saka was there to pick the ball up and slot it home to make it 2-0.
And that’s how it stayed. Fabian Hurzeler, perhaps weighed down by that woolly cardigan-hoodie thing he was wearing, could do nothing to change the scoreline. He might have some regrets that his side didn’t make the most of their first half chances, but on the basis of the second 45, I think we deserved to go through.
Afterwards, Mikel Arteta was delighted that he could make so many changes and still get the result against very decent opposition, saying:
A very special evening, to be fair, very happy for various reasons. Obviously, we are in the quarter-finals, we won the game against a really tough opponent. We made 10 changes, we played players that never played together, yet we had two huge debuts for Max and Andre. That feeling of giving the opportunity to somebody and fulfilling a dream is unique. I’m very happy that things turned out to be very positive and we managed to win the game.
And on the depth of his squad:
When we need them, they are there and they are ready. Again, we have a lot of injured players in the front line, so we could see we have the depth. But today we were struggling with some positions already and it’s October. We’re going to need them. It was a great test for them and I take a lot of learning from it.
Let’s not forget, this was an Arsenal squad without William Saliba, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke who are all injured. I don’t think we’re ever going to have a completely clean bill of health but the fact some of those players should be returning soon gives the manager so many different options, and hopefully allows us to produce the right results and performances.
A quick word for a couple of other players. Bar one mistake, I thought Cristhian Mosquera looked really good again, and it was important to get minutes into the legs of White and Hincapie who have been peripheral due to injury struggles so far this season. In goal, Kepa showed the value of a good experienced number 2 goalkeeper, and while some have asked questions about Merino at times, I thought last night was a great example of how his seniority, and somewhat underrated technical level, was good glue for those around him.
The reward for beating Brighton is a quarter-final against Crystal Palace, due to take place on either December 16th or 17th, but there may well be some issues with that. Palace play Man City on Sunday December 14th (on Sky Sports), and have a Europa Conference League game against Finnish side KuPS scheduled for Thursday December 18th. Quite where this cup tie fits into that, I have no idea, but that’s a problem for someone else to figure out.
For now, we can put the EFL Cup to one side, and focus again on the Premier League and our trip to Burnley on Saturday. Right, I’ll leave it there for now. I will have an Arsecast for you at some point today, but not entirely sure when it will be released. It might well be afternoon, but it’ll be out later on.
Have a good one.
