With a place in the semi-final of England’s finest domestic cup competition beckoning, our quarter final clash at home to Southampton is all set to be a cracker to sign off what has been an unbeaten, yet pretty average November. Let’s not forget that Southampton’s own blend of youth and experience (experi-youth I call it) knocked us out of the competition a couple of years ago.
With Hull City and Liverpool already through, it will be either us or Southampton, and either Manchester United or West Ham, who also play tonight in the semi-final draw after the games.
In these games, it hard to gauge whether the team news is good or bad, as our very own Tinkerman Arsene Wenger likes to use a blend of experi-youth and keeps this impressively courageous staunch philosophy right through to the final while lesser, more bellendier managers soon toss their principles aside and change their minds when the sniff of League Cup glory comes close. Team News: It’s thought Jose Mourinho will play his first team this evening against West Ham.
Lucas Perez should return after his long injury lay off, ironically his last game was in the EFL Cup against Nottingham Forest, while Olivier Giroud sits out with the injury he picked up in the win over Bournemouth at the weekend. Mathieu Debuchy will also be missing, injured in the same game, so Carl Jenkinson should feature in the right back slot, and Petr Cech and David Ospina will make way for our ‘like a new signing’ keeper Emiliano Martinez in goal.
It’s also thought that Sir Wenger could use Maitland-Niles, The Jeff and Rob Holding for the game and could use the game as an opportunity to get players like Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez out of the red zone and into the Donald Trump fake tan and Shreddie haired zone ahead of this Saturday’s game at West Ham.
