Arsenal must give Youth a chance at West Brom

Arsenal are edging closer to the start of our third competition this year. Today we play WBA, who on Saturday made sure Di Canio will not see October as a premier league boss. I am looking forward to the match very much, but the only thing that would make me happier than watching the game would be if we didn’t have a game to play during the week. We are down on players and those who are still standing are down on energy supplies, so the carling cup (or however it’s called this year) comes as a burden. We have loads of players that are in dire need of a break (Giroud, Ramsey, Özil, Wilshere, Sagna) and than there is Walcott, who is or isn’t available, who knows (if Arsene doesn’t then I can’t either). Come Wednesday I would basically leave out every player that started the Stoke game (including Theo-if he has some problems than he needs a break, easy as that). I leave the keeper choice to The Boss, while defence would be Jenkinson-Vermaelen-Monreal. As you see I am missing on more cb, but here I can’t decide whether to put in Koscielny or a new guy. I would leave Mert out because two team captains are enough for one game). Midfield should be (and will be) commanded by Arteta, helped by Dench, while the creative part is up to Eisfeld. The spearhead of our attack must be Bendtner (or Sanogo if he’s up to it), with Gnabry and Akpom around him (we could replace Akpom with Ryo. There you have it, starting 11 for the game. Some of you might say that the team is not capable of winning or even being a decent oposition to WBA but I disagree. The defensive side of the game will be nicely balanced in our team: keeper (who every he may be) + TV5-Jenkinson-new guy-Monreal and Arteta-Dench in front of them should, will be enough. And with defence settled, the attack can go on without worries. I do feel Eisfeld has been neglected for too long, so he needs his moment to shine. Kids will never get good or experienced enough if they don’t play, so I would give Ryo and Gnabry more chances. And since half of our first team players are coming back, youth won’t get many chances in the league. Bendtner did perform for us on occasions, I would put him in before Sanogo, we do need someone with experience also in the final third and it would be interesting to see if he has anything left to offer or is he here just for money grabbing. Players like Sanogo, Akpom, Bellerin would be included in the game from the bench. I don’t rate this cup highly. I did like the way Arsene used it to blood youngsters a few years ago and believe we should return to that. Plus, it will give the rest of the team time to get their strength back, because Swansea and Napoli will be unforgiving. And we do play WBA again very soon, so let’s not show all the cards. The mixture of youth and our two captains will hopefully do the job, if not, we can trash WBA in October with the big guns.