So My Positive Friends,
It is the Carabao Cup tonight with our lads pitting their wits against Fergie Junior’s side, a team currently suffering a run of poor League form as they sit 19th in League one with just one win from eight matches. They did manage to put away Hull in the last CC round however. Talk of 5,500 Donny fans in the Clock End. Given Spurs poor turnout last night I hope the Ems is at least half full and we manage to match them for volume.
Our Team ? We know it will be a very different starting eleven from that which marched into the arena to do battle with Chelsea on Sunday. I fancy we shall have an experienced core of 4-5 including Jack, Olivier, Per and Elneny and the remainder will be youngsters. Beyond that I shall leave it to Arsene and Bould to sort out. Clearly it is a night to blood a few new faces, but we want to progress into the next round. While the Carabao Cup is not the Champions League by the time the semi finals are in sight with Wembley to follow it is a trophy worth competing for and, hopefully, winning.
Their team ? I know nothing of our opponents’ playing personnel, other than they are led by a 36 year old striker, James Coppinger. Mr Coppinger @Coppinger26 is well known as a Doncaster “legend” so I hope if our young lads find themselves marking the old codger they treat him with due respect. Given their League difficulties and seven goals in their eight league games they will not expect to outscore us. They will however be on the big stage for once and will work hard.
No doubt our visitors are hopeful that they will enjoy the evening, even if they are spanked. And why not ?
I see in the media there is talk of Arsene accommodating ol’Bluenose himself at the stadium. After years of what seemed like real dislike between the two best managers in PL history peace has broken out, it is said that there is mutual respect bordering on affection. Aye – In time all things must pass.
Good luck with the streams tonight – I suspect we shall all need it. And for those attend the game enjoy your evening.
I attach below a link to the last time we took on Donny in the FA Cup in January 1953, a year we won the Cup. Mr Cholmondley-Warner commentating;
Positively Arsenal 
refusing to score….
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Classic bottom of the table League One clash Rich
Oh and as I say that Donny hit the bar !
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WBA 1-1 Man City
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The keeper has done well to be fair
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FT: Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster
on top for most of the game, but ended up hanging on a bit
alexis very poor for me.
Jack very good, but ran out of steam late on.
Impressed by DaSilva although he made one mistake.
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all games tonight going as expected, city back in front at wba
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Frankly of our lot on show this evening; only Wishere, Elneny and Ospina earned a spot on the starting XVI.
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We’re through. Plenty of youngsters got to play. Sounds alright to me.
I’m looking at BBC stats and comparing them to some twitter shrieks and wondering how bad you can play with 27 shots to 7 in a game. Not saying that means we played great but can’t imagine it being as poor as some on twitter are suggesting
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Good – we won.
Elneny had a good game, Jack a good first half, and Iwobi’s introduction might just have been decisive.
My sincere congratulations to Doncaster Rovers – A fine effort.
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I refuse to do a review for that. Turgid .
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where was that famed Alexis work rate, Ozil would be hung drawn and quartered for that sort of effort
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Olly played all of this game. Wonder if he will start vs West Brom on Monday? We created numerous chances but either bad luck or poor execution prevented scoring. Knowing Arsenal, somebody soon is going to get a major shellacking.
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Did we stick with three at back after Chambers went off by the way? I figured only reason we played that formation was because all of Mert, holding, chambers needed to play.
Also, weirdly, after having too many left backs recently- with main two, plus Gibbs, Bramall, as well as Ox and Bellerin playing left wing back- we’re a tiny bit short there for these games, given Monreal and Kolasinac are both first 11.
Guess it’ll be Maitland Niles and Da Silva. Ok with that. First is surely destined not to play there and second is pretty raw so we should make allowances for them in this competition when playing there, and for other youngsters, especially if in new positions and with more than one in team.
We’re through, they got minutes. I’m happy with that
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CC last 16
BPL teams
Arsenal,
Chelsea
Spurs
Man Utd
Man City
Everton
Bournemouth
West Ham
Swansea
Leicester
Crystal Palace
lower league
Middlesbrough
Norwich
Bristol City
Leeds
Wolves
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Rich we stuck with 3 at the back, Holding went to rigth CB, Per in middle and DaSilva went lcb
Nelson and AMN the wingbacks
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8 English men seen action for us tonight.
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I’m not quite sure if we were playing 3 at the back after Chambers went off – at times DaSilva seemed to be on the left of the three but a bit later he would be playing in front of Per and Rob. AMN had a couple of good moments tonight as the fastest man on the pitch.
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Cheers Ed. Hadn’t considered it previously, but with Chambers off we didn’t really have anyone suitable for right back if switching to back 4.
I think it’s probably a case by case basis, really, what you can get from/for young players using them in positions they don’t favour. Thought, actually, any youngster with a really good attitude should recognise what a great opportunity it is for them.
Easy for me to say having not watched it tonight, but struggling to believe the game deserves negativity I’m seeing on twitter.
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Arsenal V Norwich….
Home again, oh well, that is nice
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Norwich home. Like it. Can play few youngsters again. But no chance we get on telly!
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From telegraph blog
10:08pm
And finally
Bournemouth v Middlesbrough
10:07pm
Leicester next up
Leicester v Leeds United
10:07pm
Sixth tie
Man City v Wolves
10:06pm
Chelsea next
Chelsea v Everton
10:06pm
Arsenal out
Arsenal v Norwich City
10:06pm
United drawn
Swansea v Man Utd
10:06pm
Second
Bristol City v Crystal Palace
10:05pm
First up
Spurs v West Ham
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Rich our second string won a cup game, we dominated for most of the game, let Donny back into it when Jack tired and we had brought on DaSilva for Chambers, making it 3 youths playing out of position. And the ASB are in meltdown on twitter. Oddly from what I see, our goal scorer Theo Walcott is more of a target than Alexis who was awful. For some he was actually our man of the match and yes his poor performance was down to Giroud not being good enough to play with him, and Wenger stupidly annoying Alexis by playing him in the CC, how very dare our manager select one of our players for a game.
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Happy with that draw, good chance to play the squad men again and still make last 8. Also 3 all BPL games, Spurs v West Ham a tasty one, Swansea v Utd not bad either and chelsea v everton means cfc can’t take it lightly either.
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Wenger’s after game comments
Chambers went off with a hip injury and is out for a week or two
Theo went off with a kick to back of knee but should be ok
Alexis ready for BPL game
Jack needed the 90 minutes, he is ready for selection but might need another 90 minutes of this sort of game to be fully ready
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either side of the Norwich game we have league games away to Everton and home to Swansea, both clubs also in the last 16
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Doncaster got the performance, Arsenal got the result.
Lots of fit players got a good run out.
Biggest game of the season on Monday
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tonight was the first time in 3 years Wilshere played a full 90 minutes for AFC
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hope Debuchy is back for next round, as our weakness in the selection tonight was both wingbacks not being wingbacks,
Having Coquelin as an option in CM would be good too.
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Don’t listen to the ASB on Twitter Rich. The game was fine. I think some people are just annoyed that we didn’t put a hatful past The Donny’s, but sometimes it’s just fine margins that stand between a win and a comprehensive beating. A few inches and Giroud’s 100th would have been a goal to remember. Bearing in mind this was another mix and match team with inexperienced youngsters, players who spend more time on the bench than the pitch and some on the long road back from injury I thought they all did well.
For me Elneny was the stand out performer. Reiss Nelson looked like a fish out of water as a wing-back, but he did grow into the game. I think some of our youngsters found it hard to maintain focus for the full 90 minutes as they are not used to playing at this level of intensity. Jack is showing promising signs of getting back to his best. I wonder if Giroud’s quest for his 100th goal is inhibiting him somewhat? He was much more involved than in the Europa league game, but he gets no protection whatsoever from the man in the middle – he is constantly dragged down and fouled with little consequence for the opposing CB’s.
I was pleased that despite their public proclamations there was little evidence of Doncaster trying to win through foul play. Maybe the officials had a word prior to the game. I understand they are struggling in their league, but maybe going toe-to-toe with The Arsenal and only losing by one goal will give them a kick-start – they were not terrible. Their goal keeper made a few good saves. And let’s say a word for our much maligned number 2. He had little to do, but did what was required when called into action. As for Alexis, I actually thought he was better than in the EL game, but he does hold onto the ball too long and fails to make the simple pass when it’s on in his desire for the spectacular or personal glory.
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Josh DaSilva is an interesting player, he has played DM, AM, ST, LB, LWB for the youths and U23’s, and tonight he makes his debut for the first team as a CB
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Wenger has his press call for Monday’s league game with WBA tomorrow morning live on Arsenal.com from 8.45am,
seems crazy to me that we are having a press call 5 days before the game.
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Real Madrid lost 1-0 at home to Real Betis tonight, they are now, after 5 games, 7pts behind Barcelona
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Highlight of the night for me: Steww’a first appearance on PA this season. Even if it was to a link that my old steam machine couldn’t pick up. First game I’ve missed for years. Sounds like I didn’t miss much?
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Seen clip of Giroud’s effort against bar. So nearly a truly great goal. As well as the crackers he has scored, that’s now three incredible strikes from him which so nearly made it- thunderous half- volley last minute against Everton against upright, and an amazing goal for France, volley again, disallowed not long ago.
Him and Wilshere have an excellent understanding and we should get to see quite a lot of it in Europa league, plus, hopefully, a few more in league cup
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