5 instant reactions to Arsenal dominating Ipswich in the Carabao Cup
Arsenal just won their third away win on the bounce, eliminating Ipswich Town from the Carabao Cup. Max Dowman scored a brace, complemented by goals from Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino.
Arsenal will find out who they face in the fourth round when the Carabao Cup draw is made tomorrow. For now, though, fans will only be interested in the win from what was essentially their second team in many areas of the pitch.
Before we move into the next round, though, let's reflect on what we just saw with some instant reactions.
In case you've been living under a rock, Max Dowman is the future of Arsenal. Heck, he's the future of football.
Making a start, which has been a complete rarity for him this season, Dowman didn't let this opportunity go to waste. The young Englishman scored a brace, including a moment of individual brilliance in the first half, but his goals were almost secondary to the touches he made throughout the match.
With the ball stuck to his feet, he wowed the crowd yet again with his dazzling footwork to get out of tight situations.
Mikel Arteta will continue to monitor his minutes, but as understandable as that is, it's rather frustrating. Not to be greedy, but he could genuinely start for Arsenal week in, week out. Sigh, I guess it's better to be patient.
After what was a frankly disappointing finishing display against Napoli in the last midweek, Arsenal completely flipped that narrative on its head.
Unlike against Napoli, where Arsenal severely underperformed their xG (expected goals), they overachieved in the same metric against Ipswich. Despite only registering 0.95 xG, the Gunners scored an impressive four goals.
It was courtesy of some fine finishes from tough angles from Noni Madueke and Mikel Merino, and it was a far cry from the annoyance we saw in Naples.
Tonight, Arsenal fielded a rotated lineup, and that's not nothing.
Last season, Mikel Arteta drove key players into the ground. Arsenal won the league, but Arteta didn't make it any easier by risking injuries to the most important players.
This season, though, it's different. Without signing loads of players in the transfer window, Arsenal have so much depth. They can afford to play a second-fiddle lineup that is still capable of winning 4-2 against a Premier League team away from home; again, that's not nothing.
We all know Mikel Arteta loves having depth in the defence. If tonight taught him anything, it's that he has another player to throw into that rotation.
Martin Zubimendi was drafted into the defence at right-back to cover the void left by Ben White. It could have been Jurrien Timber, but as a precaution, Arsenal opted to leave him out of the squad.
Zubimendi at right-back could have easily been a recipe for disaster, but it wasn't. He was sound both on and off the ball, even registering an assist and 76 touches.
In his second start of the season, Viktor Gyokeres failed to make a case for making more starts. He hardly had a sniff of the ball in the first half, and we were shown why in the second half. In total, throughout the match, he made just 18 touches.
For whatever reason, he looks fatigued, which is concerning considering he hasn't played a lot of football this campaign.
Gyokeres is dejected, and he's clearly low in confidence. The good news is that we've seen this play out before, and his confidence soon came back when he scored. Now, we just need to wait for that floodgate to open.
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