Arsenal at Ipswich Town Carabao Cup preview: On the trot
The Gunners take on the Tractor Boys for the third round of the Carabao Cup
Arsenal are halfway through their four match run of away days after leaving it late at the Stadium of Light on Saturday for a physical 0-2 win. After a quick turnaround, they hit the road for a third round Carabao Cup match against recently-promoted Ipswich Town.
The Gunners made it all the way to the finals of last season’s contest where a depleted side lost 2-0 to Manchester City. Despite a fairly illustrious history in English competitions, Arsenal have found success hard to come by in England’s secondary cup competition. They have only won it twice, with the most recent title coming back in the 1992/93 season. When you compare it to their record 14 FA Cup titles, it’s a bit of a head scratcher how they have been so unsuccessful in the Carabao Cup.
Tuesday starts their quest anew as they look to finally take the title after making it all the way to Wembley last season. It may not be the most celebrated contest, but a trophy’s a trophy. With the depth they have built and the experience of winning of the Premier League behind them, can they stamp their names on the contest and continue their winning run to start the season?
Ipswich Town are back in the Premier League after a year in the Championship. Their domestic campaign is off to a decent start with two wins and two losses after Gary O’Neil took over in the summer.
Results this early don’t always paint a complete picture. On the one hand, victories over Sunderland and Crystal Palace have them in the top half of the table. But their recent win over a Palace side that has looked well off the mark so far came after having a man advantage for nearly an hour and netting a stoppage time winner.
Likewise, their losses show a bit of where their ceiling is. They traveled to Old Trafford where Manchester United battered them 5-2 before Liverpool came to Portman Road and put two past them in the opening 10 minutes. They fought admirably after the fact, even amassing more xG than the visitors, but just couldn’t capitalize.
They have already opened their Carabao Cup campaign after beating a rapidly tumbling Leicester City side 3-1 in the opening round. They were outshot and outpossessed, but took the win to punch their ticket to the third round, where they drew the Gunners.
Their biggest deficiency has been their inability to keep goals out of the net. In the PL, they have conceded 10 so far, which is on par with last placed Coventry and only one better than Crystal Palace. Half of those goals came against United, but they have given up at least two goals in their last three matches and have not kept a clean sheet since the season began.
Their attack is decent, and they will hope they can take advantage of hosting a rotated Arsenal side that endured 90 minutes of non-stop physical play from Sunderland on Saturday. The Tractor Boys’ 7 goals scored so far in the league are good enough for joint-4th most, with defender Leif Davis and attacker Emersonn leading the side with 2 goals apiece.
They also splashed a good amount of cash over the summer, having spent €220m on incoming players. Former Brighton man Julio Enciso is the pick of the bunch, and he brings the sort of energetic edge that you typically associate with Bournemouth as he already leads the side with 14 shots. Former Gunner Chuba Akpom also joined over the summer and will look forward to facing his former club.
Ipswich can be a headache if and when they get it together, but early returns show a side still gelling. Under the bright lights at home, though, the Gunners will need to be ready for them to come out of the gates strong as they will look to knock Arsenal out of the contest and notch their first marquee win of the season.
Is it too much to ask that both Ben White and Jurrien Timber can be fit at the same time?
Timber returned to the bench for the Sunderland match after recovering from a nagging groin injury all summer and was likely to get some second half run out, but Ben White coming off at halftime with a knock guaranteed that. White looked to be in noticeable discomfort, though no definitive news has been given about his injury.
With him likely out, that means Arsenal’s right back rotation remains depleted as Cristhian Mosquera continues to recover from his hamstring injury suffered at Aston Villa.
William Saliba remains out until December at the earliest.
OUT: William Saliba (back)
DOUBT: Cristhian Mosquera (hamstring), Ben White (knock)
Expect full-scale rotations from the gaffer for the 4th most important competition. Eberechi Eze has become the defacto second choice for the left wing, while Viktor Gyökeres will have a chance to shake off his rather anonymous display against Napoli last week. Noni Madueke takes the right, with Max Dowman his likely understudy. A strong showing from all three will do them (and the side) well. It wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see a few academy lads on the bench as backups.
It’s wild to think that Arsenal’s second choice players in the midfield would start for almost every other PL side, but that’s a testament to the depth Arteta has built. Bruno Guimarães follows up his match-defining cameo against Sunderland with a start, while Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino start alongside him.
Defense: Hincapie, Gabriel, Konsa, Timber
The back line is likely to feature a few of the usual names with three players either out or nursing knocks. Piero Hincapie was solid against Napoli and looks to come in for Riccardo Calafiori on the left. Gabriel Magalhães and Ezri Konsa remain in the middle, while Jurrien Timber gets his first start of the season after returning from a lengthy injury spell when he came on for Ben White at Sunderland. That also means that Marli Salmon, who got a lot of run out in the pre-season, should make the bench for this one.
It was a bit of a surprise that Arsenal did not move on from Kepa Arrizabalaga in the summer after acquiring Illan Meslier on a free from Leeds United. All that considered, it’s likely that the Frenchman gets the start while Kepa is the FA Cup keeper. If Kepa starts on Tuesday, then it’s likely the inverse. Either way, David Raya gets the night off.
WHO: Arsenal at Ipswich Town
WHAT: Carabao Cup 3rd Round
WHEN: Tuesday, September 15th, 3:00pm EST/12:00pm PST/8:00pm GMT
WHERE: Portman Road, Ipswich
HOW TO WATCH: Streaming live on the Paramount+ and Amazon Prime apps.
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After a poor showing from the backup, how does this affect decisions going forward?
The Gunners vie for their first trophy in six seasons as they face Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final
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