Arsenal went through to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace last night. It was real cup-tie stuff too, as Mikel Arteta’s heavily rotated team went behind early, and struggled to really threaten in the first half, before half-time changes completely changed the dynamic of the game.
The early goal for Palace was not Jakub Kiwior’s finest moment. He completely missed his header when the keeper lumped a long ball forward, which was bad enough in itself, but he actually got back to Jean-Philippe Mateta and wasn’t strong enough to prevent the Frenchman finishing from close range. There was another iffy moment for the Polish international a couple of minutes later, again a long ball found him indecisive, but after that he settled down and did pretty well.
What was more of an issue in the first half was the lack of balance. Thomas Partey at right-back was playing too far infield, perhaps a consequence of Kieran Tierney starting on the left, but he and Jurrien Timber were too close to each other all the time, which left Ethan Nwaneri on his own too much when he drifted out to the wing. There were a couple of moments, Sterling setting up Leandro Trossard for a shot he should have done better with, and Sterling himself drawing a very good save from Henderson with a free kick around the 30 minute mark. Beyond that, we struggled, and it was no surprise Arteta made a couple of subs for the second 45.
I felt a bit sorry for Nwaneri when he was replaced by Martin Odegaard. In the first half Partey was bad behind him, Sterling was bad in front of him, and I expected a bit more of two senior players with a 17 year between them. However, the introduction of the captain, and shifting Timber to right-back after William Saliba also came on, worked really well. We immediately looked more dangerous, there was some penetration to our game, and the main beneficiary was Gabriel Jesus.
Suffice to say I did not have him down for a hat-trick in my pre-game thoughts, but that’s what he delivered. The first came from a sensational Odegaard pass, he took it on with a nice touch around the defender, and for a man whose finishing hasn’t been his strong point (even outside of this goal drought), the finesse to make it 1-1 was really impressive.
There was fluidity to Arsenal’s play, particularly when Bukayo Saka was introduced for Sterling, and he was able to combine with Timber and Odegaard on that side. And it was from there the second goal arrived, a Saka pass found Jesus whose first time finish rifled beyond Henderson and into the far corner. Two things to say: it did look as if he were offside from the pass, so in the Premier League this probably wouldn’t have counted, but the absence of VAR worked to our advantage. It feels about the only small thing that has gone in our favour this season.
The second thing is that I liked the fact Jesus had a look before he hit it. Last week when he went through one on one against Monaco, he never took his eyes off the ball and the finish lacked conviction. It was hit and hope. This time, it was emphatic, he put it exactly where he needed to to make it 2-1. It was a similar story for the third. Put through by an Odegaard pass from deep, he had plenty of time to consider his finish (also plenty of time to overthink it, and we’ve seen that from him before), but again there was real conviction as he buried it to make it 3-1.
The final stages became a little spicier when Eddie Nketiah scored a superb header on his first return to Arsenal after his summer move to Selhurst Park. I didn’t know he had that in his locker! In the end though, we saw it out, and a two-legged semi-final in February awaits. Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:
I was very happy for various reasons. The first one obviously because we’re in the semi-final of a competition that we want to win. The game started in a very difficult way with a very naïve goal that we gave away and put the situation into a complicated one.
After that spell in the first half that we didn’t have that continuous momentum to create threat and opportunities, we made some changes and some adjustments in the way we had to play, and we became a real threat. We needed something else and made a few changes and it certainly changed the game.
The reaction to the team selection was certainly interesting yesterday. I have to say I understood it. The schedule has been so busy and hectic of late, and we have another difficult game on Saturday (against Palace again), so trying to squeeze as much out of the squad made sense. I didn’t see it as Arteta not taking this competition seriously, but knowing he’s got to use any opportunity to rest some key players, and to use the depth of his squad. You can’t criticise him for never rotating if he’s also criticised for doing just that – especially when he had the safety net of serious quality on the bench to help if needed. And they were needed.
In the case of Jesus in particular, that really paid off last night. Does a hat-trick in the Carabao Cup mean he’s now going to start banging them in in the Premier League? Obviously there’s no guarantee of that, but will it be a big confidence boost for a player who must have been feeling a real lack of that in recent times? Absolutely. Strikers know their job is to score goals, he hasn’t been doing it, and if this helps spark him back into some kind of life, then that can only be a good thing for us.
I’ve been quite despondent about him, because I think there is talent and quality there, but I wasn’t sure we’d ever see it again. We have a lot of football to play before we can do anything in the transfer window – that’s if we’re even active at all – so while it’s not everyone’s favourite message, getting more out of the players we have available for selection is the manager’s main job. Hopefully this really helps Jesus, and three goals from open play was nice to see too.
We’ll find out our semi-final opposition when the last of the quarter-finals takes place this evening between Sp*rs and Man Utd. Newcastle, Arsenal, and Liverpool are all through already, so it’s potentially a heavyweight encounter. Should it be happening over two legs at this point? No, but it is what it is, and the main thing is we’re there.
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It wasn’t the only 3-2 cup win last night either. The Arsenal Women beat Bayern Munich by the same scoreline to top their Champions League group, and you can find the report, goals, reaction, and more over on Arseblog News.
Right, I’ll leave it there for now. We’ll have an Arsecast for you a little later this morning, recapping last night’s events and more, that should be out around noon. For now, have a good one.
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