Gunnerblog

Coventry Preview: What a night for Nico Yennaris

866 comments September 26th, 2012

Tonight’s League Cup with Coventry City is a sell-out.  Considering it’s not included in season tickets, that means 60,000 seats, all sold and accounted for.  That’s the same as Chelsea and City’s combined attendance from their games last night.  Even taking in to account reduced prices, it’s a pretty extraordinary feat, and a demonstration of the appetite to watch Arsenal football club.

Tonight will be a vision of the future: a young team, and a young crowd too.  Here’s hoping it’s an enthralling game that wins the hearts of the next generation of Gooners filling the stands.

Arsene has indicated it’ll be a strong side sprinkled with a smattering of youngsters (update: the 18-man squad has now been named).  One of the more inexperienced players likely to start is Nico Yennaris, completing a remarkable double: the last time we played Coventry City, at Highbury, he was the mascot.

Suffice to say he looks a bit different now.  If you were wondering, the other mascot went on to become Michel Salgado.

When it comes to picking tonight’s team, there are a few certainties: Argentinian youngster Damian Martinez will make his debut in goal, Ignasi Miquel will play at centre-back, Emmanuel Frimpong will be on the bench as he continues his recuperation, and Andrey Arshavin will get a rare opportunity to start.

Filling in the gaps, I expect Johan Djourou to partner Miquel, and probably captain the side to boot.  That’ll mean leaving out Sebastien Squillaci, but I can hardly see the point in giving game-time to a player who is highly unlikely to feature this season and beyond.  At left-back Andre Santos is badly in need of game time, so I expect him to step in.  On the right, Arsene has a few options, but I suspect he might be tempted to deploy the young Spaniard signed from Barcelona, Hector Bellerin.

That’d mean shifting Yennaris in holding midfield – a role he has played regularly while skippering the Reserves.  With Frimpong unlikely to play more than twenty minutes, Francis Coquelin will presumably he handed another chance to impress.

Ahead of that is trickier to predict.  Arsene is keen to unleash the talent of 17 year old Serge Gnabry, but there are a queue of first-team players ahead of him looking for game time.  Arshavin has pretty much been guaranteed an opportunity, and I think he may find himself switching positions between the left flank and a central play-making berth, also occupied by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.  The youngster did not get on at the weekend and will be wanting to impress ahead of the Chelsea game.

On the right flank, Theo Walcott is due a game, and will probably start.  Of course, Arsene does have the option of switching Chamberlain and Arshavin to the flanks, and playing Walcott through the middle alongside another striker.  It’d be an interesting formation to look at, but I can’t see Arsene conceding to Theo’s demands so swiftly.

That other striking role will come down to one of Marouane Chamakh and Olivier Giroud.  I’d pick Giroud.  For me, Chamakh is in the same boat as Squillaci – treading water until he leaves.  Furthermore, the Frenchman is desperate for a goal, and you have to think that tonight will be as good an opportunity as any to get one.

With City and Everton both out of the competition last night, I hope we make a real fist of the League Cup this year.  We’re all aware it’s not a priority, but it’d be great to have a good run at it.  Starting tonight.

Shrews tamed by the Ox

156 comments September 21st, 2011

Highlights | Arsene’s reaction

You can hear my thoughts as I left the ground by clicking either of the links below, depending on which one actually works in your browser.

If neither work, try this.

In the end, it was an enjoyable night out – apart from the fact I managed to tumble down about three rows of seating when trying to make a quick escape by hopping over the man in front. If you saw a tall man in a blue hoodie go tumbling with kind of pirouettes and spins more commonly associated with a fouled Cristiano Ronaldo, then I confess that was me.

The spins and flicks from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were far more impressive.  After a quiet first 45, he came to life in the second half, thumping home a crucial goal from range as well as terrorising the opposition full-back with some searing sprints to the byline.  The difference between Chamberlain and Walcott could not be more clear: the newer addition is much more prepared to drift inside and get involved with build-up play, spraying thirty and forty yard passes effortlessly across the pitch.  He’s far less reliant on pace, and possesses far greater technique.  Undoubtedly, a huge prospect.

And yet, his Man of the Match award was possibly a little generous: across he ninety minutes, the performance of Francis Coquelin probably warranted recognition. Since arriving in 2008, the holding midfielder has always looked a neat tackler with tidy ball-skills. Yesterday, in a 4-4-2 formation alongside Emmanuel Frimpong, he demonstrated that some time playing at full-back and a spell on loan in Ligue 1 have seen him add power and energy to his game. Yesterday he charged from box-to-box, winning the ball back and using it simply and efficiently. It seems the Old Trafford mauling has not scarred him.

Honourable mentions also go to Kieran Gibbs and Yossi Benayoun, who grabbed their first Arsenal goals, and Ignasi Miquel, who looked far more assured than his experienced defensive partner, Johan Djourou. Lukasz Fabianski, too, won’t have worried compatriot Wojciech Szczesny with an unconvincing display.

Ryo Miyaichi got twenty minutes but didn’t have time to make a notable impression, whilst the game may well once be remembered for the Arsenal debut of the giant Chuks Aneke. Chuks is, in every sense, a huge star at U-18 and now Reserve level, with that exciting combination of technique and tallness that draws inevitable comparisons with Patrick Vieira. He’s more of an attacking player than the Frenchman, and an enormous prospect. He only got a few minutes in stoppage time last night, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we see him again before long.

Right, must dash. Tata for now.