The squad for tonights game has been named as follows:

Almunia, Poom; Hoyte, Connolly, Toure, Traore, Djourou; Diaby, Fabregas, Baptista, Denilson, Song, Lansbury, Randall; Aliadiere, Walcott

Based on that, the team will probably be:
Almunia; Hoyte, Toure, Djourou, Traore; Walcott, Fabregas, Denilson, Song, Baptista; Aliadiere

with the subs being

Poom, Connolly, Randall, Diaby, Lansbury

Another mix of young and not-so-young. The biggest surprise for me is the absence of Flamini. His inclusion would have allowed a 4-4-2 formation with Baptista and Aliadiere up front. He may still do so, bringing in Randall for Denilson and moving Walcott to the left. However, I do not expect that to happen as the midfield would be too inexperienced, Baptista likely to be in the slightly advanced role. To save you looking him up, Henri Lansbury is apparently the longest serving member of the Academy having been there since the age of 9, and was recently captain of the England U-16’s team.

Nothing I have seen leads me to believe that we will progress in the competition. I understand why Arsene has done it – the team is consistent with previous rounds and years, and the full first team played some 72 hours ago – but is at odds with his own comments on the official website,

“Playing Tottenham in the Semi-Finals is a huge incentive for us and of course having played Liverpool in the FA Cup we will go up there again with the same desire. The target is to beat Liverpool twice. Going into the Semi-Finals of the Carling Cup is a great motivation for us and we will try to do it.”

Beating Liverpool twice was a tall order with a full squad, with this mix I would suggest that climbing Everest is seen as being a doddle by comparison. Still, I would have to agree that having a good team out on Saturday is more important than the Carling Cup although I believe once you get to the Quarter Finals, any cup competition should be taken seriously.

Back tomorrow with a Report.