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Arsenal: Carabao Cup draw against Chelsea couldn’t have been better
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal’s quest for the first trophy of the season continues in the Carabao Cup, where they drew Chelsea. Which couldn’t have been much better.
Arsenal put away West Ham on Tuesday and secured a spot in the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup. With Manchester City defeating Leicester in penalties, Chelsea defeating Bournemouth and Bristol City scoring a thrilling last gasp winner over Manchester United, the pool is set.
The draw was made and the Gunners will be facing Chelsea, with the second leg advantage taking place at the Emirates.
While Bristol City may have seemed like the more favorable draw, I believe that the Gunners got the most favorable draw they could have gotten. With Manchester City still a fearsome beast, it’s best to (assumedly) save them for the final. The Gunners have stepped up to the pressure of finals with ease rather recently.
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They did, after all, send a battered defense into the FA Cup Final against Chelsea and handily beat the already-anointed champions.
Assuming that City are set to win the title, the Gunners shouldn’t see that as any great obstacle. And besides, maybe losing out on the first trophy will rattle their cage a bit.
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So why didn’t I want Bristol City? Well, it’s not that I didn’t want them, because it should have seen the Gunners through to the final. I didn’t want them strictly because I find this rotational Arsenal squad still in need of a bit of work. They took care of a solid West Ham side and that was fantastic to see. They negated them to zero shots on target and just one attempted from a set piece.
But building up to the final with a match against Chelsea, who we have already proved equal to, would do far more to the steel of this team than any result against Bristol. If we squeaked by against Bristol or decimated them, the quality difference between that and City would be disjointing.
It’s all about maintaining that same level of competition and improving. As I said, this team still needs to improve and Chelsea provides a better avenue for that than Bristol City.
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It’s as much about morale as it is about steel. I have all the faith in the world that we can take care of Chelsea and, no offense to Bristol City, but defeating the reigning Champions yet again has a way of alleviating any doubts better than a traditional finals appearance.