Pain in the Arsenal
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Arsenal Vs Blackpool: 5 things we learned – Job done-ish

ByAndrew Dowdeswell|
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 31: Emile Smith-Rowe of Arsenal (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's second goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 31: Emile Smith-Rowe of Arsenal (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team's second goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
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LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 31: Emile Smith-Rowe of Arsenal (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 31: Emile Smith-Rowe of Arsenal (R) celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

Arsenal hosted Blackpool in the fifth round of the EFL Cup on Wednesday night with Unai Emery naming a young team. Here are five things we learned from the 2-1 victory.

In the end, it was enough. Arsenal, thanks to a hard-fought and somewhat nervy 2-1 win over Blackpool on a cold, winter-is-most-certainly-here Wednesday night, are into the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup. It is difficult to glean too much else from this game, given the disparity in quality of the two teams and their relative approaches. But I’ll do my best.

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Here are five things we learned from the 2-1 win.

LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 31: Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Arsenal stretches for the ball during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 31: Henrikh Mkhitaryan of Arsenal stretches for the ball during the Carabao Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Blackpool at Emirates Stadium on October 31, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

5. Deciphering Emery’s pecking order

Sometimes the most telling element of these games is not the game at all but the team sheet that precedes them. And in this starting XI, there were three senior players that I believe could now be considered as reserve options, despite their previous profile: Petr Cech in goal, Aaron Ramsey in central midfield; Henrikh Mkhitaryan in attacking midfield.

All three played the full 90 minutes. They were seen as the senior players in this team, the individuals that were meant to lead the younger players around them. And each did fine in that regard — though nothing spectacular, by any means, with Cech making one glaring error in the second half that he got away with. But that is not what they would have expected their role in the squad — glorified reserve — to be when the season started.

Cech was the number one between the sticks, Ramsey was playing in the number, and Mkhitaryan was a starting winger, comfortably above Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette in the pecking order. But now, Unai Emery obviously sees it very differently, and it is quite easy to see why.