Arsenal will take on Southampton in the quarter-final of the EFL Cup of 2016/17 on 30th December 2016. The match would be held at the Emirates and Arsene Wenger would want to win the tie and progress to the semi-finals of the competition he is yet to win in England.
It is remarkable to think that after all these years Wenger is still looking to get his hands on the EFL Cup. A trophy which has from time to time had its name changed from League Cup to Carling Cup to Capital One Cup in the previous years (yes, you, sponsorships!).
Arsenal’s record in the competition under Wenger has not been bad though with the Gunners reaching the final in both 2007 and 2011 and consistently reached the semi-finals or the quarter-finals of the competition. While for a club like Arsenal they won’t count for much, the thing which is to be considered here is that Wenger has used the matches of the League cup as a platform to promote his young players coming out of the academy of the club.
Especially in the last 10 years, the team which represented Arsenal in the Cup was their reserve squad. During the years when the club had to balance their books restricting their transfer activities severely, the performances of the young players in the EFL cup brought much joy and a sense of optimism for many associated with Arsenal.
To be fair, marred by consistent injuries and lack of depth, Wenger also couldn’t afford to field his most important players in the midweek to take part in the matches of the EFL cup with an eye on the immediate Premier League fixture. However, this season, things look to be very different indeed.
After a long time, there are actually some decent options available to the manager who are not necessarily youth players. The example can be given against Southampton as the provision of playing Lucas Perez, who is a far more established player than Chuba Akpom or Yaya Sanogo, will mean the other two options, Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud can be handed rests.
There is a lot of competition for places in the squad, with the key positions of central defence and defensive midfield having multiple options. In order to successfully negotiate the challenges of the EFL Cup without having to over exert the first team players, squad depth is the thing which is needed. The Gunners have that with them and so it won’t be absurd to think that this might be the season Arsene Wenger wins the domestic trophy which has remained so elusive for years.
