Carling Cup Semi Final

Chelsea V Everton

&

Arsenal V Spurs!!

Chelsea to beat a young Arsenal team in the final...again

Aye, it is a bit predictable now isn't it?

Although perhaps Everton could sneak through over the two legs..

Tottenham are doomed though. Having said that, it is a young Arsenal side.. maybe there's some hope.

It's nothing to do with age. Half of our "young" players are full Internationals.

We have enough quality to beat any of the remaining sides.

Chelsea to ease past Everton. 2 good games between Arsenal & Spurs with the Gooners winning by the odd goal. 2-1 in the final. Eduardo & Lampard double.


MysticMeg CSC

I don't think the Arsenal team that played yesterday have enough quality to beat Chelsea's first team, which could be the case if they met in the final.

In fact, seeing as we're drawn against you; if we manage to get our 1st choice XI out, we'd beat this Arsenal team, I'm quite confident of that. Last season, we schooled your kids in the 1st leg but the game changed when Fabregas and Clichy came on.

Wenger won't select the same squad for the semis as he did yesterday, I'm sure of that.

Well, the difference between us and Chelsea in the final last time was that they had Drogba. We outplayed them for the best part. Also this season [I believe] Chelsea are a somewhat weaker team.

Yes, Cesc and Touré were included for some games last term but new additions have made that unnecessary. Diarra (full French International), Eduardo (full Croatian International) and Bendtner (full Denmark International) have been added to our "second string".

So I do think we're capable of beating any of the remaining teams. Besides, the rest of the players like Hoyte, Traoré, Diaby, Walcott and so on have improved majorly.

Also, last season against you we fielded like this:

In the first tie:

Manuel Almunia - Reserve/Youth
Justin Hoyte - Reserve/Youth
Kolo Toure - First Team
Phillippe Senderos - Reserve/Youth
Armand Traoré - Reserve/Youth (only 17 at the time)
Theo Walcott - Reserve/Youth (new player)
Cesc Fàbregas - First Team (only 19 at the time)
Denílson - Reserve/Youth (new player)
Abou Diaby - Reserve/Youth (playing out of position)
Júlio Baptista - Reserve/Youth (new player)
Jérémie Aliadière - Reserve/Youth

So a very inexperienced side. Players who hadn't even played together much before. Even Diaby was playing out of position, and Kolo was the only real First teamer you wouldn't class as a kid. Cesc is very much a "kid" at the age of 19 despite being good enough for our First team.

In the second game:

Manuel Almunia - Reserve/Youth
Justin Hoyte - Reserve/Youth
Kolo Toure - First Team
Phillippe Senderos - Reserve/Youth
Armand Traoré - Reserve/Youth (only 17 at the time)
Theo Walcott - Reserve/Youth (new player)
Gilberto Silva - First Team
Denílson - Reserve/Youth (new player)
Abou Diaby - Reserve/Youth (playing out of position)
Emmanuel Adebayor - Reserve/Youth
Jérémie Aliadière - Reserve/Youth

Again, very inexperienced. Only two of those players get into the First team when all are available. Most of them don't even make our bench.

Yes, Rosický, Clichy and Cesc all came into the game later on. But still, Cesc (19) and Clichy (21) are still "kids" at that level. And Hleb only played 30 minutes in which he picked up an injury (in the first game).

Anyway, take out Aliadière and Baptista, replace them with Internationals Bendtner and Eduardo and you've got a stronger side this year. Yes, Cesc has been left out of it this season but Diarra (the full French National team regular) steps into that position. Also you can add in the Brazilian Captain Gilberto Silva! The improvement in the Strikers and the improvement all round from the now 'more experienced' youngsters makes this year's team stronger - not only in terms of quality, experience and ability - but in terms of spirit and team knowledge.

^ Ehhh, You're a bit off.

Júlio Baptista was first team, 11 games started, 13 as a sub in the EPL
Emmanuel Adebayor was first team, 21 games started, 8 as a sub in the EPL
Senderos also played quite a few EPL matches last year.

I was so desperate for a Merseyside semi final too,ah well come on Chelsea

^ Chelsea will be without a few of their key African players. Drogba, Essien, John Obi, Kalou? Those 4 just came to me off the top of my head.

Eh, no, I was talking about their status at the Club at that very time.

Henry and van Persie were the First XI Strikers.

Gallas and Touré were the First XI Strikers.

How can Baptista, Adebayor and Senderos be First XI selections? They were Reserve/backup/subs/second string.

Of course both Baptista and Adebayor seen a lot of games that season because our two first choice Strikers were out for half a season each. But if you asked Wenger at the start of that season who were the first choice players, it'd be Henry and van Persie and Adebayor, Baptista, Aliadière were the backup/subs/reserves.

I still wouldn't classify Adebayor or Baptista as Reserve/Youth. Senderos, ok that can slide, he sucks anyways .

But Henry was injured throughout the year, he got injured came back for a couple games got injured again and so on. I'm pretty sure Adebayor had games with the first team before the Carling Cup simi's and final; although I can't confirm. As for Baptista, he's had tons of top level football with Sevilla and Read Madrid. And he played in 24 EPL matches.

I sure hope it's an Everton V's Spurs final.

Baptista was nothing more than a Reserve for us. He was terrible for us and we were happy to let the loan spell run out. He did get LOTS of chances in the First team because of the big injury list.

Adebayor is a First team player this season, simply because he walks into the First XI as first choice. Would you say Eduardo is a First XI Striker? No, at the moment he's a Reserve because Adebayor and van Persie are the two First XI Strikers.

That's how I look at it. Anyway, my point was to show that back then we played our 3rd, 4th and 5th choice Strikers against Spurs. If you want to call the 3rd and 4th choice Strikers our First team select then fair enough - I don't. They're 3rd and 4th choice and only got into the First team as backup if the main two were injured. Capisce?

Baptista did show up to play against Liverpool. hahaha Oh how wonderful that game was. And you know I'm not a big fan of Adebayor. I would probably actually play Eduardo over him. Eduardo is just World Class. He just needs a string of consecutive games to really show his class.

Well it had to happen I guess - a semi v the wonderkids.

Credit to the whipper-snappers, they are quite a daunting prospect when you consider how young, and good they are already.

But anything goes at this stage - we blew it big time last season after taking a 2-0 lead, it is still very early days for Ramos but I would very quietly be a little bit more confident this time around.

the first team squad ....i take that as anyone who is in the first team squad is classed as good enough to play for the first team ..

so i think that Baptista , Adebayer , Senderos cannot be classed as reserves in the way you are doing J-Axe ...they are first team players who may not play all the time , teams have a number of players ready to play in the first team just in case they are injured , banned or whatever .

Chelsea did play a strong side last year and Drogba was the key man . I still think we have a big job actaull getting to the final let alone winning it , Spurs will not be easy to beat and then we would have Chelsea again if we did get to the final ...again would be a strong side even without Drogba and a few others ..

lol ~ your christmas wish might be granted!
come on toffees and Spurs ~ beat those giants! XD

I don’t care how you lined up last season mate – my comments were relating to the squad you put out against Blackburn on Tuesday. And I’ll say it again: a full strength Chelsea, Everton and Spurs side would beat it, in my opinion.

and that was our problem in the final last year against Chelsea , despite a great start by Arsenal with that superb Theo Walcott goal ..the experience of the Chelsea side paid off in the end and they managed to turn the game around and win .

Still that is how Arsene Wenger treats this Carling Cup , a showcase for our reserve and youth players to give them a chance to play and to see what they can do ...a good test for anyone wishing to make it into the first team squad .

It wont be any different this year against Spurs , Wenger may add a few first teamers but not players like Fabregas , Almunia , Van Persie , Toure , Adebayor ...not with crucial Premier League games to come .