The game against Man City proves that Wenger’s youth policy is still working
The game in the Carling Cup against Manchester City was one of the better ones I have seen for some time from the “second-string”, or more precisely the young starlets. Ignasi Miquel looked the most assured of the defenders (bar the first five minutes), Oxlade-Chamberlain had a great game down his side, Frimpong held the midfield well together and chained Nasri (handbags and all) for the match and Coquelin put in a solid shift.
With fixture congestion the name of the game in the Christmas period, Arsene Wenger will certainly be looking to rotate his squad – surely we can’t have the same eleven players playing on the pitch every match or the same 18 players being employed when there will be about three matches in a week for a few weeks – and still be able to pull out good results needed to sustain the push for a top-four finish in the Premier League while not compromising Cup progress.
The battling spirit is strong in this batch of youngsters though. Even against a stronger City side boasting the likes of Toure, Johnson, Nasri, Dzeko, De Jong and Aguero, the defence held strong and the midfield held stronger still to thwart the offensive threat of City (albeit until the 85th minute).
Without giving any disrespect to opposition, rotation is therefore a very viable option. Against “smaller” sides, I do not see why the players like Oxlade-Chamberlain, Miquel, Frimpong and Coquelin cannot play in place of Walcott, Koscielny, Song and Ramsey when their fitness is in the “straining zone” as Arsene Wenger commented himself.
Of course, this does not mean that players like Benayoun, Djourou and Park are out of the running either. They will still be the first choice “bench players”, but at the very least we can be certain that the squad has reasonable depth thanks to the youngsters who have impressed the fans watching the match.
Still, this is no excuse for Arsene Wenger to not spend during the transfer window. Naturally, he will keep faith in his youngsters but still they are not infallible and he would do well to sign a few more backup players who are experienced and skilled and adapted to the English game. For now though, the youngsters will be a good fallback option.
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Proud of my young guns..ArSenal for liFe..
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Proud of my young guns..
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24 
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Nice article. They will soon give enough competition for the other players.
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Mr wenger pliz! Pliz! Give aoc a chance
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seems like the youngsters are eager to shine and i think that they are ready for EPL games.. good to see we finally have some depth in the form of young players.. the future is bright..
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Awesome game by the young lads!
However, it is obvious that we need at least one more quality striker.
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18 
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Once the transfer season opens Wenger shud get us a young proven striker lyk Reus and a young midfield maestro lyk Gotze and then we’ll watch a young generation with plenty to boast about.COME ON WENGER GET THE TWO GERMANS AND RELAX FOR 10 YEARS TO COME cz man these boys have potential why lie!
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12 
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Wenger has been good at maintaining a healthy balance between experience and youth in the carling cup, it would be wise to maintain that philosophy in the upcoming matches. Perhaps incorporate one or two of the younger players in the squad at a time, eg rest walcott and play oxlade, rest Ramsey play Coquelin. and in another game mix it up by resting other players. Team selection is so important as it influences results several games down the track.
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6 
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Good game for young gunnn but it was painful that will loss the game, And for senior gunnn i think we need a complete striker even better than Van pergoal because we can’t rely on on him and a complete creative mid-fielder, Up gunners!!!
Opinions divided. What do you think?
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Campbell has look promising in the international games i’ve seen of the young lad. He will give us depth next year for sure at striker position.
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4 
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guys we are incapable of delivering corners, this needs to be looked at
Top Gooner!. Agree or not?:
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You can’t rest Ramsey and play Coquelin. Coquelin can play in place of Arteta. At the moment there’s not replacement for Ramsey.
Opinions divided. What do you think?
9 
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Aoc shud b on d bench 4 next game n wenger shud be bringin him on instead of arshavin.love the youths
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11 
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arsenal should sign both hazard and gotze . we the fanz needed them wenger
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1 
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an excellent article…can’t find a fault
kudos 2 u
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2 
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the most importand thingz is defenderz we should sign experience denferz hu will handle all of our back line a defender hu just look like kompany , cahill , jagielka and pepe we th gunaz should sign denferz like this once bcuz our back line is with lack of communication and co-ordinary this is the thingz dat our defenderz lack and we would do some thing to this guyz and wenger bye it me budi 4rom the gambia in west africa 100 percent arsenal fanz
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0 
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@robz
Ofcourse there are. Banayoun and rosicky can cover ramsey with realitive ease, and would provide better passing in the midfield. Also, there is this young lad Oguzhan Ozyakup who could be a good alternative.
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3 
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We should rotate but only 2-3 players per game + use the 3 subs smartly.
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2 
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Man City shall buy AW instead of Na$ir.
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2 
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now lets add to this encouraging crop of youth players 1x proven quality striker and 1 x creative midfielder and remove a few of the old (and unsuccesful guard) – diaby, rosiky, chamakh.
A couple of additions in our areas of weakness, the removal of a couple of players who are not good enough and the increasing influence of this tallented group of youngsters stepping up should give us the potential to win trophies
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4 
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Chamberlain needs more chances, he has many winnin qualities; speed, strenght, driblin, heavy n acurate shots, acurate passes, timeliness n pace
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3 
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All I can say is us gunners have something great to look forward to. I was absolutely blown away by Frimpong, Coquelin, and Chambo. I see Frimpong becoming one of the world’s greatest midfielders, simply because of his tenacity and strength. His passing is also top notch. Never better than players who try their hearts out.
If I were Wenger, I would try a 4 2 4 combination with Ox down the left and Walcott down the right – RvP and Gervinho up front. In the midfield I would love to see Pong and Song, or Song and Arteta. Defense, Kossie RB, Vermalaen, Per, Santos, Polecat.
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2 
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At present we only have one striker and one steady attacker playmaker in ramsey as rosicky is a sick note and wilshere is more of a box to box midfielder,we need to sign a proven striker in podolski,sodaldo or sow and an an attacking midfieder in gotze,martin or reus
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2 
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I’m very proud of our young guns, just look at utd against palace, what a joke. You can’t even compare gibson with frimpong or coquelin.
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In Arsene We trust. They played fantastic and they will really go for tropyies you could see the hunger. You could see that they wanted Carling Cup badly win but the luck was not on our side and this youngsters will come up you will see the tropyies floating in.
Well done Young gunners keep it up. Arsene has done a brilliant job. MAN C will drop at some point. HAHA than they will run after our young gunners.
GUNNERS FOR LIFE
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Frimpong has more about him already than the cumbersome and injury prone Diaby (who was once heralded as the new Vieira)…
a brilliant future ahead for the youngster
we have a fine crop of youngsters in Coquelin – Ignasi & O Chamberlain that will not only secure our future but with just a couple of key additions will see AFC winning trophies once again
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Am proud been a gunners, i find it hard to believe it was the arsenal’s young guns playing against the strong man shitty team. We fans are solidly behind you. Please don’t rule rosicky out of arsenal’s squad, he his still very essential to us.
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Diaby was only compared to Vieira because they look slightly similar. Anyone who had seen him play knew he was a different type of player, as I remember Wenger pointing out on numerous occasions. As for Ignasi the most assured defender? Really? He had a good game but Koscielny was far better.
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Arsenal till I die oh arsenal till I die .. the ox wat a player… Fringpong , coquelin immense !
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THE GUNNERS,keep shooting the enemys,die hard..
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