Arteta talks ‘short squad’ after early Carabao Cup exit
Arsenal suffered a rather underwhelming, if not altogether surprising, defeat at the Emirates at the hands of Brighton and Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. It obviously means their campaign in this competition is over, despite manager Mikel Arteta talking ahead of the match about a sending out a competitive team and aiming to go through to the next round.
Arteta named a side completely changed from Arsenal’s triumph over Chelsea a couple of days ago, bar William Saliba who kept his place and played alongside Rob Holding in the heart of defence. Cedric Soares on the right and Kieran Tierney on the left completed the back four which stood in front of goalkeeper Karl Hein. Mohamed Elneny paired up with Albert Sambi Lokonga in the two deeper midfield roles, while the trio of Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos and Reiss Nelson supported Eddie Nketiah as the striker.
It was Nketiah who broke the deadlock after 20 minutes, but just seven minutes later, former Gunner Danny Welbeck equalized from the spot. Karou Mitoma came on as a substitute for Brighton to turn the game around in the 58th, and the final score of 1-3 was set by Tariq Lamptey with just under 20 minutes left on the clock. Arteta tried to spur his team on by introducing all three Gabriels (Magalhaes, Martinelli and Jesus) from the bench, as well as Oleksandr Zinchenko and Granit Xhaka, but to no avail.
Speaking to the press after the match, Arteta spoke about the squad being ‘short’ and insisted that he had spoken about that problem before, immediately after the summer window ended. He was asked about this result potentially highlighting the need for new signings in January.
“That’s the squad that we have,” he answered.
“We have to utilise in the best possible way and today we came short, especially because we didn’t do what we have to do in both boxes to win a football match. We paid that price.
“It’s the same squad as when we win. I said from day one that we have a short squad because at the end we left some players. It’s what we have.
“If everyone’s available and no one is injured we are okay, but the moment there is, we know what it is. It’s nothing new. I think I said it the first day after the transfer window.”
Arsenal tried to sign winger Raphinha and defensive midfielder Douglas Luiz, and were also strongly linked with Youri Tielemans, but while Raphinha chose Barcelona as his destination upon leaving Leeds United, the other two remained at Aston Villa and Leicester City, respectively.
