View from the Opposition: Arteta on Carabao Cup importance to Arsenal & Gabriel Jesus fitness

Match previews

3 hours ago

For a second season in a row, Crystal Palace travel to Arsenal in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals this Tuesday (23rd December, 20:00 GMT) – and with the Gunners also in action on Saturday night, Mikel Arteta gave a brief overview of the match's importance to reporters...

Factfile

Manager: Mikel Arteta
League Position: 1st
Ground: Emirates Stadium
Founded: 1886

In their manager's words...

Speaking directly after Arsenal's 1-0 win away to Everton on Saturday, which confirmed Arsenal's place at the top of the Premier League at Christmas, Arteta said of the Carabao Cup quarter-final: "Now the most important [match] is the Carabao Cup against Palace, because it's the next game that we have.

"We're taking it game by game. Winning and performing every game helps you for the next one. Now, full focus is on that.

"I think it's the only week [before Everton] that we had a week to prepare. The rest, until February at least, is going to be like this.

"We are used to it, to facing it. We have a beautiful opportunity to go into the semi-final of a competition, so we'll be ready."

Arsenal Team News

Ahead of the game, Arteta confirmed that Gabriel Jesus – who scored five goals in two times against Palace last December, including a hat-trick in our Carabao Cup quarter-final meeting at the Emirates last year – would be fit to start on Tuesday, having returned to action earlier this month from a lengthy ACL injury.

Jesus has since come off the bench three times in the last month, including a 25-minute appearance on Merseyside at the weekend.

"He is [ready to start]," the Arsenal manager told reporters.

"You can see now, not only in games, every day in training, how much he wants it. He's going to deserve a chance soon.

"I was watching when he was seven months already on the pitch the way he was moving and how much he wanted it. I think he wrote a beautiful letter there explaining what football means to him and how it affects his life. I think it was something beautiful.

"I think that's probably the biggest quality of Gabi, bringing people together, connecting with people and generating a lot of uncertainty in the opponent. When you see him today, the amount of spaces that he was involved in, that's his biggest quality. So we need to exploit that."

In defence, however, Arsenal's options are more limited, with injuries to Ben White, Cristhian Mosquera and Gabriel expected to limit their options on Tuesday evening. 16-year-old defender Marli Salmon made his debut against Club Brugge earlier this month.

Kai Havertz is also expected to be out with an injury, as is headline-grabbing youngster Max Dowman.

Their Season So Far...

Surely, surely... surely? Runner-up in each of the last three Premier League seasons under Arteta, this surely must be the season that the Gunners clear the seemingly ever-evasive hurdle of winning the title.

The first-half-of-the-season numbers certainly point to those of title contenders: top at Christmas, with 12 wins from 17 matches, just 10 goals conceded and two defeats, and a two-point lead over Manchester City.

Arteta's side are the second-highest scorers in the league at this stage (31) but – most pertinently – have remained very difficult to score against, in contrast to their more open title rivals City (41 goals scored, 16 conceded).

Although there's been the occasional big margin thrown in – just ask Tottenham Hotspur – professional wins have been the name of the game, mostly by one (or two) goals.

So proved the case back in late October, when former Palace man Eberechi Eze's moment of magic for Arsenal was enough to settle a tight contest against his former club.

But as April's 2-2 draw between Arsenal and Palace proved – when Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the Eagles' eventual Goal of the Season with an incredible chip from distance – Oliver Glasner's side very much enjoy upsetting the odds.

The Boss: Mikel Arteta

Mikel Arteta sits second in the list of longest-serving Premier League managers, with only Manchester City's Pep Guardiola already in place when Arteta joined the Gunners – from City – in December 2019.

An FA Cup triumph in his first season followed, with a 2-1 win over London rivals Chelsea at Wembley. Since then Arteta has on three occasions taken the Gunners close to a first Premier League title since 2004 – but narrowly lost out to Manchester City two years on the bounce, before missing out to Liverpool last season.

The Spaniard previously enjoyed a five-year spell as a player at the Emirates, signed by Arsene Wenger in 2011 after successful spells in British football at both Rangers and Everton.

Match Details

Arsenal v Crystal Palace

Tuesday, 23rd December
20:00 GMT
Carabao Cup quarter-finals
Emirates Stadium
Live audio commentary on Palace TV+.

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