Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster Rovers: Gunners Reach Third Round Courtesy Of Theo Walcott’s Effort

Arsenal 1-0 Doncaster Rovers…

Arsenal reached the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after beating Doncaster Rovers in a cagey affair with Theo Walcott netting the only goal of the game.

Arsene Wenger, expectedly, made wholesale changes to the side which faced Chelsea, with not a single player starting in both clashes.

Despite the changes, the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud started the game and although we had the visitors penned into their half early on, it didn’t remain that way.

Giroud had the best chance of the first half, his acrobatic effort cannoned off the crossbar after a lovely dinked pass from Jack Wilshere.

The English midfielder was starting his first game for Arsenal since May 2016, which turned out to be one of the highlights from the night.

We eventually took the lead through Walcott as he latched onto a wonderful lofted pass from Alexis and looped the ball over the goalkeeper.

In terms of clearcut chances, that was the end of our dominance and it was Doncaster who were piling the pressure late on.

The boys eventually held on for an unconvincing win, and we’re not a step closer to yet another Wembley visit.

Verdict:

While the performance was far from encouraging, there were some mitigating circumstances that should prepare us for more to come.

It’s clear to see that Wenger intends on fielding two teams throughout the season: one for the Premier League and one for the cup competitions.

However, unlike the league team, the one fielded on the cups will not have the minutes together on the pitch to strike up an understanding.

Also, with Wenger intent on sticking to the 3-4-3 across the board, we lack the depth in the wing-back positions to carry out what we want to do in this system.

For me, Wenger should revert to a 4-2-3-1 in the cup games in order to field a team with players playing in their preferred roles.