MATCH THREAD: " CARDIFF CITY v ARSENAL U21S " MATCH THREAD

CARDIFF CITY v ARSENAL U21s
Tuesday 11th November, 7.45pm
Vertu Trophy - Group Stage Match 3
Cardiff City Stadium 





BBM:

“Will joins Perry Ng, who we’ll look to have back after the international fixtures and Chris Willock is in an identical timeline to Perry. Ollie Tanner is making good progress and Eli King is longer term.”



Previous Arsenal game Vertu Trophy:

Exeter 4 Arsenal U21 3



A reminder of the format - straight to penalties if it's level after 90 minutes. Three points for a win in 90 minutes and zero points for the loser. Or if it's a draw after 90 minutes, two points for winning the penalty shootout and one point for losing the penalty shootout.

Cardiff have to win to progress

But BBM has made it clear it will be mostly academy players playing, there are a lot of players missing because of international duty

inside_the_stadium.png

About Arsenal U21s

Arsenal U21s play in the PL2 league.

They are 14th out of 29 in that league.

Like us, they have won one of their two games in this competition and will progress with a win.

Club Connections

None.

The Opposition's Manager

Max Porter is the manager of the Arsenal U21 team.

His playing career included time at Newport.

He has been involved in youth coaching at Arsenal since his retirement in 2019.

Opposition Dangerous Players

Charles Sagoe Junior has scored two goals in this competition.

He also has three goals in Premier League 2 this season.

Referee

Referee TBC.

Head To Head - last five meetings 

There are obviously no previous meetings between our first team and Arsenal U21s.

Team News - Predicted Line-Ups

BBM has made it clear that our team will mostly be made up of academy players.

Last Game

Focusing on this competition, we have beat Exeter and lost to Newport in our other two games.

Arsenal U21s beat Newport and lost to Exeter.

Match Odds

Cardiff City - TBC
Arsenal U21s - TBC
Draw - TBC

Predictions

Post your predictions below 

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I think that we'll lose this quite comfortably.

As everyone can see, this is a much scaled back match thread.

That's down to the limited information available about Arsenal U21s and the expected limited interest in this game.

If we win and play another EFL team in the next round then there will be more detail for that match thread.

However, it is likely in my view that we will go out of this competition on Tuesday - mainly due to the type of team we are likely to select, going by BBM's comments.

This is a funny tie and as much as I believe in trying to Win every game, we don’t need these games.

BBM needs to now Concentrate and get it right in the League and we have a big game as well coming up with Chelsea.

Being out of this tournament would be a good thing (even though I want us to win all games.)

It's a pointless tournament that risks extra fatigue and injuries.

The only good thing is fringe players get game time and maybe it's a good time to try two up top in this game.

Even though bbm said it will be a very young side I have a feeling it will be stronger than most of us expect due to the rule of 4 outfield players from the previous or next league game having to start

BBM : “ ARSENAL GAME TUESDAY NIGHT “

“We'll see a lot of our young talents on Tuesday night and we look forward to the challenge."

Vertu Trophy


Arsenal will be bringing their Accademy and under 21 players to the CCS.

Brian Barry Murphy said: "I've been a big advocate of this competition for a long time for the exposure it gives young players.”

"The issue for us last time, and the issue we have again, is that a lot of players are away on international duty. It does mean those we possibly would've liked to have played aren't available to us.

"Against Exeter City, we used a lot of First Team regulars because of this and did have injury issues off the back of that. We have to protect our players. Based on the schedule we've had, Tuesday gives us a chance to utilise our U21 team. They will play in the game against their Arsenal counterparts. I feel it's important for me to be as transparent as possible.

"We had a big crowd for the Newport County game, and we greatly appreciated that. We'll still see a lot of our best young talents on Tuesday night and we look forward to the challenge."

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Previous Arsenal game Vertu Trophy:

Exeter 4 Arsenal U21 3

Exeter 0 Cardiff City 1

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Prices:

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On sky sports + if anyone interested?

On sky sports + if anyone interested?

Only if it’s the main match as I can’t access the red button.

Arsenal face Cardiff away tomorrow night and it is worth remembering that in this competition if a game ends in a draw then a penalty shootout will take place for a potentially crucial bonus point.

The scheduling of the game hasn’t been especially convenient, with both teams set to be without some key players due to international duty.

From Arsenal’s perspective, Brayden Clarke and Demiane Agustien will be missing, as will a host of U18s who have featured at U21 level, namely Marli Salmon, Callan Hamill, Khari Ranson, Jack Porter, Kyran Thompson and Ceadach O’Neill. Max Dowman is with England U19s.

Arsenal will still be able to call upon many players from their U21 squad and there are some talented U18s who can add depth.

However, there are two positions in which coach David Horseman will have to make difficult decisions regarding who starts.

In goal, for instance, with first-team squad member Tommy Setford also unavailable, it appears that Arsenal will have to choose between Alexei Rojas and Remy Mitchell.
Rojas hasn’t played a competitive game for Arsenal since February 2024 but it’s possible he could be called upon tomorrow.

At centre-back, meanwhile, Will Sweet seems set to start but isn’t especially clear who will play alongside him.

One potential option could be to move Sweet to the right sided centre-back position and start Josh Ogunnaike in the other central defensive berth. Another alternative is to play first year scholar Abraham Owusu-Gyasi.


Andre Harriman-Annous, who has been involved with the first-team recently, could feature for the U21s.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ben White are the only three senior players not on international duty who aren’t injured. However, it seems unlikely that they will play.

Very young line up tonight, one question I have is how is spiers playing when he's been starting for merthyr in there league games

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No game for a week or so - playing would keep players match fit

No game for a week or so - playing would keep players match fit

If you actually looked at his comments, he said playing first team players in this competition before caused fitness issues so it's just not worth the risk.

It was obvious that this is the type of team we'd put out, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Cardiff City XI: Turner; Kingdon, Keita, Debono, Parfitt; Apter, Twose, Perrett; Spiers, George, Ola.

Subs: Dennis, J. Davies, Hobson, Pearce, Watts, Hilaire-Clarke, Sykes.

Arsenal U21s XI: Rojas; King, Onyekachukwu, Sweet, Washington; Ibrahim, Dudziak, Copley; Kamara, Harriman-Annous, Sagoe Jr.

Subs: Mitchell, Nichols, Stevens, Julienne, Ogunnaike, Owusu-Gyasi, Ogunnaike, Bailey-Joseph.

BBM has brought some of the academy coaching staff to the dugout tonight.

Makes sense.

First opportunity of the match as Charles Sagoe Jr is found in the City box. He's closed down well by Jack Kingdon, who deflects the shot wide for a corner.

Weather hammering down at Cardiff City Stadium. Alexei Rojas, in the Arsenal goal, with an unforced error gifts Cardiff possession high up the pitch.

First two minutes were worrying but since then City playing ok

Corner Arsenal

A battle emerging early on between Sagoe Jr and Jack Kingdon. The Bluebirds captain stops the winger's cross - it's another Gunners corner

A Cardiff breakaway and Trey George has two defenders sandwiching him. He looks to break clear on halfway, but Josiah King just muscles him to the floor before he breaks free and through on goal.

City looked settled

Not a bad start from our young team to be fair

A stoppage in play. Louis Copley takes one in the face from Cardiff's Will Spiers' cross.

Not a bad start from our kids to be fair

Yes I agree

The weather is awful

Cardiff win a corner through Troy Perrett.

Chance! A short corner routine sees Troy Perrett whip in a lovely cross. Alyas Debono leaps and heads - but it's narrowly wide!