Well, its the League Cup again. Slowly now as the season rolls on, squad depth will be tested yet again. People like Fred have already declared their views on the Carling Cup but I feel its a very important tournament for our young-er squad players. People like Traore, Denilson, Hoyte, Nortveidt, Bendtner, Theo even might get some well needed playing time. If we get knocked out in the first round these super talented kids will not have much playing time this season and nothing to look forward to except the odd substitution appearance. This might be fine in other clubs like Chelsea where the kids never play anyway (Do they even have any kids in the first place?) but not at AFC where youth is the flavor of the moment as has been the case for many years now. So yes I’d love to see the kids go one step further and win the thing. Lets see what happens…

As for Newcastle I watched a bit of their game against West Ham, mainly to get an idea of how they play. A lot of the play seems to switch through Milner and N’Zogbia both primarily down the left. Which means one thing — more crosses from the left side. Mark Viduka on form is a pain in the butt for any center back and he is on form now so we need to watch him and Martins who we were extensively linked with. I’m pretty sure King Kolo will play this one along with Sendy, Traore and Hoyte making up a decent back four.

Expect a midfield of Theo,Denilson,Song and Diaby..I’m not sure this is the best there is but I wont be shocked to see Alex out there. Though I guess Diarra might play as well instead of Song.

Its a no brainer up front with Eduardo and Bendtner starting and they’ll get a chance to show what they can do. I think Eduardo will get 1 goal at least today after his excellent but unrewarded performance against Derby, but more so because Bendtner is playing thus creating the big man – little man combination.

I think we’ll win this because Big Sam will try and go physical and Newcastle bar Nicky Butt maybe really don’t have the players to kick that much. I see us winning by the odd goal.

Arsenal 2 – Newcastle 1
p.s… Owen is injured again.. sad but I can see why all top flight managers are wary of buying the guy.