23 seconds and boom!

Calum Chambers had barely got his shoes tied and Eddie Nketiah barely made a wide open shot on goal, but in the end the Gunners advanced to the Carabao Cup quarterfinals in late December with a 2-0 clean sheet win over Leeds United on Tuesday.

Chambers was on the pitch exactly 23 seconds when he headed in a corner kick to give the Gunners a 1-0 lead. Later in the second half, Nketiah took advantage of a goalkeeping mistake and slotted one home from very close range in front of an empty net. Eddie’s kick wasn’t perfect, but it counted just the same. The Gunners have now scored eleven goals in their three Carabao Cup matches, while keeping three clean sheets.

So, Arsenal are now unbeaten for eight straight matches. Kudos to Mikel Arteta and his staff, and especially to his players who have really begun to show-up on a more consistent basis to play at the level we know they are capable of playing.

Arteta made nine changes to his side yesterday, and would have made all eleven, however an injury to Martin Odegaard and an illness plaguing Pablo Mari meant Emile Smith Rowe and Ben White had to step in, which they both did superbly. Actually, the entire group who played on Tuesday played extremely well, which should really please the Arsenal manager.

It’s now off to Leicester City on Saturday, then a home match at the Emirates v Watford on November 7th before the next international break begins.

There is now a lot of discussion about whether Arteta should go with a 4-4-2, instead of a 4-3-2-1 set-up. Maybe the pairing of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in front of goal together might consistently produce more goals, which we need desperately. Both are showing some goal scoring form at the moment, so why not!

At the end of the day, I support whatever it takes to win matches!

Cheers.

Gunner1953