Newcastle United vs. Arsenal Carling Cup match preview

Kickoff: Wednesday, October 27, 2:45 PM EDT
TV coverage: Foxsoccer.tv (subscribers only) and Fox Soccer Plus
Location: St. James' Park

Arsenal will square off in the Northeast tomorrow against Newcastle United for their fourth round Carling Cup match.  [Ed. note: so far, this means I've just been distracted watching AC/DC videos on youtube.  My apologies for that].  According to the official site interview with Arsène Wenger, Theo Walcott and Laurent Koscielny will both return to the side for tomorrow's match.  Wenger said that it will be "80% first team", and expect to see Nicklas Bendtner and Henri Lansbury as well.  He also confirmed that Craig Eastmond and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas will be in the squad.

One would suspect that Carlos Vela will play tomorrow, and may start.  Wojciech Szczesny will start in goal.  Any one of Denilson, Abou Diaby , or Tomas Rosicky could feature in the midfield for the Gunners (and last time Denilson played against Newcastle in the Carling Cup, this happened).

If Arsenal win this game, they will be in the last eight for the Carling Cup, and given the slightly strengthened lineup that Wenger put out at Tottenham Hotspur, one might surmise that he is really going for the trophy.  On the other hand, the fact that a number of Arsenal's young players that have featured in this competition for a while now (Lansbury, Jack Wilshere, Denilson, Kieran Gibbs) have really come on strongly, perhaps it's inevitable that Arsenal's Carling Cup side has grown stronger, many of the youths of two or three years ago full first-team members now.

Szczesny

Eboué                Koscielny               Djourou               Gibbs

Denilson             Lansbury

Diaby

Walcott                 Bendtner                   Vela

With JET, Rosicky, Eastmond, Squillaci, et al. on the bench.