Arsenal vs. Coventry City: League Cup Preview

Arsenal vs. Coventry City
Capital One Cup Third Round
Emirates Stadium, London, Engerlund, United Kingdom, Earth
Kickoff: Wednesday, September 26, 2:45PM EDT
Form: ARS DWWWD | COV DLLLL
TV: Arsenal Player Online (subscription required)

Arsenal welcome Coventry City to the Emirates tomorrow for the Gunners' first Carling Cup Capital One Cup match of the year. Coventry City currently sit third from the bottom in League One and have gotten off to a...well...pretty horrible start, earning three points in their first eight league matches with a goal difference of -8.

Yeah...this is a match Arsenal should be winning.

The match comes sandwiched dead between two tough league matches for Arsenal, Sunday's draw with Manchester City and Saturday's mega-huge-gigantor clash with table-toppers Chelsea. Thusly, given the nature of tomorrow's opponent and the need to rest important pieces, expect to see a LOT of fringe players and youths take the field when the floodlights come on. In fact, the ONLY player remotely close to the starting XI you should expect to see tomorrow is Olivier Giroud, and even then, if Marouane Chamakh were to start at center forward, you'd not be surprised, assuming he's over his illness (and he was in training photos from today, so he should be).

Coventry's main danger men are striker David McGoldrick (on loan from Nottingham Forest) and midfielder Carl Baker, so keep an ear out for those names. Arsenal, meanwhile, will look to less-used fringe players and youths, although Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin could feature as well. One might expect a lineup to look a little something like this:

D. Martinez
Yennaris----Djourou----Miquel----Santos
Coquelin----Olsson
Ox
Walcott----Giroud----Arshavin

With Chamakh, Craig Eastmond, and Serge Gnabry featuring off the bench.

We'll have more news for you in the storystream (New Feature! Whee!) as things develop. For now, here's a match prediction and a little bonus video.

Match prediction: Arsenal win 4-1 after a stupid goal is conceded early when Andre Santos crashes his Porsche into Carl Baker just inside the area. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gets angry and scores a hattrick before Andrei Arshavin scores a fourth by running around with his shirt over his head waving his arms until Giroud bonks a shot off his knee.

Bonus Monty Python video: watch it all, but the relevant bit comes up at 1:50, as noted Wolves fan Eric Idle mercilessly trolls his Midlands neighbors: