It’s going to be a cold cold night tonight down at the Emirates and Arsenal emailed me yesterday to let me know to check the website throughout the day in case the fixture was cancelled… but if it’s not, you’ll be glad to know that Arsenal are putting on a massive show for the kids beforehand – so if you’ve got a spare hour before the game, get down there early and get involved.

With quite a small group of players playing the main first team games, I expect Arsene to rest a lot of players, but with so many players coming back, such as Bendtner, Van Persie, Walcott and Carlos Vela. From Arsene’s statement yesterday, I think he may not play Van Persie – but I really hope he does. Despite some strong forwards, I’m sure the likes of Denilson as well as Kieran Gibbs will also play, so it won’t be too young and inexperienced – in fact it will be full of players who have all played in the first team…

“You will be surprised if you look at the age of the Carling Cup team. People are used to seeing them in the Premier League so it doesn’t look as exclusively a Carling Cup team anymore. I have many players who are top level and I have many players who are young as well. When I speak about the young players, the young players are still in the squad but they are still very young. We need games for young players so that explains why we have less ‘super’ young players playing. However, the team who plays in the Carling Cup is still very young.”

I think Jack Wilshere and Craig Eastmond will also be included and therefore the team on the night could well be:

Szcznesy

Eboue – Djourou – Koscielny – Gibbs

Denilson – Eastmond

Walcott – Van Persie – Vela

Bendtner

If Arsene decides not to play Van Persie, then Jack Wilshere could come in and on the bench I’m sure we’ll see Rosicky, Chamakh as well as Clichy and Sagna – just in case… and you will be correct to see Eboue named in my team – that’s because he is back ahead of schedule…

“Eboue’s back in the squad much quicker than planned. When we made a scan his knee was swollen but the ligament was intact so we decided to push him back as quickly as possible and the tests were successful.”

Excellent! Arsene also revealed that Cesc is about 10 days away and Squillaci has a little niggle which will see him rested for the game… In fact, looking at the squad I’ve named above, it does look quite strong, but the interesting thing is that all the players named are currently not our first team… which shows a good level of depth – the players named though will have to perform at their level in order to beat an inspired Wigan team who will only too fondly remember their last encounter with us.

If Arsene does opt to play the team as mentioned above, it will be a really good test for some of these players and a really good run out for the front four – who really haven’t had too much game time between them in the last month or so whatsoever…

I’ll be coming down to the Emirates with Lady WOA / WOA Goonerette – I’m yet to think of a name for her… but she is really starting to love these awesome Arsenal games, so to the Arsenal team, I tell you it’s time to put on a show for the lady… and the other 60,091 people there too!

Come on you reds!