Winners and Losers: Wimbledon (h)

Arsenal won 3-0 at home to Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, and of course Sky Sports chose not to televise it. Goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Emile Smith Rowe, and Eddie Nketiah saw the Gunners progress to the fourth round of the competition, in which they will host Leeds. This result, by the way, means that Arsenal now have more wins than losses this season. So that’s a win for us all. Below are two players and a concept that won tonight, as well as two players and a concept that weren’t as successful.

Winners

Eddie Nketiah

Nketiah honestly shouldn’t even still be at the club. As reported by multiple outlets at the end of the summer transfer window, the young striker was on the cusp of a move to Crystal Palace, but the transfer collapsed at the last minute due to his wage demands. Subsequently, it appeared Nketiah would spend this season rotting on the bench before leaving for free next summer. But the Englishman started today, and he looked sharp. He scored Arsenal’s second with an absolutely sensational flick around the back of a Wimbledon defender. In the few minutes he has been afforded this season, he has looked like he has something to offer. If he keeps it up, there may need to be a discuss about whether he should leave Arsenal after all.

Nuno Tavares

Aaron Ramsdale has overtaken Leno as first-choice keeper. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White make up half of Mikel Arteta’s preferred back four. Martin Odegaard looks well on his way to becoming a talisman of this new-look Arsenal. Even Albert Sambi Lokonga is giving Granit Xhaka a run for his money. But Tavares has almost been dismissed as simply a backup for Kieran Tierney. And while it will take a Herculean effort for him to displace the Scottish left-back, Tavares reminded the world of his presence on Wednesday night. He bombed forward and directly attacked Wimbledon’s final third. The Portuguese defender had four shots, including a header that hit the post. He made some mistakes as well, but all in all, Tavares’ rawness doesn’t disguise how thrilling a player he can be. The future could be just as bright for him as it looks for the other new signings.

The Emirates Stadium streamers

For the first time in recent memory, an Arsenal match was not televised. Anywhere. The minutes leading up to the match saw supporters scrambling to find broadcasts, streams, anything that would let them watch the tie. However, not even the most influential accounts in Arsenal Twitter came up with anything. But several within the Emirates saved the day. Slowly but surely, Twitter streams of the match popped up on timelines. Although the quality was iffy and few streams if any made it through the entire match, fans were able to watch at least some of the match. So to those who put their season tickets or a future return to the Emirates on the line to beam the game to their fellow Gooners, we salute you.

Losers

Folarin Balogun

It wasn’t too long ago that Arsenal found themselves fighting to extend Balogun’s contract. As one of the most promising young strikers in Europe, the Englishman was free to demand minutes in the first team in order to continue his development. Arteta and Edu convinced him they could provide that. But now, with Lacazette and Nketiah both still at the club, Balogun is currently fourth in the pecking order of center forwards. He may even be fifth depending on how Arteta views Gabriel Martinelli. That showed in the manager’s team selection on Wednesday. Balogun found himself coming on to replace Nketiah after his countryman notched a beauty of a goal. With no European tournaments and the competition in the domestic cups getting tougher, Balogun’s chances of getting many minutes look slim. Odds are he will need to go on loan if he’s to get proper playing time this season.

Bernd Leno

Relegated to his current status as reserve keeper, Leno was rolled out to play against Wimbledon on Wednesday night. The German did not have much to do and cruised to his first clean sheet of the season. However, while his undoubted shot-stopping abilities weren’t tested much, he did have opportunities to prove his critics wrong regarding his aptitude for playing out from the back. Unfortunately, Leno did not take the chance to do so. At one point in the second half, Leno claimed a cross and instead of sending the ball up to Tavares, who had rocketed into space behind Wimbledon’s right-back, Leno chose to take a few seconds and scan his options before laying the ball off safely to Rob Holding. A worthwhile counterattack was killed before it had even begun, and Tavares was clearly frustrated. Time and time again this season, Leno has demonstrated that he is practically incapable of initiating attacks from Arsenal’s defensive third, which is a pillar of Artetaball. Ramsdale arrived at the club in August and so immediately outclassed the German in that regard that Leno is now the cup keeper. Unfortunately, it appears no progress has been made toward reclaiming his start position.

The idea of resting players

A minor uproar commenced when it was announced that Thomas Partey would start the match. Many fans expressed concern that the Ghanaian, possibly the most important player in the team, wasn’t being rested for a massive match against Spurs at the weekend. Chris Wheatley of Football London later revealed that Partey had asked to play in order to fine-tune his fitness ahead of the North London Derby. In the second half of the match, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka came on as substitutes. Both players will likely be involved against Spurs as well. The inclusion of the trio left wannabe experts on professional footballers’ fitness with their foots in their mouths, as all three made it through the match unscathed and likely got in a good workout before the squad takes on their biggest rivals. In this new age of periodization, strict regiments, and dedicated monitoring of conditioning, managers at professional clubs likely know more about their players’ health than any generation of managers before them. Arteta almost definitely has experts in sports science and physiology informing his decisions on whether squad members are fit to play, or need to play to be fit. Many of us may doubt the manager’s suitability for the role currently, but it is time for us to accept that when it comes to the fitness of Arsenal players, there are actual experts at the helm. And according to them, players don’t need to be sidelined for an entire week leading up to important matches.

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