Mikel Arteta has suggested he does not have a “cup team”, raising doubts over whether Kepa Arrizabalaga will face his former club Chelsea on Wednesday night.
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Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Mikel Arteta denied that he thinks of certain players as part of his “cup team”, insisting that he is simply choosing lineups to try to make Arsenal as successful as possible.
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“I don’t believe in players for competitions,” Arteta insisted. “I think we have competition and we want to compete in all competitions with the best moment of the players we have at our disposal, and that is what we try to do.”
But those comments obviously raise the question of whether Kepa Arrizabalaga will join the team for Wednesday’s trip to Chelsea.
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Kepa is largely regarded by the general public as Arsenal’s cup goalkeeper, suggesting he will be favorite over David Raya for Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final, even if Raya is first choice in the Premier League.
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But if Arteta’s comments are true, then he will choose the best man for the job on Wednesday night.
When pressed on this particular point, Arteta confirmed that his main objective is to win the game, although he added that goalkeepers are a bit of a special case.
“Well, it’s because in the end our job and my job is to prepare the team in the best possible way to win the competition, every competition we are in,” Arteta said.
“Each game is different, each game requires different qualities and players, and the players have moments in which they are very high, in which they do not have much confidence or minutes and each case is different.
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“Also, goalkeepers are a very particular case because they obviously have fewer opportunities than other players to play each week. But we try to treat them in that sense.”
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Overall, Kepa has done a good job for Arsenal when called upon so far, with the possible exception of the goal he conceded against Portsmouth at the weekend.
But Raya is widely considered one of the best goalkeepers in the world, so it’s hard to argue that the Gunners wouldn’t benefit from having him between the posts for this semi-final.
It’s a difficult decision for Arteta to make, and his line-up on Wednesday night will probably tell us more about his ‘cup-keeper’ philosophy than his press conference.