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Tonight, Arsenal host Doncaster Rovers in the 3rd round of the League Cup.

The Managers

Arsenal

Arsene Wenger on Alex Iwobi: “In the last two games, he was involved in dangerous situations in the final third and I’m convinced that Alex will score goals and give assists. The next level is confidence, calm in front of goal and to keep his assets.”

On Jack Wilshere: “These kinds of games are very important for Jack at the moment. He is focused, he is working hard and he is absolutely determined to get his place back in the team. There is a big fight there and that’s what we want.”

On Jack’s play-style contributing to his injuries: “Your pride is part of your game and I don’t think he will ever lose that. He will never accept to lose a ball, but that’s part of a good football player. What I think is that for him it’s important now that he stays a long period without having any setbacks.”

Doncaster Rovers

Darren Ferguson is the current manager of Doncaster. He’s been in charge since October 2015, when he replaced ex-Arsenal man Paul Dickov in the hot-seat. Ferguson was unable to avoid relegation in his first season in charge as Rovers dropped down to League Two. But his second season saw them bounce straight back up after finishing 3rd in the fourth tier.

As you may know, Darren is the son of Sir Alex Ferguson. Young Ferguson started his career at Man United and even won a Premier League medal in 1992-93. Interestingly enough, his assistant at Doncaster is also the son of a Scottish football manager – Gavin Strachan, son of Gordon.

Darren Ferguson was asked about the Wenger/Fergie rivalry ahead of the match: “There’s an enormous amount of respect between my dad and Arsene Wenger. They get on very, very well. They were competitive, both of them. They had to have that sort of competitive edge towards it when they were managing but I’m looking forward to coming up against him.”

Team News

Arsenal

Danny Welbeck is most certainly out of the game with a groin injury. He’s expected to be out until after the next international break. Mathieu Debuchy won’t be involved either and Francis Coquelin is “coming back slowly” after the hamstring injury he picked up against Bournemouth.

Mesut Ozil will also miss the game with a knee inflammation. Wenger did confirm that Calum Chambers and Jack Wilshere will be in the team though, adding “It will be a similar team to the one that played Cologne”.

Doncaster Rovers

Darren Ferguson confirmed that midfielder Tommy Row is fit to play Arsenal, despite picking up a slight calf knock at the weekend. Winger Alex Kiwomya is close to a return but this game might come too soon for him.

21-year old Jordan Houghton is also fit again, having missed the weekend defeat to Scunthorpe. The midfielder is on loan from Chelsea and also spent last season at Rovers, scoring once in 32 appearances in League Two.

Ross Etheridge, Mathieu Baudry, Luke McCullough and Danny Andrew, all first-team players, are all out for at least another month.

What to expect?

Doncaster have been on a poor run of form lately, gaining just one point in their last five League One matches. They sit 19th in the table and haven’t won a league game since beating Blackburn 3-1 in August.

They have won four games in all competitions this season, two of them being wins in the League Cup. But three of their four wins have come away from home.

Doncaster’s cup run has so far included a 2-0 win over an inexperienced Hull City and a penalty shoot-out victory over Grimsby. This will certainly be their biggest test in the competition so far.

Rovers have stuck with a traditional 4-4-2 formation for the majority of games this season, though they have occasionally mixed it up with a 4-1-2-1-2 and played with a man in behind the front two.

Alfie May is their top scorer with three goals this season. One of them came in the 1st round win over Hull. But May hasn’t scored since that game. In fact, no. 9 John Marquis is the only player to have found the net for Doncaster in the last four games – and even that came in a 2-1 defeat to Rochdale.

Midfielder and captain James Coppinger is often employed in an attacking role. He’s been a Doncaster player for 13 years and played in that clash with Arsenal in 2005. Coppinger holds the club record for appearances – he’s played over 500 games for Doncaster.

Head-to-Head

Arsenal have faced Doncaster just eight times before, winning seven and losing once. The sides haven’t met in the same division since 1903, when both were in Division Two.

March 1903 was the last time they played in a league match and Arsenal won it 3-0. You have to go back to a year earlier for the only time Doncaster have beaten the Gunners – they beat Woolwich Arsenal 1-0 at home.

Since then, Arsenal have encountered Rovers four times in cup competitions – three of those have been in the League Cup. In 1953, the Gunners were 4-0 winners in an FA Cup 3rd round tie. Doug Lishman, the 7th most prolific scorer in Arsenal history, bagged a goal on the day.

It was 34 years before the sides met again, this time in the League Cup. Doncaster were in the third tier at the time and were little trouble for Arsenal over two legs. The Gunners were comfortable 3-0 winners in the first leg at Belle Vue, before a solitary David Rocastle goal settled the second leg a couple of weeks later.

The most recent clash between the sides came in the quarter-finals of the League Cup in 2005. Doncaster had beaten Aston Villa and Man City in the cup that season but were still very much the underdogs against Arsenal. The Gunners were in a poor run of form though, having lost three Premier League games in a row. But Wenger stuck with his policy of rotating for the League Cup, playing mostly youngsters along with a couple of more experienced players.

Doncaster stunned the visitors when they took the lead after just four minutes. But a goal from Quincy Owusu-Abeyie levelled it just after the hour mark and the game went to extra-time. Rovers took the lead again though Paul Green and it looked like they were going to pull off a real shock. However, with the game gone into stoppage time at the end of extra time, one of the most experienced heads on the field popped up with the all important equaliser. Gilberto Silva made it 2-2 and sent the match into penalties.

Manuel Almunia ended up being the hero in the shoot-out, saving two penalties. Gilberto, Pascal Cygan and Seb Larsson all scored from the spot for Arsenal. Aleksandr Hleb missed our fourth penalty but Almunia then saved from Paul Green to send Arsenal into the semi-finals. The Gunners avoided an upset but couldn’t make it beyond the semis – losing to Wigan on away goals after the tie finished 2-2.

That’s Interesting…

The 1-0 defeat to Doncaster in 1902 and the 2-2 in 2005 are the only times Doncaster have scored against Arsenal. The Gunners have kept a clean sheet in each of the other six meetings.

That game in 2005 is one of just two times in their history that Doncaster have made it beyond the 4th round of the League Cup. The other time was 30 years earlier when they also made it to the quarter-final. Just like in 2005, they were drawn to face a team from North London but, quite unlike 2005, they didn’t get anywhere near beating them. Spurs thrashed Doncaster 7-2 at White Hart Lane.

The last time Arsenal lost to lower league opposition at home in the League Cup was in November 1983. Walsall, who were in the Third Division (League One), beat Arsenal 2-1 at Highbury.

The Gunners have lost in the 3rd round of the League Cup just three times under Arsene Wenger. All three of them came at home too – 2-1 vs Ipswich in 2000, 3-2 vs Sunderland in 2002 and 2-1 vs Southampton in 2014.

One of Wenger’s first games in charge of Arsenal was in the 3rd round of the League Cup. Arsenal drew 1-1 at Stoke and, in those days, that meant a replay. The Gunners progressed with a 5-2 victory at Highbury.

Wenger’s Arsenal have been involved in two 3rd round penalty shoot-outs before: after a 1-1 at West Brom in 2013, Arsenal won 4-3 on penalties. The other was in 2003, when a youthful Arsenal side finished level with Rotherham at Highbury. It was followed by a mammoth shoot-out of 22 penalties, with Arsenal eventually going through 9-8 after Sylvain Wiltord’s second spot-kick.

Doncaster have won just one of their last 19 League Cup ties away to opponents from a higher division. That was a 2-1 win at Watford in 2014, when the Hornets were in the Championship.

Rovers are one of just three teams that Arsene Wenger has faced in English football and failed to beat in 90 minutes. The other two teams are Port Vale and Rotherham though, like Doncaster, they were eventually beaten on penalties.

Olivier Giroud remains just one goal shy of 100 in an Arsenal shirt. It would be fitting for him to reach the landmark with a goal against Doncaster – his very first Arsenal goal came in the League Cup 3rd round win over Coventry in 2012.

How about some goals?

There’s not many goals against Doncaster to look back on but, luckily for us, we have gotten plenty at this stage of the League Cup in the past:

September 1987 – Doncaster 0-3 Arsenal: Alan Smith, Perry Groves and Steve Williams put Arsenal in a commanding position in this tie. The Gunners won the second leg 1-0 at Highbury and ended up going on to win the Cup that year.

2016-17 – Nottingham Forest 0-4 Arsenal: The Gunners eased into the 4th round with a big win at the Championship side. Lucas Perez got his first goals for Arsenal, while Granit Xhaka and Lesser Chambo also found the net.

2015-16 – Spurs 1-2 Arsenal: The North London Derby was settled with two goals from one of the most unlikeliest of sources. Mathieu Flamini’s second goal was an absolute stunner of a volley.

2012-13 – Arsenal 6-1 Coventry: Theo Walcott got a couple of nice goals in this one as Arsenal strolled to victory. Arshavin’s goal was a particularly decent finish too.

2008-09 – Arsenal 6-0 Sheffield United: The kids did the job for Arsenal again as they saw off United with little trouble. 16-year old Jack Wilshere got his first senior goal, while Carlos Vela took home the match ball with a superb hat-trick. His second was a delightful, trademark chip over the keeper.

2004-05 – Man City 1-2 Arsenal: American Daniel Karbassiyoon and a young Robin Van Persie got the goals in this win at City. RVP was making his debut for the Gunners after his summer move from Feyenoord.

And that’s that…

The Gunners face Doncaster tonight at the Emirates. Everything points to an Arsenal win: we tend not to lose to lower league opposition, we more often than not get beyond the 3rd round of the League Cup and, let’s face it, they’re a League One team. We should win no matter what kind of team we put out. Make no mistake, Doncaster will be up for a game. But their form has been poor over the last month or so. There should be no excuses, we should win this comfortably.

I’ll be back in a few days to look ahead to our next match – we play West Brom at home on Monday night.

Thanks for reading.