Carling Cup - What are our chances?

With the QF draw around, what do you all expect? The teams that qualified are :

1. Arsenal
2. Crystal Palace
3. Cardiff
4. Manchester United
5. Manchester City
6. Chelsea
7. Liverpool
8. Blackburn


The draw has been kind to us thus far with relatively easy games at home. Personally, I'd prefer Crystal Palace or Cardiff at home, but we are the Arsenal. We know what can happen when these draws are involved. What are your hopes, fears and expectations?

[P.S.: Chelsea played into extra time, I hope that has resulted in some more tired legs prior to our game with them! ]

The draw is certainly much stronger than it was last season. The five biggest teams in the league are still in it, and chances are we will draw one of United, Liverpool, Chelsea or City.

While that may not be ideal, I wouldn't particularly mind it, so long as it's a home game.

Since it's the Carling Cup, the big sides left will all rotate heavily and one would hope that playing against a bigger team would result in Wenger playing a slightly stronger side than what we've seen so far.

The ideal draw for me would be for us to get one of Blackburn, Cardiff or Palace at home and for the other four big sides to draw each other, thus guaranteeing two of them will be eliminated from the competiton.

It does look likely we'll draw a big side though, and even more likely that should we progress to the final, we'll play one of the big boys. That may work in our favour, since there's less chance of complacency and more chance of the players working their arses off to get a result... but that's still quite a long time away.

So to summerise:

Home to big teams: relatively confident we'll go through
Home to smaller teams: confident we'll go through
Away to big teams: midly pessimistic about our chances
Away to smaller teams: confident we'll go through

Manchester United will get Crystal Palace or Cardiff ofcourse, and we'll get Manchester City, Liverpool or Chelsea. That's FA's work.

I want a revenge with Blackburn

I should've added: my hope is to win the cup. I think in order for us to dispel the demons of last years final once and for all, we need to win the tournament.

Though things may be looking up recently, winning a domestic cup might be the best we can hope for this season, so it'd be nice to win it.

GoonerJay29 wrote:I should've added: my hope is to win the cup. I think in order for us to dispel the demons of last years final once and for all, we need to win the tournament.

Though things may be looking up recently, winning a domestic cup might be the best we can hope for this season, so it'd be nice to win it.

Are you really optimistic of our chances for this cup for this year? My stomach did a couple of somersaults and then a few backflips after I saw that list of the last 8.

But then again, this is the only competition (okay, maybe this and FA Cup) which I have some hope of success in. One of the two and a top 4 finish would make this a highly successful season, in view of the start we had to it.

How optimistic I am will depend on Saturday's draw. At the moment, I'm more hopeful than anything; definitely not expecting us to win the tournament. But if we reach the semi-finals though, then it's fair game for everyone involved.

I am getting some 2006-vibes from this season. That season, our league form was poor (home form good, away form bad), but we managed a Carling Cup semi-final and Champions League final. This year, our league form has been meh (home form good, away form downright atrocious), but we've managed to get into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup and are in pole position to win our Champions League group. Who knows: perhaps we'll have another memorable cup run this year.

srigooner wrote:With the QF draw around, what do you all expect? The teams that qualified are :

1. Arsenal
2. Crystal Palace
3. Cardiff
4. Manchester United
5. Manchester City
6. Chelsea
7. Liverpool
8. Blackburn


The draw has been kind to us thus far with relatively easy games at home. Personally, I'd prefer Crystal Palace or Cardiff at home, but we are the Arsenal. We know what can happen when these draws are involved. What are your hopes, fears and expectations?


[P.S.: Chelsea played into extra time, I hope that has resulted in some more tired legs prior to our game with them! ]

*Cough Cough* trust me, you don't want any part of this, Home or Away.

My confidence is related to the draw. If we meet Palace or Cardiff I will be confident. If we meet the big boys I won't be confident.

Actually Palace have been in good form in CC this year....So I would ideally prefer Cardiff City but since we are The Arsenal we will mostly get the other city,Manchester and that too in ES

But if we do get Palace it would be a ideal situation to check out the NEXT BIG THING OF ENG FOOTY,Wilfried Zaha

I think we can manage Crystal Palace.. But the big boys, esp the mancs (and maybe chelsea after this weekend) and we are in troubled waters..

Actually, I think we can take on Liverpool also.. Blackburn would largely be (and better be) a payback match..

I think our chances are 1 in 8.
But seriously City has a two squads so they will probably win due to their Carling Cup side being a top half EPL team.

meet any decent sides then out

Man city away PLZ
na$ri and johnson in their CC team
but we can do that

Was hoping Chelsea would lose in penalties yesterday
At least they'll be tired for Saturday

Really can't call the chances, it's the luck of the draw

We will beat United/City/Liverpool/Chelsea in the quarters/semis and then lose to Crystal Palace in the final

avoid the big teams. That is all. :shisha:

u would hope that city gets united, liverpool gets chelsea and we get cardiff at home LOL

SUPERCARTTS wrote:avoid the big teams. That is all. :shisha:

No way...a nice thumping by city awaits in the next round

cardiff, palace or blackburn at home then we're all good! I reckon we'll get Liverpool and Utd will get City.

think we can win against liverpool and united at home as well, if we play a decent team.

just avoid city home or away

^^will utd play the same team that played aldershot if they get us at the grove?
when i remember their line up in F.A cup last season i was thinking biggest bus ever parked but then...

Palace please

Arsenal v Blackburn/Cardiff/Palace please

City is definitely the team to avoid in domestic competitions.. They have been scoring for fun and I'd rather they draw a big team and then go out.. I give us more of a chance to beat ManUtd, Chelsea or Liverpool atm than City.. #SadButTrue