If we do win on the pitch, then it will be a case of “Well! You were playing their kids!  What did you expect!”.  Losing on the pitch…..I can only just begin to imagine the premature ejaculations in the TV studio from the biased pundits and even worse, months ….even years of painful reminders from Arsenal fans. 

Many media hacks have probably already written the first draft of their reports; “Wenger´s Brave Young Gunners!”, “Flowing Fluid Football!” (whether it was or it wasn´t), “Arsenal´s Promising Youngsters Face The Devil´s Spawn That Is Chelsea!”….. Arsenal fans will shout “Hoof!” at any long pass played by Chelsea and then go strangely quiet when they do it (you get the drift).

The only way I see any escape from the scenario is if we win convincingly, say, 3 or 4 nil with the likes of our youngsters Kalou, Mikel Obi, Morais or Diarra really shining or getting on the score sheet.

There’s no doubt that Arsenal’s youngsters have done extremely well in getting to the final with the Liverpool tie highlighting along the way.  Some fans would point to fact that Wegner using a more or less, supplementary 11 illustrates the Frenchman’s disdain for the competition whilst Arsenal fans would scoff at the opposing teams inability to sweep them aside anyway.   Only an Arsenal fan, in the event of an extremely negative result would probably be able to give the verdict on whether Wenger had given them value for money for the cost of the trip to Cardiff.

Still, we mustn’t get too carried away, someone pointed out to me that in fact, the Arsenal team that faced Spurs had an average age of 22.5 whilst Spurs was only 23.5 – hardly the massive difference the media would like us to believe!  Chelsea’s line up against Wycombe gave a 26.5 age average – the inclusion of Kalou at some point would reduce this figure – and the introduction of the likes of Henry would raise Arsenals.   As Benitez said recently to the press, some of these youngsters weren’t exactly cheap either.   Hmmmmm…..we’ll have to see.

John Terry is obviously out which means we lose Essien´s power in midfield and I wouldn’t be surprised if we actually see Arsenal lob a few high balls into the box for Adebayor to try and exploit the lack of height in our central defence.  There are rumours that Ashley Cole could feature – I expect at the very most for him to be on the bench.

On the Arsenal side, Hoyte and Cliché face late fitness tests so we’ll have to see if Wenger does actually fulfil his promise – don’t be surprised if he does buckle and include one or two bigger guns.

History reveals that this is the 165th competitive meeting of our clubs – Arsenal 67 wins to Chelsea’s 47 and 50 draws – strange that as Arsenal fans accuse us of having no history, Millwall with money!   This will also be the last League Cup Final to be played at the Millennium Stadium.

Chelsea (from): Cech, Hilario, Cudicini, Ferreira, A Cole, Geremi, Diarra, Carvalho, Bridge, Morais, Mikel, Lampard, Makalele, Ballack, Essien, Shevchenko, Drogba, Robben, Kalou, Wright-Phillips.

Arsenal (from): Almunia, Poom, Hoyte, Senderos, Toure, Djourou, Clichy, Traore, Walcott, Diaby, Flamini, Fabregas, Denilson, Aliadiere, Adebayor, Baptista, Hleb, Rosicky, Randall, Connolly.

I´m expecting us to go 4-4-2:  Cech, Diarra, Carvalho, Essien, Bridge, Lampard, Ballack, Makalele, Robben, Drogba and Shevchenko.    If the result is favourable then I expect Mikel, Wright-Philips and Kalou to feature in the second half.

I´m going to put my neck on the block and go for a 4-1 win.  They will score first, sending the pundits into the studio bathroom to immediately mop up.   Shevchenko will SHINE.

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