Wojciech Szczesny has been itching in his pants for a first team start, so much so that he couldn’t help but to shout out in frustration in recent weeks about his lack of pitch time. With Wenger sending Mannone on loan to Hull City, it is Szczesny’s chance to show what he can do and become our cup keeper. He spoke very well in his pre match interview and said that nerves will not be a problem as he does not suffer from them. Good lad

The rigours of the Premier League and Champions League gets put on hold on Wednesday night as Arsenal get ready to play in the glorified friendly competition also known as the Carling Cup. The kids get a chance to strut their stuff on the Newcastle pitch. Well I say kids but it is not so much of the kids anymore, more like the other part of our squad, such is our superb strength in depth these days.

The Geordies are likely to field a slightly weakened team, well that is if they continue as they did in the last round against Chelsea. Newcastle had enough in their locker to overcome Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on that day in a fully entertaining game of football, so taking them on at St James’ Park cannot be taken lightly.

After our fantastic away day at Manchester City Arsene is likely to wield the axe of rotation. Plenty of our personnel have returned from injury and now need games to get up to speed and the Carling Cup is the best place to use a player who might be rusty. I am thinking of the likes of Theo Walcott, Nicklas Bendtner and perhaps Laurent Koscielny if he has fully recovered from his injury. Other players like Tomas Rosicky, Emmanuel Eboue and Kieran Gibbs are pushing on the door hoping to get a run as a first team regular and those players should all start.

As far as I can see, the back four and midfield almost pick themselves, unless Wenger has a trick or two up his sleeve but it is the attacking three that leave question marks for us supporters. Nicklas Bendtner, Theo Walcott, Carlos Vela and Jay Emmanuel-Thomas are all jockeying for a starting berth but unless my maths is worse than it already is and I tell you, it cannot get much worse. Four into three just doesn’t fit, no matter how you try and squeeze it in.

Given how the pecking order seems to be ordered you would suspect that JET maybe the one dropped down to the bench but listening to Arsene’s press conference you would think that JET was about to be given the captaincy and the number four shirt off of Cesc’s back.

The Carling Cup is clearly the last of Arsene’s priorities this season but this does not mean that winning the competition would not be a positive thing for the club and the players. I do not expect the players to give any less, especially as many of the players will be those hoping to be number one in their positions for the big games.

Wojciech Szczesny has been itching in his pants for a first team start, so much so that he couldn’t help but to shout out in frustration in recent weeks about his lack of pitch time. With Wenger sending Mannone on loan to Hull City, it is Szczesny’s chance to show what he can do and become our cup keeper. He spoke very well in his pre match interview and said that nerves will not be a problem as he does not suffer from them. Good lad.

Our last appearance at St James’ Park was a good one, winning 3-1 Bendtner was amongst the scorers with a header so lets hope he can continue where he left off at Eastlands. Nicky B has an impressive hurdle to get past before he can stake his claim, new boy Marouane Chamakh has been one of the signings of the season so far and Bendtner will require a super human effort to be chosen ahead of him at this stage, a good performance tonight wouldn’t do his chances any harm.

Youngster Henri Lansbury who started in the last round against Tottenham could find himself back in the center of midfield ahead of Denilson and behind Rosicky. If he does get the nod then now would be a great time to take his chance, especially with both Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey unavailable for different reasons,

Mean Lean’s Predicted Line Up

(Click image to enlarge)

One to watch: Tomas Rosicky

In the absence of Cesc and Nasri the puppet controls will be handed to Tomas Rosicky who I imagine will play in his favoured role, offensive midfield.

I think he has somewhat unfairly been given more of a back seat this season but when he has had minutes on the pitch then 9 times out of 10 he has performed to a very high level. Cesc’s absence was hardly felt at the start of the season when the Czech maestro made a game changing appearance at Anfield and then ripped Blackpool apart at the Emirates.

It will be interesting to see how he gets on without another offensive creative ball player around him. He will be the one mainly responsible for slipping through the likes of Walcott and Vela and will be invited to join Bendtner whenever he can. I fancy Rosicky to open his goal account tonight.

Mean Lean’s Match Prediction

Newcastle United 0 Arsenal 3 (Bendtner, Walcott, Rosicky)

If the players can put on a similar showing to the mauling at White Hart Lane then I think we will have too much for a Newcastle side who are bound to make changes. The Newcastle pitch will be big and if we use the ball correctly then Newcastle could struggle with our game. I hope Theo can make his diagonal runs and hopefully he can play with Rosicky.

I am hoping that Jay Emmanuel-Thomas gets enough time to show what he can do. It is likely to be from the bench but if he does come on then hopefully he will be able to stake his claim for some future first team action.

Fingers crossed that the Arsenal momentum train continues with victory tonight.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS