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Just over seven hours to go!
15:50 here, been a long day waiting for the final already. Nerves are jangling. Already had two nervous naps. I’d go for a walk but it’s 35 degrees out. Too early to reach for a beer.
Anyway, may the best team (from north London) win.
Arsenal fans, even if Martin Odegaard is fit to play this afternoon, should he start over Eberechi Eze? Personally, I don’t think so. Eze has continued to get better in recent weeks and his confidence must be sky-high, especially after scoring THAT goal against Bayer Leverkusen. Odegaard will be a great option to bring off the bench, but for me it should be Eze starting in that No10 position.
So, let’s talk team news ahead of the Carabao Cup final. Pep Guardiola has already confirmed that James Trafford will be the man to start in goal, ahead of Gianluigi Donnarumma. Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta refused to reveal if Kepa Arrizabalaga - who has played every minute of the competition for Arsenal so far - will get the nod over David Raya at Wembley.
In terms of outfield players, Marc Guehi is unavailable due to being cup-tied, while Josko Gvardiol remains absent due to injury. And for Arsenal, Martin Odegaard could return from injury.
Right, I think it’s time to talk all things Carabao Cup final…
And for a roundup of yesterday’s Championship action, click below.
Yesterday’s results
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Brighton 2-1 Liverpool
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Fulham 3-1 Burnley
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Everton 3-0 Chelsea
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Leeds United 0-0 Brentford
And finally, Leeds and Brentford shared the points in a 0-0 draw at Elland Road.
At Craven Cottage, Fulham came from behind to defeat Burnley 3-1 thanks to goals from Joshua King, Harry Wilson and Raúl Jiménez, who honoured his late father after scoring a penalty.
Speaking after yesterday’s loss, Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior said: “The most disappointing evening so far in terms of the things we’ve spoken about, not gifting goals away, making sure we’re in the game, getting control of the game. It wasn’t there and it turned into a really, really difficult evening where the result and performance was nowhere near what we expected or wanted.
“I’m learning about this club. It’s a massive club. There’s been a lot of noise, a lot of negative noise, rightfully so, our performances in the last week. We’ve had 10 games in the league together as a group. We’ve got 17 points. I think we’re fourth in my time. So we have to forget the noise. We have to keep our confidence and our composure.”
Elsewhere, Chelsea suffered a 3-0 defeat to Everton at Hill Dickinson Stadium following goals from Beto and Iliman Ndiaye. It came after their 8-2 loss on aggregate to PSG earlier this week.
Arne Slot defended Liverpool’s spending record but admitted the pressure was on to qualify for the Champions League after losing to Brighton. “No one in England is used to the fact there are also clubs that are selling players,” he said. “Usually in England when a club is buying £450m like we did, that’s adding to the already great team. But this club has a different model and no one wants to see that and no one wants to understand this. That I can also understand because fans of other teams and certain pundits don’t want to tell you that we sold for £300m.”
He added: “It makes complete sense if you win the league and you spent £450m that the expectations are high. Those expectations were high for the pundits, for the media, for me, for the fans. At our club we’re also looking at the situation and the challenge we had during this season, and then we might be a bit more realistic, why the season has gone the way it has gone. But still it’s not good enough no matter how much excuses I can come up with, it’s still not good enough for the position you’re in right now.”
Firstly, Danny Welbeck scored twice as Liverpool suffered a 2-1 loss against Brighton at the Amex Stadium. The result left the Reds fifth in the Premier League table, while Brighton moved up to 10th.
Before we look ahead to this afternoon’s games, let’s recap some of yesterday’s results…There were certainly some shockers!
Preamble
Hello, good morning and welcome to another matchday live! The first piece of men’s domestic silverware is up for grabs this afternoon as Arsenal take on Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final.
The Gunners go into the match with a 14-game unbeaten streak behind them, which should give Mikel Arteta and Co plenty of confidence. Meanwhile, City have not won since their FA Cup fifth-round victory over Newcastle on 7 March – but anything can happen on Cup final day.
Elsewhere, we’ve got three Premier League fixtures to look forward to, including the Tyne-Wear derby between Newcastle and Sunderland. There is also a potential relegation clash taking place as 16th-placed Tottenham host 17th-placed Nottingham Forest. Meanwhile, Aston Villa take on West Ham at Villa Park.
We’ll be previewing all the action and more – stick with us!
