Blues Host Arsenal U21s as Cook Looks For Lift Ahead of Christmas Tuesday, 30th Nov 2021 15:17 Town host Arsenal U21s in the second round of the Papa John’s Trophy on Wednesday evening with manager Paul Cook looking to record a morale-boosting three wins in a week. The Blues came through the first round of the competition as winners of their group having initially finished second before West Ham’s U21s were docked three points for fielding an ineligible player. Town had been beaten 2-1 at home by the Hammers’ youngsters, before winning 2-0 at Gillingham and then defeating Colchester United 4-3 in a penalty shootout following a 0-0 draw at Portman Road. Manager Cook is aiming to make it three wins in seven days with League Two Barrow visiting in the FA Cup on Saturday. Town are still to win three successive games since Cook took charge in March. “It’s a big week for us this week with three competitions,” he said following Sunday’s 2-1 home victory over Crewe Alexandra in League One. “We want to do well in all competitions. It’s something that we suggested to the players, if we could put three wins together this week it would give everyone a lift around Portman Road going into Christmas and post-Christmas. We’ve done one hurdle and we’ve got two big ones to go.” Cook will almost certainly make significant changes for the visit by the Arsenal youngsters having done so for previous games in the competition. Vaclav Hladky is likely to be in goal with Luke Woolfenden and Cameron Burgess probably coming in at the centre of the defence. Kane Vincent-Young is likely to be the right-back with Myles Kenlock perhaps getting another rare outing at left-back.
In the centre of midfield, Cook could start Idris El Mizouni - who missed the last game in the competition due to a one-match ban for picking up bookings in the previous two matches - alongside either Rekeem Harper or Tom Carroll. Kyle Edwards may start on the left having been on the bench for the last two league games, while Louie Barry could be on the right, while Kayden Jackson may get a run-out behind Joe Pigott. Youngsters such as Albie Armin, Elkan Baggott and Tete Yengi could be included in the squad having been absent from the U23s at Watford, but Cameron Humphreys and Zanda Siziba, who have been involved in previous rounds, started the Hornets game and as a result are unlikely to be involved. Arsenal U21s reached the second round by finishing second in their group, picking up four points from a possible nine. They started their group games with a 2-1 defeat at Swindon, won 4-3 away at Newport County and then were beaten 4-3 on penalties at Plymouth after a 1-1 draw. The rules of the competition oblige League One and Two clubs to field four qualifying outfield players in their starting XI. A qualifying outfield player is someone who started the club's previous match, starts the following first-team game, someone in the top 10 players at the club in terms starting appearances in league and domestic cup competitions in the season up to this point, a player with 40 or more first-team appearances over their career or a player on loan from a Premier League or category one EFL side. If clubs transgress that rule they face a £5,000 fine. The Blues should have little trouble in meeting the requirements for Wednesday's match. Should the tie remain level at full-time, it goes straight to a penalty shootout. In a change to the competition rules made last week, teams are now able to field five subs from their seven players on the bench rather than the usual three. The draw for round three will take place on Saturday with the 16 remaining sides again split on a north/south basis and unseeded.
Town faced Arsenal’s U21s in the group stage last season when a strong Blues side was beaten 2-1 at Portman Road. Jon Nolan gave Town the lead in the 28th minute before one-time Town trialist George Lewis equalised first-half in injury time, then Folarin Balogun grabbed what proved to be the winner in the 54th minute. The Blues huffed and puffed and hit the woodwork twice as they looked for a leveller which never came. Wednesday’s referee is Brett Huxtable from Devon, who has shown 29 yellow and no red cards in eight games so far this season. Huxtable’s last Blues game was the 1-0 loss at Portsmouth in December 2019 in which he showed then-skipper Luke Chambers a late red card for a second bookable offence and yellow cards to Woolfenden, Toto Nsiala, Gwion Edwards and Jon Nolan. Prior to that he was in charge of the 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat at Luton in August of the same year, in which he booked Josh Emmanuel - having conceded a penalty - Alan Judge, Jordan Roberts and Armando Dobra as well as one Hatter. His only previous Town match before that was the on-penalties Carabao Cup defeat at Exeter in August 2018 in which he booked Nsiala, Jonas Knudsen and one Grecian. Squad from: Hladky, Walton, Holy, Donacien, Vincent-Young, Penney, Kenlock, Edmundson, Nsiala, Burgess, Woolfenden, Armin, Morsy, Evans, Harper, El Mizouni, Carroll, Fraser, Chaplin, Edwards, Bonne, Pigott, Barry, Jackson, Yengi.
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