Arsene Wenger Lauds Arsenal Squad Depth with Youth Team Players Set to Return for Carabao Cup

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger praised the quality of his squad depth after Arsenal's 5-2 win over Everton on Sunday after the manager made 10 changes to the side that won in the Europa League on Thursday. The French coach played a team mixed with youth and experience in Serbia against Red Star Belgrade and came away with a hard fought win, but reverted to the regular first-team XI for the trip to Goodison Park on Sunday.

The likes of Alexis Sanchez, Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka and Alexandre Lacazette among others returned to the starting lineup while Petr Cech was the only constant between the Europa League team and the team on Sunday.

Arsenal put on a clinical show to dispatch Ronald Koeman's team and the likes of Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi, who played against Red Star, were unused substitutes. Wenger remains unconcerned about the quality of his squad depth but warned that cohesion between the players on the pitch is most important as he rotates his team for different competitions.

"Look, we just played at Belgrade and won 1-0 with 10 completely different players. We have quality, but what is very important is our team play. After that, at the end of our team play, if we have players of Ozil's quality, you want always the best possible individual quality," Wenger said after the win, as quoted on Arsenal's official site.

"When you look, I had Giroud on the bench, I had Walcott on the bench, I had Wilshere on the bench, I had Iwobi on the bench. Offensively, it's top quality," the Frenchman added.

The trio of Giroud, Walcott and Iwobi are likely to return to the starting lineup for Arsenal's Carabao Cup clash against Norwich City on Tuesday (24 October), while Sunday's second-half substitutes Jack Wilshere and Francis Coquelin are also likely to replace Xhaka and Ramsey in the starting XI.

Wenger is certain to afford further chances to youth team stars Reiss Nelson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock, while the likes of Eddie Nkethia, Josh Dasilva and Marcus McGuane could feature on the bench as Wenger rests most of the senior stars. Similar to Thursday, Mohamed Elneny could start in central defence alongside Rob Holding, while Matt Macey could be given a chance in goal owing to David Ospina's injury.

Credit - IBTimes

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