Arsenal v Shrewsbury match preview

Arsenal play host to Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday night as their young guns look to lift the mood around the Emirates after a dismal start to the season.


Team News
  

Park Chu Young, Ryo Miyaichi and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are all expected to start for Arsenal in an exciting front line. 

Marouane Chamakh, Emmanuel Frimpong, Carl Jenkinson and Francis Coquelin also look 

set to get some game time as Wenger reverts to his usual approach for Carling Cup matches.

One player who will not feature is Benik Afobe who has failed to recover from a groin injury in time.

It is worth noting Arsenal have been seen practising the 4-4-2 formation so commonly used during the early Wenger era.

Shrewsbury are expected to be without first-choice centre-backs Ian Sharps and Shane Cansdell-Sherriff as well as striker Terry Gornell.


Arsenal (from): Fabianski, Almunia, Mannone, Coquelin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Song, Benayoun, Miyaichi, Gervinho, Santos, Frimpong, Chamakh, Park, Djourou, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jenkinson.


Form


While Arsenal have endured a torrid start to the season (their worst in 58 years), high flying Shrewsbury have won 6 of their last 8 in all competitions. Arsenal will have to be wary to avoid one of the biggest upsets in recent years.


Wenger on the game


"I will be faithful to our policy but I will try to find a good mixture between youth and experience. You will see the likes of Ryo and Oxlade-Chamberlain. You should be excited about Oxlade-Chamberlain because he is a great talent. My target is to develop him so he confirms the expectation I have for him."
What to expect from Shrewsbury


According to Stuart Dunn of the Shrewsbury Chronical, Shrewsbury are "a good footballing side and they like to get the ball down and play the right way. They have a very capable centre forward in Marvin Morgan who has scored seven goals already this season, including three in the Carling Cup.

"There are two good wide players in Mark Wright and Lionel Ainsworth, and in truth there are no real weaknesses at the moment - they are having a really good season. The team have been so close to promotion from League Two in recent years, suffering two Wembley defeats in the play-off finals.

"There seems to be a really good team spirit around the place at the moment. They are a hard-working side, resilient and at the moment they are playing very well.

"I think they will try and use the wide players as much as possible. They both played very well on Saturday at Port Vale, getting on the scoresheet each and proving to be a real handful. They have both got goals in them and I think they would be the main weapons for them tomorrow night.

"Ainsworth is still only young, but he has been around a little bit. He played under Graham Turner at Hereford too and he just seems to be one of those managers who can get the best out of him. In the First Round against Derby he was up against Kevin Kilbane - a guy with over 100 caps for the Republic of Ireland - and just completely took him apart."





Players to watch

Ryo Miyaichi

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

Park Chu-Young