Part of me wants arsenal to take it seriously with a full strength team
Although smashing a B Team is obviously good for cup progression, A hard fought away game is something to relish
Ole did say '1 or 2 changes', and I would expect that could mean more than that really, especially as I wouldn't count the confirmed goalkeeper change as one of them.
Paul Pogba is rumoured to captain the side, which would likely mean that Valencia and Young aren't starting I guess?
Before the traveling squad was announced, my thought process was that the changes tonight will be most likely in the following areas:
1. A change at goalkeeper (already confirmed Romero starts).
2. A change at Full Back. These guys probably do the most running/sprints forward and back so it makes sense to try and balance the time that Young/Dalot/Shaw play. It seems that Shaw is over the illness, so he could start. I initially thought Dalot would miss this then face Burnley, but if Pogba is going to captain the side I think it will be because Young is on the bench. So, Dalot + Shaw this evening.
3. Phil Jones. He's played a lot of football and you always assume he is due an injury. We want Bailly to be sharp in case he has to be called upon before Smalling is back. Jones has played in every game under Ole, and even had to come on in the one game he was rested in. Maybe he will still start, but looking at our fixture list he will definitely be on the bench either here or against Burnley.
4. Marcus Rashford. Suffered a knock last time and thankfully it looked worse than it was. I think he still starts tonight and will probably be subbed off for Lukaku if we are in a strong enough position to do so.
Other than those potential changes, I don't think we'll see any others. Of course, one of Lingard or Martial could be left out, but I think we're better off changing some players for the Burnley game rather than this. For example, I think we could drop out Dalot, Bailly/Jones/Lindelof, Herrera, Matic, Lingard, Rashford and Martial for Young/Valencia/Darmian, a CB change, Fred, Pereira, Mata, Lukaku, and Sanchez on Tuesday and still beat Burnley comfortably.