Have you heard the one about Arsenal's bright future?

As I watched Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain create four England goals in one half of football on Monday, I couldn’t help but think, “the Carling Cup could be fun for Arsenal supporters this season.”

A few weeks ago, we might have been lamenting how dependent we would be on our young players this season. Chamberlain, Ryo, Coquelin, Jenkinson, Miquel and even Afobe looked like they might all be called upon often during this campaign. But with five experienced players arriving just before the transfer window closed, our youngsters no longer look like they’ll be needed as often. On Saturday, our starting XI will average closer to 30 years-old rather than 20 years-old for the first time in a while.

That should mean that the Carling Cup will return to its former status as a showpiece for our future stars. Ryo, Chamberlain and Jenkinson might still have the occasional role to play in the Premier League and even the Champions League, but my guess is that we’ll get our best chance to see them shine in the League Cup. Personally, I look forward to it. Considering what we went through with that particular domestic cup last season, I’m more than happy to see the manager use it as a chance to blood new talent this time around. Even though we reached the final last season, I don’t remember enjoying the Carling Cup as much as I did in seasons past, with the exception of our fantastic win at Sp*rs. Now it should be fun again.

Nothing much else to discuss today, but that doesn’t mean the blog is done. Now comes the part of the blog you put in your ears. It’s like an audio blog if you will. If only there was another way to describe it. Like a conversation about arsenal broadcast from an internet pod. As if people were inside a pod while broadcasting. Oh well, someone will come up with a word for that sometime.

Please head over to the Arse2Mouse site where Mr. Arse2Mouse has been kind invite to invite me onto his “internet pod broadcast” along with Dave Meiks.

You can find the conversation at the link below. It should appear there some time today. I admit that I was both hungover and sleep deprived so I was a bit crap. But the other two gentlemen were brilliant. Enjoy!

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