Ipswich’s Town manager, Gary O’Neil, has said preparing for Arsenal’s Carabao Cup visit will be relatively straightforward because of their consistency, but stopping the Gunners will be a far more difficult task.
Ipswich face Arsenal in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, with O’Neil acknowledging the significant gap between the two sides while insisting that his team will put out a strong squad and fight for victory.
“I guess we prepare for a top side to come,” he said. “We know whether it’s Saka or Madueke, for instance, they’re going to be good on the right wing.
“And the same with the centre-backs, whichever ones he goes with, they’re going to be good, the midfield the same.
“They’ll have a consistent structure, at least. One of the positives of playing Arsenal is that they’re very, very consistent in what they do, so prepping the game from a tactical point of view will be fairly straightforward.
“Stopping them and stopping what they do will not be straightforward, so there’ll be some work that goes into that,” he added.
O’Neil also believes Ipswich have strengthened sufficiently during the transfer window to compete strongly against Arsenal despite the difference in quality between the clubs.
“But we’ll also have a strong side. We’ve worked our socks off in the transfer window to give ourselves a strong squad.
“Of course, a different level to Arsenal at this moment, but we’ll be strong on Tuesday and we’ll do our best to win the game.”
