Arsenal youngsters on standby as Mikel Arteta is without five senior players against West Ham

A key feature for Arsenal in their Carabao Cup third round win over Brentford in September was the number of youngsters called up by Mikel Arteta.

At the Gtech Community Stadium, the Gunners boss handed a competitive debut to Charles Sagoe Jr. Meanwhile, Reuell Walters and Amario Cozier-Duberry were back in a senior matchday squad and it was a first experience for James Sweet as they were all unused substitutes.

Keeping in line with how the north London outfit have historically used the early stages of the competition — blooding a few promising youngsters — it remains to be seen if this will be Arteta's approach in tonight's (Wednesday) fourth-round clash against West Ham United especially as there is the incentive to name a strong team.

Speaking ahead of the cup tie, the Arsenal manager did hint at more squad rotation -having rested Gabriel Magalhaes and Martin Odegaard against Sheffield United at the weekend, but stressed the importance of the Carabao Cup and the impact winning the competition could have.

«I do, and as well because even if you are doing rotations I think the role of the players that are now committed to challenge for this trophy or for this game,» he said in the pre-match press conference. «I think its critical for them to show what they can do and when they are really important when they are getting a chance when you are in or out, how you are going to approach that game and are you going to win the game for the team?

»And I think if you’re going to grow as a team and you don’t have that mindset it is very difficult so the mindset of every three days being able to do it in a different way and different context, when you have a big game next week or when you just played in Champions League or another big