LJ PRE ARSE

Lee Johnson met the press to preview our quarter final Carabao Cup tie against Arsenal…

GREAT STAGE

“I think to a degree, you have to choose your competitions, and we’ve got a really good opportunity for the players on a great stage. What I mean by that is, for example, that we’ve used the Papa John’s Trophy in a very different way this year after winning it last season, and we’ve focused quite heavily on the Carabao Cup – something which has proven its worth in getting to a really good occasion.

DAD JOKES

“Despite my comments and bad dad jokes after the QPR game, this will genuinely be a good stage for us as a football club to try and put ourselves back on the map a bit. It’s one of the rare occasions we’ve been underdogs going into a game, and the players will take massive lessons from Tuesday – not only from the quality of Arsenal, but also testing ourselves against these elite teams.”

FLUID

“I think they’ve been fantastic, having watched them over the last four or five games. I think they’re very fluid, they have a lot of young players and a good model. They’ve recovered well from a ropey start to the season, and it’s coming through at the moment as they’ve broken into the top four of the Premier League. It’s a great arena to play in on Tuesday night. I think it will be an adequate to big crowd – I’m not sure on exact numbers with the current Covid situation, but I know that Arsenal have priced it well, and our boys are up for it.”