Arsenal to start Walcott AND Giroud in Zagreb?

While it is vital for Arsenal to get off to a positive start in the Champions League by beating Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia tomorrow, there is no way that Arsene Wenger can focus on just this game. With another crucial game away to Chelsea in the Premier League less than three days later, the Frenchman must take this into account.

But which of our first team players can he afford to leave out against Zagreb and which of them could most do with a little break before the game on Saturday?

Well, the central midfielders certainly seem to get through the most amount of work. Alexis Sanchez also never stops but the Chilean is a beast and you would not worry too much about his energy levels. But Francis Coquelin, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey are all players that we want as fresh as possible for Chelsea and that is why I think that it could be time for Wenger to start both Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott.

The way Wenger has been alternating them so far means that both are nice and fresh and having three proper strikers up front should also give Arsenal plenty of goal threat. Playing Walcott and Giroud would allow Wenger to rest Ramsey and either keep him on the bench to replace Cazorla in the centre or start him and save the Spaniard.

Starting Ramsey would also mean that Arteta could replace Coquelin without us losing too much defensive strength as the Welshman is better defensively than Santi. What do you think Gooners?

Tags Alexis Ramsey Wenger

23 Comments

  1. before i start id like to show my condolences to the teams of manchester:
    lol yeah right…u big spenders get the pirate laugh- HARDY HAAAARRRR

    i would give them a half each. to be honest giroud seems to work better with short rests between games..so maybe lean towards him.

    i really hope we rotate- for me chelsea game is far more important

      1. Walcott should start with his speed and Teo in the team Zagreb will play deep in their half which will suit us better as it is an away game

  2. have debuchy walcott and chambo on.
    if we can secure the game by half time, give Reine a ucl debut.
    arteta ramsey centre wouldnt be bad either

    1. Ramsey is out of the team, so he will not be involved to this match. However, I hate to see the so called Giroud discussed in the arsenal starting lineup, he is simply not an arsenal material.

      1. Giroud has scored two goals since start of season. He has scored over 60 goals since he signed with us.

        I wanted us to get Benzema, Cavani, Reus etc but Giroud is still a good goal scorer. He is capable of 20+ PL goals a season and 30 total goals per season

        Lets support are whole team.

  3. We do unjust to the Ox. I dont understand why we dont play the lad way more often. He can be our own Mephis with the right confidance.

    I think that Wenger uses Ramsey on the wings nowdays to slow the right side a bit down. Walnutt and Bellerin is simple to much speed to call the game a football match.

  4. I don’t see anything wrong in using our full strength,no team is a push over in the champions leagues,and Zagreb has not lost a game in 11 months,winning their league. We. all know Wenger can’t start theo and Giroud together,I think he will start with either of them. Seeing what the two Manchester clubs did tonight……..its really an eye opener for us.

  5. well, if ramsey isnt on the team,then he is starting against chelsea. I honestly want to see reine and campbell in action sometime soon. Be it for 5 minutes

  6. Well I don’t think we have too much choice anyway. With wilshire, rosicky, welbeck, mertesacker, ramsey and reine adelaide all deemed injured. There isn’t a lot left. I make that just 20 players to choose from including macey. So I think it will be between chambers and flamini as to who misses out totally

  7. This is a tactic that we can no longer apply. As they are our only 2 ‘strikers’ at the moment we will need to keep one fit and play the other.

    I would perhaps go for Giroud, as we should control this game and have a lot of the ball. Whereas at Chelsea we will want to be breaking at a higher pace, and Chelsea’s defenders are good against Giroud like strikers, but poor against mobile faster strikers… Naismith anyone? Giroud tomorrow, Walcott vs. Chelski

  8. We don’t know for sure, why Bellerin & Ramsey have been rested for this Dinamo game? Anyway, one thing was glared last Saturday as Walcott appeared exhausted in the closing stages of the Stoke game at the Emirates Stadium. And Olivier Giroud looked full of energy as he came on despite playing in a mid-week game for France. I think Giroud should start the Dinamo Zagreb game ahead of Walcott for rotation purpose. Besides, Giroud is a giant and physically strong to withstand picking up injury than would Walcott be in this early CL physical battles.

  9. I agree with the idea of starting Ramsey ahead of Cazorla so the later can be rested for the Chelsea game but what I don’t agree much is pointing the fact that Ramsey is more defensive than Cazorla. If you said this about Ramsey 2 seasons ago I would agree with you but Ramsey of today? The dude is more concerned about scoring goals and ignoring his defensive responsibilities and this leaves our midfield vulnerable. Now, the question is ”what if the DM is Arteta who no longer has the legs to carry him or the skills to break/neutralize counter attacks like Coq? ” Does the Anderletch game still ring a bell?

  10. Tough selection for tomorrow.

    Cech
    Bellerin-Gabriel-Boss-Nacho
    Ramsey-Coq
    Sanchez-OX-Campbell
    Giroud

    I’d def use Arteta for Coq at some point.

    I want to be 100% against Chelsea.

    CYOG! 3 pts to make the end of my work day go good!

  11. “Buy Benzema, buy Benzema, buy Benzema”

    I hope the buy Benzema horde who were commenting like if he’s a goal scoring machine of a kind that never graced the Emirates before saw his open net miss in Madrid’s UCL game yesterday. I wonder what the reactions would have been if it were to be Giroud or Walcott. At least most of Giroud’s misses had the goalkeeper to beat but this one yesterday was an empty net

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