Arsenal will still play a very strong team against Zagreb

Stop worrying! Arsenal are fine! by Sam P

You would think Arsenal had lost their last five games if you listened to the ranting going on in Arsenal blogs over the last few days. The fact is that we totally dominated West Brom and the rub of the green was just against us on the day. Nine out of ten times we would have won that game if we played to that quality.

Yes it was a real downer losing Francis Coquelin, but even after he went off we were still the far better team, and I am certain we will win tonight if we continue to play to that level.

Look at this line-up:

Cech
Bellerin – Mertesacker – Koscielny – Monreal
Flamini – Cazorla
Ramsey -Sanchez – Ozil
Giroud

That is still a very strong starting XI and should have no problem disposing of a Zagreb side that are not pumped full of steroids!

And if Wenger wants to rotate a little, we also have the likes of Gabriel, Debuchy, Ospina, Chambers, Gibbs and Campbell ready to step in if needed. In the next week or two we should also have Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Mikel Arteta and Tomas Rosicky back in the squad.

If we win and Olympiakos lose in Munich then we are back on course to qualify from our Group after our unbelievable start to out Champions League campaign. As Wenger said: “I believe that when everybody is back we have a squad to compete in both [the Premier League and Champions League]. If we go through now in the Champions League we can be very dangerous for everybody.”

So let’s stop with all the negativity and get behind the team. Our season is far from over, in fact it has hardly just begun!

Sam

Tags Coquelin Ramsey Zagreb

20 Comments

  1. Well to be fair our team isn’t exactly week either baby please if we have that line up.

    No matter what our lineup is we should all support our team tonight and hope that we win

    I don’t believe in tactical losing like some people do. I ALWAYS want us to WIN WIN WIN

    COYG

    1. Just hope we don’t play Campbell or Gibbs. Bring in the youngsters who want to prove a point like Bellerin.

  2. I highly doubt Ramsey will start tonight, might be Campbell’s last chance or Gibbs from the left again.
    Would also include Gabriel to rest one of our main pairing.

  3. Okay!…..we are going to win tonight……………. And that’s cuz we’ve lost so much that it annoys just bout everyone at arsenal

    .
    Don’t ask what the scoreboard would look like

  4. Cech
    Bellerin – Gabriel – Koscielny – Gibbs
    Monreal – Cazorla
    Ramsey – Ozil – Sanchez
    Giroud
    I say try Monreal at DM in this game, cos with Coq out for 2-3 months and if Flamini dissapoints, means we will be left with trials and errors on league games, which might be costly.

  5. Arsenal should have been top of the league by 6 points…how many unlucky games do we have to succumb to? My biggest concern is Coquelin. Before he became our new DM enforcer, Arsenal were extremely fragile in defense. We saw how United, City and Liverpool tore us to shreds….and yes that was with Arteta and Flamini in front of the back four. I am trying to be optimistic, but this is a blow I don’t think we can recover from until Wenger decides to let go of Arteta and Flamini and replace them with better and younger players. There are several players Wenger could have bought in the last window and this is my only gripe with him. You have to ask the question, would you see Flamini, Arteta, Mertesacker in a Barcelona, Madrid, Munich shirt? The answer is a resounding no because they just are not quality enough to win titles. Arsenal need better players it’s as simple as that. You wanna win titles like the CL, you need quality on and off the pitch. We might be fielding a decent team tonight, and I don’t doubt their ability to win it, I think we will, but what have we got on the bench???

  6. No, I say give Sanchez some rest, never gamble with Ramsey’s fitness, rest Kos … Also, this a good chance to try Chamber at DM
    Ospina
    Deb Mert Gab Gibbs
    Chamber Cazorla
    Bel Ozil Campbell
    Giroud
    If these players aren’t capable of wining against Zagreb and on our turf, then better not to think about going forward in CL …
    Rest Sanchez, Rest Sanchez, Try Chamber at DM … I rest my case …

  7. This is actually a bitter pill to swallow…Arsenal will not win the UCL…not with this team…not with our present injury record.
    I’ll rather field a B team so that we don’t send more A team players to the treatment table. We have a shot at the BPL…let’s focus on that.
    That’s called “Majoring on your Majors”…what we’re doing now is “Majoring on our Minors”.
    As I said, bitter pill to swallow.
    However, I’ll be supporting the team either way.

  8. I still wonder what people are thinking when they say play Monreal in DM like they said play Gibbs on the wing before last weekend and we all know how that panned out – zero attack from the left until he was taken off

  9. Losing to Westbrom was bad, but City’s loss to Liverpool was comforting to me. We still have a gud team. In my opinion, in the absence of Le Coq, why not return Ramsey to a box 2 box role alongside carzola and allow Campbell/Ox continue on the right wing? Ramsey’s best is in that box 2box role.

  10. That’s almost our regular Full first team without Coquelin and Walcott

    I don’t see that team above being picked unless Wenger sees CL as an absolute must as he has never won it. You would think that Wenger would save players for PL and FA Cup but who knows what’s going on in Wenger’s mind

    Anyway, no matter what happens tonight I hope we don’t add to our injury list baby please

  11. I think the frustration lays in our injury crisis. Key players with long term injuries EVERY year.

    To address and solve a problem, first you have to accept there IS a problem.

    We all want the team to win, but nerves about losing more key players is what I think is driving the so called ‘negativity’.

    Year on year we have the same issue…so either buy high quality backup players or sort the root cause of our long term injuries??

    It’s frustration, not blind optimism.

  12. For the first time this season i missed an Arsenal match and its highlight but from reading around we had a disastrous Saturday losing 2 players and a penalty and have our squad tested for drugs
    I would love to see us hammer Zegreb without conceding a goal so my line would something like an example
    ……. The back four
    ………….flamini
    …..ramsey …ozil…campbel
    ……….Elexi
    ………………….gerioud

  13. Tonight’s game should not be a problem no matter who we start IMO.

    It will depend on which Arsenal shows up. The high pressing, fast passing dominating team we have seen many times this year including against Bayern at home and against Man U, or the tentative, methodical, predictable, tired looking, one too many passes, many missed chances Arsenal we have also seen several times this season.

    The quality of the players available is not in doubt, to me the question revolves around their mental and physical preparedness. We can’t wait till there is only 15 minutes left in the game before we show some urgency.

    I predict an easy 3-0 or better victory.

    1. If we don’t have a bench from which at least 6 players can be taken to beat Zagreb then we have zero chance of winning league and will struggle for 4th place …. That simple

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