Choose your Arsenal XI By Twig
It has been a pretty eventful transfer window and Arsenal were in the thick of it! This time around, there wasn’t any last minute scramble for players by Arsenal as we had already wrapped up the signing of Xhaka before the European championship started, and had concluded the Perez and Mustafi deals earlier in the week. It hasn’t been a perfect transfer window – it was hard on the heart at times! – however, most Gooners will be quietly satisfied with the business our side has done. I was really hopeful of a wild-card signing such as Almiron – especially with Gnabry’s departure – but unfortunately that didn’t happen. In any case, if we get all our injured players back, the squad looks in pretty good shape.
For the first time in a long time, Arsenal seems to have something that looks like squad depth! Our midfield is particularly impressive, and it’ll be interesting to see how Wenger keeps everyone happy. In Perez, we have a striker who can create and also score. He is quite pacy – not as quite as much as Vardy – and he should relish the physical side of the English game. With Ozil, Cazorla and Xhaka in the team, I see no reason why he can’t have his best goalscoring season ever at Arsenal. Let’s get him his first Spain call up by the next international break!
Walcott also seems to have found new form and you feel all he needs now is a goal or two to embark on a goalscoring run. There has been a lot of unfair criticism of Theo of recent, in my opinion, but his proven productivity when on form and especially his performances in the big games – Theo does well in the big games – justifies Wenger’s continued faith in him. Ozil was very lively in the last game and showed no signs of someone “who will jump at the opportunity to return to Real Madrid”. He also seems very happy with the arrival of Mustafi, and perhaps even played a key role in persuading him to come. We need to keep Ozil happy and motivated.
Wenger has persisted with a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 for over 10 years now and it is unlikely that that will change anytime soon. A 4-4-2 although it has had great successes in the EPL (Manchester United, Manchester City and Leicester last year), does not really suit our personnel, as either Ozil or Cazorla must play. A 4-4-2 doesn’t really suit either player. However, in energetic midfield players such as Coquelin, Elneny and Xhaka, we could easily switch to a 4-4-2 if required. Arsene Wenger has so many possibilities at his disposal. If he can identify his first XI quickly enough, I’m positive we could have a great season. The task now at hand is to find the personnel to fill in the available spots. At the moment, these are the candidates for the various positions:
ST: Giroud, Perez, Welbeck, Sanchez, Walcott
RW: Walcott, Sanchez, Welbeck, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Perez
LW: Sanchez, Iwobi, Perez, Welbeck, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Reine-Adelaide
CAM: Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsey, Iwobi, Sanchez, Zelalem
CM: Cazorla, Ramsey, Elneny, Zelalem
DM: Xhaka, Coquelin
LB: Monreal, Gibbs
RW: Bellerin, Debuchy, Jenkinson
CDM: Koscielny, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Mustafi, Holding
GK: Cech, Ospina
So what are your first choice for each position? Hopefully, we could have a vote to find which starting XI emerges top!
Twig
Oolalaa!! this should be fun! ?
In a 4-2-3-1 formation
———-Perez————-
Alexis—Ozil———–Theo
—-Xhaka—Santi—–
Nacho-Kos-Mustafi-Bellerin
———–Cech—————–
@SCazorla, that’s our best XI in my opinion.
Even though I have never seen perez play but I have much confidence in him.
Two sets of RWs and LWs? Maybe we should have signed some more CBs.
That was an error Buddy. What’s your lineup?
In a 4-3-3 or if we were to shift to 4-3-3 in game,
NB: The reason I am going with Perez in place of Giroud is because I personally prefer my front 3 to be fast, fluid and positionally flexible.
———–Perez———–
Alexis——————-Theo
—-Santi——-Elneny
———-Xhaka———-
Nacho-Kos-Mustafi-Bellerin
———–Cech—————
That midfield will rack up 100% possession!
You left out Ozil. That aini’t happening
This is like asking for Barcelona’s best XI and leaving out Messi… Ozil is god
I understand the negative sentiment.
We expect Arsene to be tactically flexible and responsive, right? If so, we may not need to play a 4231 every game of the season.
Heck, Ozil may not even be available for selection at certain times during the season (injury/suspension). In that case, we may choose to play a 433 -trust me, that variant has it’s own use and benefit. And Ozil can hardly be as effective as the other CMs in a 433.
Ozil might even be playing in a game where we are using the 4231, but then he is substituted… in that case we might change to a 433.
Trust me, I respect Ozil. And I believe that OZIL AND SANTI ARE THE BEST ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS IN THE WORLD!!!!
I think we’ll definitely see that and have seen it in the past. When holding a narrow lead we’ll likely have Coq/Elneny available as a defensive substitute to drop deeper than Ozil’s 10. I’ve definitely seen Wenger do this before, or have two holding/DM mids and one CM.
no brainer with current fit players but would replace giroud with welbeck come the winter:
giroud
sanchez ozil perez
santi xhaka
monreal kos mustafi bellerin
With a defense that good who needs a gk anyways??
I don’t think Theo is going to give up his first-team place easily… Will be interesting if Perez displaces him or Giroud first.
“Will be interesting if Perez displaces him or Giroud first.”
That is the beauty of it all.
The great thing at the moment is the heavy competition in places and even if everyone remains fit there’s a lot of plausible, established XI’s down the track…
RW – anyones guess? Perez, Ox, Wally? The Plethora of hot young wingers we have who’ll be looking to impress when given the chance.
ST – Will Giroud run hot like he did early last season? Will Perez hit the ground running and prove with the elite service he didn’t have at Deportivo he can be lethal?
CM – Tough tackling Coquelin? Magical Santi? Wales/13/14 esque Ramsey? Ever reliable Elneny?
We have options and heavy competition… Can only be a good thing!
If you want pace in our attack then this is the best that we have.
Wenger needs to tweek with the formation and strategy, get Xhaka to hit some long balls for Lucas and Walcott to chase and set each other up.
———————————– Cech
Bellerin ——– Koscielny ——– Mustafi —— Monreal
——————————– Xhaka
———- Ox ————— Ozil —————- Sanchez
———————-Walcott ————- Lucas
It’s an interesting line up that i’m sure we’ll see at some point in the season but Xhaka will be too exposed, the Ox isn’t reliable enough at covering yet and Ozil doesn’t do that at all
for a game like against pep or Southampton we can go little defensive with
A classic 4-4-2
……….Cech………
Bellerin… mus..kos…mon
……..Coq….elneny..
ramsay………………ozil
…….perez…..sanchez…..
for regular xi
…….Back 5……
….cazo….xhaka…
Wal/perez….ozil…sanchez
……….Giroud……..
for all attack 4-1-2-3
…..Back 5….
……….Xhaka….
…Ramsay……Ozil…
walcott..perez…sanchez..
Need to control the midfield
4-2-1-2-1
….Back 5 …..
…Santi…xhaka..
…….ozil…
ramsay……sanchez…
,……perez……..
we can easily shift to 1st one in this case sanchez can cut inside..
At least our bench will be looking alot more better than last season. Giroud and Ramsey should be starting from there from now on. Give them a starting role in the Fa cup games lol.
hehehe, gr8 idea
I’m sure Wenger will be laughing his gut out at your comment fat boy. He’ll be like “gut joke son u got me”.
It’s really difficult to nail down a single formation with Arsenal, or with any club for that matter. Thankfully the back five will pretty much pick themselves. In midfield I like Elneny and Coquelin, but also I’m aware that Ramsey can be brilliant if used in the right position.
In the attacking third, while Walcott has his limitations as a player he also has a fairly decent goal return (for our squad).
4-2-3-1 (where we’re going to have majority of possession and defence isn’t such an issue)
—————————–Cech
Bellerin——-Mustafi———–Koscielny——-Monreal
—————–Xhaka————-Cazorla
——–Alexis————–Ozil————–Iwobi
—————————–Perez
4-1-3-2 (where attack is the priority, if we’re chasing a game)
—————————–Cech
Bellerin——-Mustafi———–Koscielny——-Monreal
—————————-Xhaka
——–Alexis————–Ozil————–Cazorla
——————–Giroud——Perez
You will pick Iwobi ahead of Welbeck? Bold!
Perez
Cazorla – Ozil – Alexis
Coq – Xhaka
Monreal – Kos – Mustafi – Bellerin
Cech
Experimental lineup- Giroud–Welbeck
Alexis——-Ozil——–Perez
Xhaka——coqeuiln
Koscielny—Mertesacker—-Mustafi
Cech
Probable- Giroud
Sanchez-Ozil-perez
Xhaka–Coquelin
Monreal-Koscielny–Mustafi—Bellerin
Cech
(“Wenger stated that Cazorla can’t play all the matches due his injury concerns so Coquelin is better option”)
Cech
Mustafi—–Kos—Monreal
Xhaka
Ramsey— Ozil —–Cazorla
Perz— –Girud ——Sanchez
petr
Bellerin koscielny Mustafi Monreal
Xhaka Carzola
Alexis ozill Iwobi
Lucas Perez Martinez
Assuming everyone is fit. This is my preferred line up
Perez
Welbeck – Ozil – Alexis
Cazorla – Xhaka
Monreal – Kos – Mustafi – Bellerin
Cech
Bench: Ospina, Gabriel/Holding, Gibbs, Ramsey, Theo/Ox, Giroud
for now replace Welbeck with Theo or OX and put Alexis on LW
………………………Ospina
Jenkinson….Mertsacker…Gabriel…Gibbs
……………..Coquelin……Eleney
Ramsey……………..Iwobi…………..OX
……………………..Giroud
Now that should be our line up for the mickey mouse cup! ??
People wont agree but I think our strongest is going to be…
………………..Cech
Bellerin..Mustafi..Koscielny..Monreal
…………….Cazorla..Xhaka
Ramsey………..Ozil………….Alexis
…………………Perez
I’m hoping Perez can take starting place, but most likely Giroud will stay first choice.
I think it’ll be
———-Cech———
Bel—Must—Kos—Mon
—-Xhaka—-Eln/Carz—–
Perez—–Ozil—–Sanchez
————Giroud———–