Arsenal have no Xhaka, Mkhitaryan or Aubameyang for tonight’s match at CSKA Moscow. It could be worse, and often has been for Arsenal in terms of injury problems for Arsene Wenger to contend with ahead of a big game for the Gunners. However, when you add in the unavailability of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the Europa League, any big player missing feels a bit worse, so Granit Xhaka coming down with the flu this week is hardly ideal.
We should not worry too much, though, because Arsenal’s lead from the first leg could mean that the more defensive and less adventurous Elneny will be a good man to have in front of the defence. Needing to not concede goals is clearly the focus but an away goal would almost kill the game so we are all hoping that Lacazette and all will carry enough threat and potency to get one.
Cech
Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal
Elneny, Wilshere, Ramsey
Welbeck, Ozil, Lacazette
Subs: Macey, Mertesacker, Kolasinac, Holding, Chambers, Nketiah, Iwobi.
So Wenger is going strong with his Arsenal team and hopefully it is going to be a good night for Arsenal in Russia.
Bob.
Happy to see Elneny in the line up. Let’s get the job done.
Yeah I think he’ll do a good job too.
Mertesacker???????
With my eyes closed and my hands tied I will still beat him in a race. I really want us to win this Europa but seeing Atletico in this competition,it gives me a continuous headache
Take some aspirin. The results will be a pleasant surprise for you.
Thanks for caring about my well being but that headache is turning into something else,CSKA is giving me a pleasant surprise already
Elneny should have a good game. Ramsey and Wilshire can get forward, and he can sit back keep recycling possession with experienced defenders behind him.
Perfect job for him plays to his strengths. Laca and Ramsey to score, and jack to find some form.
I hop so, because jack was terrible against Southampton
Then again they could be garbage. Ramsey and Wilshire aren’t the worst tho, Monreal holds that honor presently.
Come on Mr.bean and your boys!
One of either Welbeck or Ramsey is sure to score.
What about Niles?
Havent seen much of him lately
He’s injured
Oh! Thanks mate
Good news Xhaka is Ill
not so good news Elneny starts , i know his heart is in it but cmon hes so average and welbeck needs sign for stoke
Good news Xhaka is ill?
Thats bad to say even if you dont like him, i still prefer him to Wilshere
True.
wilshere is currently the worst midfielder we have.
overrated.
i would also prefer elneny,xhaka and ramsey.
I didnt say he was on deaths door, hes got man flu. And he may be better than wilshire( i dont agree) but he cost 35m and he is bang average he cant tackle he cant run and doesnt know how defend
Well, he could be average but IMo, he lost a little bit of confidence to go into tackles as he is clearly trying to improve on his discipline.
He is naturally aggresive and is losing his natural style of play to benefit the team.
We quickly write off most of our players and judging by most comments here, only 3 players are good in the entire team.
May i add that although am not particularly saying he is better than Wilshere, he is at least fitter and not as injury prone as Wilshere.
And overall, he is more productive than Wilshere which is the most important thing not some past or future potential
Good points however he’s still not good enough
The line up doesn’t look bad considering it’s something close tour strongest squad. As for the defence..its our strongest. Glad to see Wenger is finally taking the UEL serious. For the midfield, I hope jack brings his A game and improve from his past poor outings, elneny has been better of late, at least he shows desire to do his best. The attack is Ok at least…Welbeck has made cases for himself to be starting matches and laca has been great since coming back, ozil should rise to the occasion and Rambo should repeat his heroics from last week. One goal and this tie should be over. #COYG
Just found something funny, We’ve not won in Russia for the past four games. Lost three, drawn one..
Hmmmm
We will surely break that jinx today…coyg!
Any link where i can stream
Tell wheel chair it’s sphere or air,
Our defending is pure dung.
When y watch citeh-liverpol and madrid-juve in a row, then you watch this match……..
Why would the club pay Ozil 350k a week if they can’t compete with the likes of city, Chelsea and united? Who can explain?
They do it for the likes of you and me, so you wont start to look elsewhere.
Well. fakk. 1 down.
What do you mean
There is no big gap between Xhaka and the likes of Ramsey and Wilshere. They are on the same lvl but you Brits tend to be a bit more harsh to the foreigners and more forgiven to your own. This is the best we currently have .So pipe down you punks and support whatever we have right now.
Up the Lisbon
Mustafi is a clown
How can he just standing watching the ball rebound, waiting for offside flag…
Mustafi again?? God!
This is interesting, Arsenal and Athletico both trailing
It wont be appreciated if we were to win easily…still optimistic though
Our players cannot maintain position under pressure any decent team will destroy us
Substitute jack wilshire. What the hell is he doing
Thank God its hakf time,
Who know, they may lose a little bit of momentum going into the second half CSKA
Give wheel chair a pair for goodness sake.
This ain’t going to be another Roma is it????
No, it wont
I hope you’re right. We’ve been pretty crap & i don’t think there are any gamer changers on the bench!
Iwobi? He can change a game by making us play much worse
I know that!!
wilshere is always awful.
atleast xhaka can score or assist once in a while,ramsey scores alot.
i don’t even remember the last time wilshere scored a goal.
It’s going to be a long night, we are rubbish. Wheel chair has to get the shepherd’s crook.
No need to panic or over react yet, it happened to Barcelona, and Madrid got a big scare too, Athletico has a two goal lead and are also trailing. Let men behave as men
what can I say typical Arsenal I hope Arsenal come back in the second half
because the forward line is having lack of ideas
No comment on Peter Cech ….disappointing first half
Yeah, typical Barca, Madrid and Athletico
Think we can kiss goodbye to the Europa league f f s
Lol
ol
FFS, Welbz should have put Ramsey in and Arsene unsettled us with that formation change, should have left it. We are in trouble, need a goal.
Cech cannot save a ball & not pass it to an opponent, what’s his problem?
We look like we will go out, they bossing us.
Chech – 2 assists (so far) . . .
Lol ye, he CSKA MOTM
Am I actually watching this?
ooh my!
Yet another reason amongst dozens why Wenger should be removed from post.
Arsenal are bloody awful once again…
When you step out on the field with the AFC mentality of, “we just need to not give up more than 2 goals”, here we be . . . .
We’re ****ed
I could cry
Way to early for that. Things are going to get much worse
Typical, get to the box and pass backwards.
Arsenal potentially knocked out by CSKA would be a blessing.
No more Wenger….
What a positive that would be…
After reading week of comebacks you’d have thought arsenal would be more switched on and ruthless than this.
Weird last week posing confidence this week throughout the team you feel the nerves.
Who’s going to take this game by the scruff of the neck and control then because this is what arsenal are good at letting other teams back in!!
Ridiculous that arsenal have not tried to be more attacking.. they do this so often and always end up letting in goals ! Attack is best form of defence.. I can see this being 3 or 4 nil to CSKA and end of season ! Lacazette barley had a touch let alone a shot !
I was saying all week. Don’t underestimate the Russians and 4-1 lead.
We saw Juventus getting back to 3-3 on agg from 0-3 against Madrid yesterday
Don’t F*** around (excuse my French). Take every match seriously
I don’t usually say this but we miss xhaka
I know we’ve a few injuries as well but the bench shows a negative intent and arrogance before we’ve kicked off.
Iwobi and nketiah our only game winners who travelled. Out sqaud is so thin since losing sanchez ox and walcott.
I miss AUBAMEYANG.
he would have already scored a vital away goal.
how people think lacazette is better than aubameyang or even in the same class i don’t know.
Ars balance making CSK look like RM
We desperately need a goal to avoid fan heart attacks let alone being humiliated by the Russians
COYG
SCore
Need another goalkeeper!
What is elneny doing in the back line we’ve no attacking threat in the middle of the park totally dominated by their mf.
Ozil is having a walk around the pitch game again it’s almost worth talking welbz or ozil to bring another hurry fast ball winner on! We need to get the ball back quicker when we don’t have it.
All the people that think jack or Ramsey can play as a 10 for us, this is what it looks like. They just keep giving the ball away, and Ramsey has 0 positional discipline.
Golovin better than both of them combined.
This midfield triangle is laughable. Mid table at best.
I want to remind to all Wenger lovers
if CSKA scores Arsenal is eliminated
wilshire of my God .he lost all the balls
Welbeck!!!
Imagine if we had Wilfred zaha
csk is due a penalty too
75 minutes no single shot on target! very poor indeed
Yeees!!!!
ok ok Danny Welbeck is Ok
Finally FFS
Thanks Oh Danny Boy
I love you guys..
Thank God welbroke finally score. What a relief.?
Nice goal and ozil were you watching elneny pass?
Tell you what as well I’m getting fed up of seeing lacazette moping when he’s subbed it’s not about you buddy what about the team get off!!
Also now Ox has gone Wenger has to have someone to routinely sub and leave looking upset 🙂
You single out mesut, who was forced to play wide so that Ramsey and jack can run around with bang average technical quality and keep giving the ball away? The two guys playing centrally tasked with dictating the pace and creating chances for others?
Bet you wish we still had Theo, Gibbs, Ox, Carl Jenkinson too.
If Arsene knew how to balance a side to his team’s strengths we wouldn’t be here.
Ramsey 10, coulda played in welbz to score, instead wants the glory himself and played it square to try to run back in to get to get it back.
Welbeck 10 goal of the season 1St time for arsenal, only 3 times in his career. Good winger but dont put striker
#don’t put him as a striker cause he isn’t one.
welbeck is a big game player.
crucial goals.
Yea, and he seems to be a rich vein of “vorm” too
It is funny how we blast the players for lacking confidence and WE ourselves suffer the same…
I can imagine how nervous some of us will be if we were to be on that pitch right now
Lacazette off again. Again he looked upset about it. However, I must say that he didn’t cover himself in glory while on.
He is yet to impress me for real… just look at Auba!
Can we now agree that aubameyang is better as our CF than lacazette.
lacazette has been awful.
Lacazette has no personal presence.
He is easily handled.
Laca playing as a CF in a 4231, with mesut (10, not a winger) wide on one side, Welbz (not a winger) on the other, and a midfield triangle of Ramsey as a 10 (doesn’t posses the requisite technical ability to be effective there), Jack (awful today and hasn’t been good enough for a long time for us) and el neny (squad player but not arsenal quality). Yep, lots of quality service he was provided today. lol.
lacazette has been awful since he joined.
the only game he played well was the first.
it is claimed that he has had a knee injury.
yeah right.excuses
if AUBAMEYANG was eligible and started today against cska he would have already score in the first 45 minutes.
Would’ve easily scored with what supply? What chances did we create that laca flubbed or wasn’t in a good spot that Auba would’ve been?
we all know that Aubameyang is better than Lacazette but awful is not the right word to use for Lacazette
Iwobi please get out!!
iwobi ??
ok Elneny to Ramsey peace of mind
@th14atl
Firstly of course I don’t wish we had the others you mentioned in fact it was right to sell ox and walcott but with auba cup tied in is naive to not have one other attacking player come in.
On ozil you’re right about Jack and Aaron being rubbish in the middle but we both know ozil can unlock a defence from any position so saying he’s playing on the flank as a defence is non sense he’s not been weak tonight until the substitutions.
Main man at fault is the manager and as usual it’s us that end up arguing.
Th14 showing that he’s the only one that can watch a game and read it as it is.
Elneny has been rubbish tonight except for the one perfect pass that set up the goal we needed so credit for that I say.
Credit for sure. I won’t speak ill of el neny, he’s doing the best he can given his ability
A lot of fans on here are just biased and are not critically assessing games they are watching.
Elneny has been one of our most consistent and committed players. Also has great stamina and almost never gets injured. He may not be 6.4′ in height, a potent goalscorer or a mercurial dribbler, but he is a great team player and a hardworking one at that. Seems limited in his role in defensive midfield, however, he has been likely asked to play safe. But when he pushes forward when we are chasing games, he does produce some sublime passes and has a good shot on him like we saw with the goal he scored against Barcelona a few years ago.
Elneny with two assists and good work all over the pitch and was rubbish tonight. Wtf!
Arsenal,Marseille,Salzburg,Atletico
I hope we don’t get Atletico.
Liking ozil as a striker 🙂
Can’t believe we avoided defeat
The ‘substandard’ Elneny who has been called all sort of names on this site has just provided two assists and was easily today’s man of the match. doing a great job in defence midfield and attack.
Praying we don’t get Athletico? They just lost to Sporting. …and I bet if it were Arsenal who lost to Sporting it would be AW being awful.
Exactly. AW set up the team to counter CSKA and it would have gone to plan if not for the individual defensive errors (Cech; most at fault with his poor punches which provided the opportunity for the goals. Kocielny; not commanding enough, lost too many headers and did not provide leadership to the other players. Mustafi; another headless chicken/raging bull performance, his ball watching has cost us goals in two consecutive matches. Bellerin; what can I say? playing more like Jerkinson with each passing day. Was nowhere to be found when the two goals went in from players he should have been marking. Monreal; best of the lot but guilty of not winning the header that resulted in the first goal conceded.
If the defence had kept a clean sheet in the first half, CSKA would have taken more risks and left more gaps for us to explore and put the game to bed earlier!