I did wonder at the time whether Arsene Wenger was right to allow the arsenal and France right back Mathieu Debuchy go out on loan for the rest of the season. The player was unhappy about his lack of playing time and it was clear that the young Spaniard Hector Bellerin had nailed down the first choice in the Arsenal team, but we were already struggling to a certain extent with injury problems.
There was the option of Calum Chambers of course, and the Gunners have used both Francis Coquelin and Mathieu Flamini there in the past but neither of these stand ins have covered themselves in glory and Chambers has been increasingly moved into the middle as one of the four possible centre back options.
Now that our games are coming thick and fast and the latest on Laurent Koscielny is that he is not likely to be fit to play in either of the next two games it would be very handy to play Chambers in the middle, but that would mean Bellerin having a very heavy schedule indeed.
So what if the young Gunner picks up a knock or gets suspended? Big trouble. I see this as a problem waiting to happen and you know how our luck has been with this sort of situation. So was Wenger wrong to let Debuchy leave? Only time will tell but I for one fear the worst.
Let’s not attract any more negativity as we already have plenty of that and things going wrong for us recently. If anything were to happen to Hector (God forbid), remember we do have another center back in Gabriel so Chambers could play right back. If he can’t play depending on the caliber of the team, i reckon Campbell could fill in at right back temporarily as we’ve all seen his defensive work rate on that right flank.
Bellerin being unable to play would be a big blow but not the end of the world.
My suggested team for Hull:
Ospina
Chambers – Mertesaker – Gabriel – Gibbs
Flamini – Elneny
Campbell – Iwobi – Walcott
Giroud
Ya it is a problem but it will only be significant if bellerin gets hurt. Play chambers as the RB and keep Mert and gabriel in the center. Gabriel finally found his rhythm against tottenham he should continue playing
dunno why we created this heavy schedule for ourselves…….. We could have beat hull in one attempt, but we just weren’t good enough on the day and Eldin Jakupovic bossed us
we created this mess, it’s ours to clean up!
Yeah, is much better not to play in Europe, FA Cup or League Cup at all and play only EPL. Hell, why play EPL and not resume only to League Cup? That’ll be an acceptable schedule. We may even win it! Or FA Cup as it looks like it is our speciallity. We love it so much that we give ourself more time to enjoy it. Total agreement here. You are a wise man. Have any brothers?
No real issue at RB. Flamini can and has covered that position. Chambers will be fine there against Hull.
Really don’t see the need for a 2 man shield against Hull. Elneny or Flamini will be more than enough cover in front of the back 4.
We should set up as a 4-1-4-1 or 4-1-3-2
The top 5 would be Iwobi, Theo, Welbeck, Giroud, Campbell.
Campbell Iwobi Welbeck
Giroud Walcott
or
Walcott Iwobi Campbell
Grioud Welbeck
Off topic:
We’ve seen how Walcott is struggling as a forward, he cant keep possesion, he can’t dribble, his finishing is getting weaker and weaker. I really don’t know what drills he does in training.
However, his pace is exceptional. Maybe its time that Wenger adds intense marking and tackling drills to his training. That way he can be converted to RB and used as cover for Bellerin. Besides, in the modern game, the fullback position is no longer about out-muscling and tough-tackling opponents down, its about having the pace and agility to get behind the ball when necessary. There’s a lot of successfull fullbacks like Marcelo, Valencia, Alba, Shaw, etc, whose strength is agility, pace and attacking prowess rather than pure tackling skills. what do you guys think?