Arsenal go into tonight’s Europa League tie against Red Star Belgrade at the Emirates with a 100% record in the competition so far, despite displaying a completely different line-up to our Premier League matches. Arsene Wenger has made it clear that this policy will not be changed. “No, because both of the teams do well,” Le Prof said.
“Even in training, when we play them against each other, it’s very tight. I’ve gone into a rotation policy and I want to stick to that at the moment. I must say that I am pleased with the quality of our performances in every single competition.
“I’m not tempted [to play Alexis, Ozil and Alex Lacazette] because I have another trio who will play on Thursday night, like Walcott, Wilshere and Giroud. It’s very difficult to make a [change].
“They all want competition, they all deserve competition because of their quality. If you look at the number of minutes played by all of these players since the start of the season, many of them are in very competitive shape and that should be an advantage of us for the rest of the season.”
So Wenger thinks that both of our teams are as good as each other? Let’s look at both line-ups….
This is the team that played Swansea at the weekend:
Cech
Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal
Bellerin, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ramsey
Ozil, Sanchez, Lacazette
And this is my expected line-up for tonight’s game:
Ospina
Debuchy, Chambers, Holding
Nelson, Coquelin, Elneny, Maitland-Niles
Walcott, Wilshere, Giroud
So, if Wenger decided to swap these teams in the future so that Alexis et all played in the Europa League, do you think our reserve team would give Man City as hard a game as our First XI would? Or is there just a couple of players that we should swap to increase our strength?
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Just saw Napoli vs Manchester City video. I think:
Arsenal resources >>>>> Napoli resources.
But:
Mertens-Insigne-Callejon > Lacazette-Sanchez-Ozil >>> Giroud-Wilshere-Walcott.
I hope Wenger can get his ass to work harder with Arsenal’s abundant resources.
No I don’t think our reserve team is as good as our first team. I’m hoping the further we get in Europe, Arsene will play a lot more of the first team, as I believe we have a chance of winning it
I reckon it could play a part but not enough to make a strong challenge for top spot. If the English clubs get to the next round I believe the extra fitness might nudge a top four place back in our favor. If we didn’t so often start off a season wobbly well then we could have looked like we’re in the mix. Maybe, but we’d still have to get over that thing we do very often when top teams give us a chance to make ground up, or right before a crucial period when we go into it in the lamest of fashion. This Arsenal side doesn’t have the hunger – I liked that Alexis has been matched up in training v Kolasinac, I used to hate hearing about our teenagers training with the first team. If Wenger can match them against one another better like the two mentioned it improves our sharpness and our battle skills greatly.
spurs beating Real madrid.
and our 1st team=2nd team. GREAT ?
A shame.
Looking at the teams that might join us in Europa this will move from a mickey mouse competition as others see it into a tricky one.
– Dortmund
– Athletico Madrid
– Napoli
– Monaco
– Sevilla or Spartak
Lets qualify comfortably and play a more experienced team in the following rounds depending on our league standing.
Yes
Both of the teams are not good enough!
Where is iwobi in both 11 does this mean iwobi doesn’t deserve any playing time
The answer is no. But we have pretty good depth for rotation and giving rest to the top guys for the lesser competitions. Having said that, if our “superstars” are playing like wimps, then put them on the freaking bench and give the guys with some passion a chance.