Everton vs Arsenal: What kind of an impact will Mertesacker’s return have on Arsenal? by SE
Per Mertesacker is an odds-on favorite to return to action for Arsenal when they visit Goodison Park this Saturday. The lanky German would replace Calum Chambers at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, and will be a welcome inclusion for Wenger, who, despite the returning German, has a couple of team selection issues to address. Sticking with Mertesacker, though, what kind of an impact can he have on Arsenal, with his return to action?
As we’re looking into the game against Everton, over the weekend, the linkup between Mertesacker and Koscielny would be a relieving one for Arsenal and Wenger. Not to be negative of Chambers, but there have been instances during his stint with Arsenal, in Mertesacker’s absence, where he has looked vulnerable and a tad hasty in his decision making, which saw Dzeko dance past him at the Wembley and, the other day at Istanbul, when Demba Ba ran through on goal. Mertesacker’s return will be a calming influence on the Arsenal backline.
Will Everton cause set-piece headaches for Arsenal?
The towering presence of the German should make sure that there are no defensive mishaps, while defending set-pieces, akin to Hangeland’s header at the Emirates last weekend. In Everton’s case, Sylvain Distin and Lukaku look to be the only personnel, who could get anywhere close to the height of Mertesacker. That, consequently, should prove to be the threat for Arsenal, if at all any, in defending set-pieces. Mertesacker’s presence would also mean that Arsenal harness dead-ball situations of their own, which could prove crucial in the end analysis of the game.
What does Mertesacker render Arsenal?
The Center-Back partnership of Mertesacker and Koscielny, ever since they have got together at Arsenal, has been one of the highlights of the Premier League. They both combine and complement each other every well, and Arsenal, more importantly, fares well when these two stride out on to the pitch.
But, the first game back after a layoff is always going to be a question mark on any professional Footballer, and Mertesacker should be up for the challenge.
Summary
Mertesacker can be the commander-in-chief for Arsenal, who surely have missed that authoritative persona in their lineup during the German’s absence.
Suhith
There’s no guarantee that the partnership will work Saturday as it worked last season. However, I would field Mertesacker and replace Arteta with Chambers.
Very risky to play all our 3 centre backs in one match ahead of a far more important match on Wednesday.
Simple fact is we could afford to lose to everton on Saturday and still put in a challenge in the league, but lose or draw with besiktas and we go out of the champions league. Losing millions of pounds in the process and the ability to attract some world class players in the last 5 days of the window.
By the same logic we shouldn’t use our best 11 in any game because we can’t afford to lose any of them. They are pro footballers and they know to what they are exposed. Why do we have them if we can’t play them when we need them? Really.
SUGGESTED TEAM TO PLAY VS EVERTON:
SZCZESNY
DEBUCHY … MERTESAKER … KOSCIELNY … MONREAL
FLAMINI … RAMSEY
SANCHEZ … CAZORLA … OX
GIROUD
SUBS: MARTINEZ, CHAMBERS, WILSHERE, ROSICKY, OZIL, PODOLSKI, SANOGO
I HAVE KEPT OZIL AND PODOLSKI ON BENCH CUZ I DNT THINK THAT THEY WILL BE 100% MATCH FIT. BUT MERTESAKER HAS TO PLAY…
Replace sanogo with coqulan as we need one more defensive body
I think wenger is more likely to go with wilshire over chamberlain
Yes mertsacker should replace him but chambers should still play n’ Giroud +wilshere should not be part of the team.
…………………………………Sanchez…………………………………
Campbell……………………..Ozill…………………..Chamberlaine
…………..Chambers………………..Ramsey…………………….
Monreal……..Koscielny………..Mertsacker……………Debuchy
………………………….Szherzney……………………………..
Martines
Carzola
Rosicky
Hector
u can add on the rest
I love that lineup! Sadly, we won’t see it. Wilshere will be on the pitch as will Carzola and Giroud too. Wenger won’t punish poor performance nor will he rotate the squad, except to the extent that injuries force his hand.
I’d play Mertesacker and Chambers, Koscielny has been playing through injury whilst Mertesacker has been away, he needs to be rested so he can recover before the injury becomes serious.
Replace Arteta with either Flamini or Wilshere, maybe even Diaby, I heard he’s back from his hip injury? Play Ramsey and Özil, Alexis up top and Ox, Campbell on the wings. Everton wouldn’t dare high press us with that much pace on the break.
Sc
Debuchy/Merte/Kols/Monreal
Chambers/Ramsey
Sanchez/Ozil/Ox
Giroud or Campbell
I’d rather play Chambers for Per and Flamini in the Dm position along with RAMBO.
Also will start Campbell and bring in Giroud as a 60th min sub.
Think Arteta is injured..
Who will play instead?
Flamini?? Also Ozil will be back.. so it is again 4231 instead of 433.
The article should read “Chambers MUST replace Arteta in Midfield”
Why does the site look so distorted by the way admin?
I am going to disagree with this Article in a way. Mert is a great defender. But his biggest weakness is teams that play quick counter attacking football. This is the way Everton plays under Martinez. For this reason I would stick with Chambers. I think he is quicker than Mert and he has shown that he reads the counter attacking game well.
So we should be blind to Mert weaknesses. This does not mean he is not good. It is just that we need to play players that is best to counter an oppositions strategy.
So for me Chambers need to start and OZIL needs to start.
The way to counteract that is play 451. I would have campbell foraging upfront like he did for costa Rica, with sanchez and ox on the flanks for the counter attack. However playing sanchez through the middle against the ageing jagielka and distin with campbell right and ox left would mean forcing baines and stones on to their ‘wrong’ foot.
A midfield of Ramsey Rosicky and flamini should easily cope with barry and Co.
Meaning chambers and wilshire could rest up ahead of besiktas.
Sanchez will have Baines pinned back all game or take advantage of the space Baines leaves when going forward.
Having ozil and podolski to come on from the bench will be a huge lift to our squad
I was beginning to wonder if I was alone about Mertesacker. He is painfully slow and finally he has been discarded by Germany. Also he is not that good in the air or does he cover for his partner .Both Koscielny and Hummells make him look better than he is. I would keep young Chambers in the side .Kos must think he is on holiday. Very disappointed still with lack of power and pace. I think Arsene is sitting on his hands again. I hope I am wrong but he has that look about him . How can he believe that he has enough quantity and quality. The dithering I am afraid has returned.
The pace on the Everton team could show metersaker up.. and after the break he could be abit rusty.. but for that game we need to be careful who we play on the wings because they need to be willing to track back and can break quick because Everton fullbacks love getting forward
mert for chambers is the least essential issue facing us now.
watching besitkas rampage thru where the CDM would play was annoying as was watching arteta chuffing to keep up.
really dont get what goes on in wenger’s head: pay up for carvalho .
get a CDM and ST : otherwise we’re just planning for mediocrity.
there was also a hole where CAM would be: ramsey/wilshere arent cams and cazorla was on the wing where he was ineffective as usual.
Definitely stick with Chambers!
I’d either leave him in as CB, or if Arteta’s injured, I’d consider him for that position. But Per lack of pace is very scary. So Id probably go Chambers and Flamini – I know controversial – but sometimes change is required to provide improvement
Two players who should not be in first team should be Giroud and Wilshere. They take the most valuable central space on the pitch but they are hardly effective. You can easily see their not so good play in the final third. They lose the ball very easily and undo the hard work done by other 9 players. Arsenal has little chancee of winning any significant title with these two in first team.
Giroud should be replaced by new striker or by podolski. The combination of sanchez and podolski , who have speed and high accuracy, and creativity of Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla would terrorize the defense of any PL team. Similarly Wilshere should be behind the Ramsey, cazrola, Ozil, Rosicky, Cahamberlian in packing order until and unless he improves his game.
I think campbell’s pace should be used against Everton…. More over its not a Must to have mert replace chamb. And as for the DM spot, it has to be flamini
PSG want 24mil for a 19 year old Rabiot a player on the last year of his contract LOL they can’t be serious!!
Well one things for sure, if we play a paceless front line of cazorla and giroud we’ll have to play a highline to get out of our half and if we play mertasacker in that high defensive line i fully expect us to get murdered by 3+ goals.
Hopefully we play a pacey front 3 and slot mert back into defence and move chambers into dm, that way we can sit deeper and punish everton for sending their fullbacks forward.
So Liverpool are in talks to buy Mario Balotelli (Reported by Sky sports). While a lot of you were against getting him, I’d love to see us snatch him from Liverpool. Good player, pacy and to be quite honest, better than Giroud. The thought of having to watch Giroud squander endless chances for another season is dreadful. Balotelli might be a bit mad, but he’d bury more than Giroud.
He might not do what Giroud does on a daily basis, but he might be a hidden gem. With reports saying that there’s a “good behaviour clause”, maybe a sell back when he acts up… The way I see it, snatch him up.
Unsettled player, I would rather take Bony
The way I see it, he’s still young. With wenger, he might be moulded into an amazing striker. And I’m still unconvinced by bony. Maybe still only a oneseasonn wonder.
I think this article is very pointless all you are going to archive is pit this stupid partisan fans against each other.Now they remember how slow Merts is against fast teams a myth they’ve been told so many times they start to believe it .The truth is Mert on the overall has been very effective against fast tricky players I don’t know how he does it but he does. I guess to use your speed against him you will have to get by him first. so before you go regurgitating the same bull crap about his speed you might want to check how many goals he’s directly responsible for the only time we get caught out is when we play a very high line
listen we had two very fast defenders in Kos &Verm and we conceded goals by the buckets both from open play and set pieces not to talk about crucial penalties , some coupled by sending off all from results of very FAST but reckless tackles
And in conclusion the writer’s suggestion that Chambers might be flawed because they got by him sometimes is laughable it’s almost as if they can’t wait to get another scape goat like Giroud, Arteta Wilshire and Now Carzola .What am saying is you don’t have to beat one player into the ground to make a case for the other.
Giroud is not the solution against Everton, we need speed and Mert may not be ready yet.
We should have 4 top
class CB’s all the time.
Djourou Vermaelen
Squilacci Senderous Miquel
all world class according to Wenger.
Wenger has had ten years to build a Champion team .
We should have 22 top class players 2 in each position
and 5 top class u21 players.
But we are still carrying 7- 9 deadwood
30% 0f the squad and many of the rest
are injury prone. Ten years and 1,500 million pound
with just one FA cup. The club deserves better.
Debuchy – replacement but improvement to Sagna
Chambers – replacement and improvement to current Verm – though potential to be the best English defender in the league
Ospina – long term replacement but improvement
Sanchez – an actual strengthening acquisition
Its been good window so far BUT because of our injury problems and former clear out of our best players, we are still 2-3 players short and we all knew that.
So Wenger get to work!
We also have a CDM issue at the moment, Why cant Wenger get Rabiot for the future and for the time being get Alonso from Madrid.
If we hVe no intentions of buying a dm why not add cambiasso for a year or add song on loan?
The only player who has looked anywhere near worthy of wearing an Arsenal shirt so far this season has been Chambers, and you want us to be him for that slow German? lmao. Good one!! Let’s destabilize the team and shake Chambers’ confidence into the bargain, very clever!!
Team to play Everton:
Szczesny
Debucy, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal,
Flamini, Ramsey,
Oxlade, Rosicky, Campbell,
Alexis
Subs to come on barring no injuries: Poldi for Alexis (fresh for Besiktas) {Campbell and Poldi swap positions}, Wilshere/Cazorla for Ramsey {swap positions with Rosicky), Bellerin for Debuchy (again for freshness)…
I know it’s a little different but not too radical and our crucial players will be fresher for Besiktas, including Ozil and Merty. Also, we’ll have plenty of pace and the chance to showcase Joel and the Ox together who were so effective in Emirates Cup + Community S.
And by your justification you are asserting that BFG has never looked shaky or made a mistake, well let’s take you back to Arsenal VS. Wolves when BFF slipped, cost us a goal and got injured in the process, and how many rash tackles has Kos. Committed. I’m all for BFG to be reinstated to partner Kos. but give us a solid analysis why our player of the season so far (yes he has been the most cultured player thus far) should give way, guess that’s how we should be rewarding good performances, by being benched.
Even wenger said chambers will be able to handle lukaku so don’t think he would be on the bench doing that on saturday! Mertasacker will start on the bench definitely but will be given some minutes! I will start with Sanchez cazorla and ozil up front but wenger will definitely start giroud with is a shame! Midfield of Flamini Rambo and wilshire will be ok for now! Monreal Bosscieny chambers and Dorobucci and Scz in the post! Then 60 minute bring in Giroud and ox for ozil and wilshire Then campbell for carzola! That will be enough to get us points there but if we r winning we can bring in Mertesacker and remove wilshire while chambers goes to midfield