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Official Arsenal team and preview of Stoke away

Arsenal are in the Potteries today hoping to get a rare away win over Arsene Wenger’s serial tormentors Stoke City. Even a point will be enough to take the Gunners back to the top of the table but obviously a win will make our Premier League title challenge look that much stronger.

So in an attempt to avoid the same sort of scenes we saw last season when the boss was heavily abused at the train station by a group of Gooners, the Frenchman will be disappointed not to be able to name Alexis Sanchez in the starting line up or even the subs bench. And with Mesut Ozil apparently having picked up a knock our attacking options are not as strong as we would have liked.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain comes in for the German although he might play on one flank with Campbell in the number 10 role. I think it will be the Ox though, at least from the start.

Our new signing Mohamed Elneny does make the squad but Wenger has started with Mathieu Flamini alongside Aaron Ramsey in the centre of midfield. Other than that the Arsenal starting XI is pretty much as you would expect, with Olivier Giroud leading the line and Campbell and Walcott either side of the big man.

David Ospina returns to the bench after his injury and it is not the strongest looking bunch of subs in an attacking sense. Hopefully we will be ahead in the game before Wenger thinks of making any changes but I am not exactly brimming with confidence.

Cech
Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal
Ramsey, Flamini
Campbell, Oxlade-Chamberlin, Walcott
Giroud

Subs: Ospina, Chambers, Gabriel, Gibbs, Elneny, Arteta, Iwobi.

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Tags Elneny Giroud Ozil

137 Comments

      1. Campbell shall be play in the middle and ox on the right flank. It a waste of ox’s dribble and Campbell’s vision. Would like to see iwobi to replace Theo

  2. no ozil no sanchez?!

    * casually opens office window…
    ” geoff this is me giving you my official resignation …up youuurrrargghhhhhhh”

  3. if any of you have a voodoo doll of any of the stoke team.

    its needle time lads.

    its needle t.i.m.e

    im bricking it

  8. wow .. this might be the first time since they had stanley matthews in their team that a stoke side can claim to have more accomplished ball players than arsenal … basically this is the opportunity for walcott and chamberlain to prove doubters wrong … but its going to take a hundred per cent effort to get something out of this

  9. any news on Ozil guys????
    and is sanchez even coming back before the end of the season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!…. wenger seems to be lying to us fans.. as usual

  11. the fact that we couldnt beat lpool ..who dont have any quality players in their team… really is pretty shocking for a team considered favourites for epl

  13. Even if walcott scores today, he deserves to be dropped, his performances have been shocking to say the least.i wouldn’t be scared to start iwobi because he’s definitely good enough.

  14. my problem is flamini….how an experience footballer like him lack positional awareness and has a very bad 1st touch….with chamberlain and flamini….it’s another mistake filled match….verdict…we gonna concede 2 goal directly from errors

  16. the only good thing about manu’s win today is that van gaal might not get the sack and whorino might not be back

  17. Holy Crap!!!

    Even with Ozil snd Alexis this match isn’t easy
    We don’t have Ozil. Alexis, Cazorla or Coquelin

    Anyway, I still believe we can win
    OX and Walcott need to perform better today

    Come on lads. Make us proud

  18. We have 1 attacking player on the bench.. who happens to be a kid. If that doesn’t ring alarm bells, something is wrong

  19. We always lose the physical battle against stoke, so why start flamini over chambers, and bfg over Gabriel, sorry gooners buy the only way i see us winning is keeping a clean sheet which is unlikely, COYG!!!!.

  20. Argh!!! Even if all our players are fit, a win is not guaranteed now look at this line-up ehn..No offensive leader there…
    Walcott and Ox are both on d same level
    Campbell and Giroud better than both of them….wish them best of the best of the best of luck

  21. Thats how it goes on this site . Before the game noting but negativity. Start of the game negativity. Then we go 1 up and Wenger is a legend then 1-1 and it’s Wenger out then we win 2-1 and all of a sudden were gonna win the league. .. only on just arsenal lol..

  22. Credentials for title contenders comes in game like this and without your BEST PLAYERS.I do not want to see defensive subs If we are ahead with 20 mins to go again..Show your steel and go fo it..11 players not 6 or 7 on the pitch..fingers cross

  23. Putting out Walcott and ox together is suicide! But then again, the bench isn’t very promising either.

  27. I still think we need a Podolski replacement this window, banking on Alexis and Welbeck to come back with a bang doesn’t sit well with me for some reason. Iwobi our only attacking option on the bench now that the OX is starting. 3 points needed at a minimum today so let’s do this right and no ping pong goals for the opposition please.

  28. I said it here on January 1st that there is something fishy about the Alexis injury.Wenger is covering up with his lies because he doesn’t want to sign an attacker this window.Alexis won’t feature probably until mid February, and wenger has known this since boxing day.Ozil is now injured, Wenger will probably say it’s a knock or a slight injury but we all know he will miss atleast a month.

  29. 5 DEFENSIVE OUT FIELD PLAYERS FROM 6 ON THE BENCH..HE’S GOING FOR DRAW..WHERE IS ADELAIDE? THIS SHOW US ONCE MORE THAT THE LACK OF DEPTH WITH QUALITY IS SHOCKING..PEP WILL TAKE OVER CITY THEN ALL BEST PLAYERS WILL GO THERE.why not spending 40 or 50 millions now to strenght it now before is to late? THEY WILL DOMINATE THE EPL FOR YEARS TO COME..chelski will get stronger..Man utd too..you act now or NEVER..auba / lacazette / carvallho or get PAYET from Hammers as Cazorla replacement..he would be excellent for us..but He’ll come with same old lame excuses..WE WENT TO THE MARKET AND COULD NOT FIND THAT SPECIAL ONE.

  35. Walcott 140000 …Jesus and I thought bankers were overpaid! Wonder which of these players barca will be grabbing? Can’t make up football journalism if u tried … Oh dear giroud

    1. Who’s fault is? Coach..simply..team rely only in 2 quality players who can creat something out of nothing ..very very average performance so far..no indication of a win unless change attitude is made.

    1. Stoke is a backward town in England, UK. In the most recent census 99.9% of the population was unemployed (the .01% was the one doing the census).

      The local economy comprises mostly of narcotics and stolen TV’s. Average life expectancy is 11 and the high school has not had a new entrant since 1987.

  51. Theo really needs to step up..140000 week and no awareness..distribution poor..come on boy..earn it.

  52. Get Walcott off he is a waste utterly hopeless … Sick of the so called football fans on this site singing his praises … bring on the kid

  56. very poor opposition team and we are playing so average..WE miss you Ozil..we miss you alexis..no Plan B here..seems content with the draw.

  59. My team..Chech-Bellerin-Gab-Kos-monreal-Elneny-Cazorla-Alexis-Campbell-ozil-OG..the rest on bench or loaned..Very poor performance this half.

  60. typical, ramsey runs forward giroud has to stay behind and try to pass the ball.

    piec s****t. stay behind and do your job.

    only 2-3 shoots at the goal till now. utter shocking.

  63. At least, a professional footballer should be able to pass to his team mate – that is the minimum requirement to justify your huge weekly wages. Chamberlain gets on my nerves – he shows less vision and footballing sense and is getting poorer and poorer.

  64. Ok ..; happy to get to halftime level … Walcott and ox have proved they are not good enough … Take em off bring elneny in to middle push Ramsey up with the kid … It’s not as if stoke are amazing they are a decent mid table outfit with a couple of quality players …

  66. What a bang avrage arsenal team. Take ozil cazorla and alexis out than were just a mid team table attack wise

  67. WTF does Wenger persist with Ox as a midfielder? The guy is a WINGER plain and simple…and Theo down the left is NOT working. Rather play Theo down the right and Campbell down the left. Ramsey is our worst player either he needs to sort his sh*t out or be subbed sooner than later. My worry is that we have no one on the bench that could make a real difference up front and without Ozil we have no one to control the tempo of the game…we seemed rushed and just lacking the final ball.

  68. Why does Wenger persist with Ox as a midfielder? The guy is a WINGER plain and simple…and Theo down the left is NOT working. Rather play Theo down the right and Campbell down the left. Ramsey is our worst player either he needs to sort his **** out or be subbed sooner than later. My worry is that we have no one on the bench that could make a real difference up front and without Ozil we have no one to control the tempo of the game…we seemed rushed and just lacking the final ball.

  69. We are useless without Ozil. Seriously we should just keep passing to Joel Campbell because he’s the only player with any sort of vision on the pitch. Ox is again playing poorly, Walcott needs to do more instead of just hanging out wide. Ramsey has been okay, he’s clearly missing someone to link up to, but his passing could also be better as well. Very average half and we’ll have to hope someone from the bench can help. I wouldn’t mind seeing Alex Iwobi get put in.

  70. Was important not to concede. We can only get better. We need to score to silence that crowd as well. Ox needs to step up or he will have no chance getting into this team once everyone is back healthy.

  71. Wenger can’t find a player out there who is better than welbeck, hence we will just have to wait for him to return even at the expense of conceding the title. Arsene knows best

    1. nothing he can really do in winter. I just want Alexis back and everything will be better. Walcott will get benched and Joel will start.

  72. this is FRAUD!! Ozil n Sanchez out? Wat is wenger doin?…see wat d boyz r playing!…Heaven help us 2get a point from dis match.

  73. I hope Ramsey stops trying to be the hero in the second half… it’s not working!!!
    He seems to have forgotten that when he had that good patch a couple of seasons ago it was because he played more team football, not by “dilly dallying” on the football thinking what he can do first.

  74. We will never win the league under Wenger again. He is responsible for everything going on. This team is not good enough even to be third.

    1. all our best players are out. Cazorla, Coquelin, Alexis, Sanchez. If we lost Koscielny I’d just cry. If anything we just need to get rid of deadweight this summer. Looking like that could be some of our English players who haven’t been impressive in a long long time.

  82. everyone seeing this team with players really below par such us Theo, Ox and Ramsey..please we need better.thanks CHECH just saved us

  84. i swear theo just runs back into whoevers marking him half the time… Stoke are so average today and we’re making hard work of this match for no reason.

  88. We are making real hard work of this game. Stoke aren’t particularly playing us off the park.
    Come on Arsenal. We need a lift!!!!!

  93. For God’s sake take of Ox and Wakcott. Those two are absolutely useless. Absolutely fu*cking useless.

  97. Mr Wenker needs to make some serious substitutions.. like…. Asap! ?

    Damm… we can only use 3 subs! ??

    Bring on Elneny for Ox
    Gabriel on for Flamini
    Gibbs on for Campbell

    and let Ramsey push up and stay up …. the greedy xxxx

  99. english core, english core, english core, english core, well, english core can f*** itself, I want a world class core…………

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