Arsene Wenger has praised the hard work and mentality of his Arsenal players in the build up to this important 5th round FA cup clash with an in-form Middlesborough side. And while the boss spoke about the good options that he now has all over the pitch, he has called on today’s starting line-up to embrace the competitive nature of playing for Arsenal and put in a fully focused performance as the club heads into a really vital stage of the season.
We already knew that Wojciech Szczesny was going to start in goal today but we were not expecting quite so many changes all over the pitch. Only Laurent Koscielny keeps his place from the back four that started against Leicester on Tuesday night, with Gibbs and Chambers coming in to the full back roles and the new January signing Gabriel Paulista getting his debut alongside the France international.
Wenger has obviously been kidding us all as well, because Alexcis Sanchez is not just in the squad today, he will start the game with Giroud and Welbeck completing the front three. The Frenchman has picked a very attacking side, as both Cazorla and Ozil are in to supply the creativity for the forwards to work on.
THe final change is Mathieu Flamini coming in for young Coquelin and it will be a big game for him to provide the protection for our defence.
Szczesny
Chambers, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs
Flamini
Alexis, Cazorla, Ozil, Welbeck
Giroud
subs: Martinez, Mertesacker, Monreal, Rosicky, Walcott, Coquelin, Akpom
I just hope that the boss has not made too many changes and risked our defence of the FA cup trophy. If we come unstuck there will be questions asked. COYG!
Absolutely gobsmacked Alexis is starting!!!
Where are the “donkey Giroud out TOSSERS ?”
Where ?
Always rated Giroud as a value
10 mill buy. Boro at home is
Girouds level and I rate him for that.
But Giroud is not going to win us the EPL
or ECL any time soon.
Brighton Boro yes not so sure about
Chelsea Monaco Bayern Barcelona tho.
Great to see alexis starting ! Made of iron this little fella
not if enough Middlesbrough players kick him. He shouldnt be risked when we are coming to the most crucial point of our season and we have Walcott, Rosicky sitting on the bench. I dont doubt Alexis will do well today but why are we starting him when just 24 hours ago Wenger said he wouldnt player? This is why we always have players injured
Ok paulista let me hear u speak English football better
This looks like a really good lineup, lots of creativity and some speed, only question mark is shitini, I hope cazorla regains he’s form back today
Well thats attacting…I dont mind it 1 bit tho..love this team….5–0..to the gunners….I see goals all through this team and pack at the back for once..no mertersack….thank god….come on arsenalllllllllllllllllll
Holy Schmololi!!!
Flamini by himself at back of Midfield (very nervous about that)
Sanchez (My favourite) but again very nervous for different reason. Scared that he will re-aggregate his knee or hamstring.
You can’t say Wenger doesn’t want the FA Cup Though.
Anyway, lets hope everyone plays awesome football, we win and nobody leaves pitch injured
We Will Win
3-0 (at least)
COYG
Arsenal XI: Szczesny, Chambers, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs, Flamini, Cazorla, Welbeck, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.
Agree with @RSH about Sanchez starting hope he’s ready!
Schez, Chambers and Flamini today, hope that doesn’t backfire 🙁
COYG!!
Also even though Gabriel has not been judged yet I’m glad to see Per sitting it out and looking forward to seeing Kos and Gabriel paired up.
Nice line up my only question mark is flamini,seriously, is there anything he does right?
Apart from that,the rest should be able to handle mboro and I don’t nt care if they have beaten Mancity.coyg
Look…wenger is just turning into a alex Ferguson by misleading the media..u think if Alexis was injured he would’ve played him..I dont think so…same thing he said bout gabby..”he cant speak English”..guess what he stars…everybody but arsenal fans want Alexis injured the media everybody I say f** k them all..he here to stay he’s fit he’s ready and I see him hitting 2 tdy…come . Onnnn gunners
yep, Wenger and the medical staff has absolutely no history of bringing back players early and getting them injured again -___-
25 min
Commentator: Oh it’s Sanchez. He’s clutching his hamstring, and I think Arsenal will be forced into making an early substitution.
please don’t make me stress.
Flamini? Are you serious??? Why? We don’t need to keep him happy with play time, he can leave for free in the summer as far as I’m concerned.
And Alexis? Don’t want to see him risked. Sub him on for the second half if we really need to.
I don’t know what these pundits are on about, I think Özil has been a lot better since coming back. 3 goals and some assists in just 3 or 4 games…
I don’t think anyone should have any complaint about this lineup. This is as good as any other. I believe Wenger has calculated that since both Koscielny and Gabriel are fast Flamini can handle the DM role. It was necessary to give both Coquelin and Bellerin a break as they have played too many games in the last two months. The same thing applies to Mertesacker as well. I believe Walcott needs a rest considering he has just returned from injury. The good thing about Arsenal today is that we don’t have any reserve team because the players are almost at par with no extremes. This should please every true Arsenal supporter because it shows that the team has great strength in depth which is very good for us to compete on different fronts.
Agree with the others that commented on sanchez starting. Why risk him when we have enough talent on our bench.
Seems like a big mistake!
apart flamini about who i’m worry,i think this is a good line up that can demolish boro.good luck to our gunners
Yes, I get very worried whenever Flamini is on the pitch. Nothing against him personally. Just his play hasn’t been up to snuff for my liking
I hope Wenger isn’t considering keeping him.
Other than that, great lineup
Gabriel looks very mobile, you can see he has pace and can actually play football 🙂
is flamini a cf or a fukin defensive mid?
hes more attacking than rambo!
it paradoxal with all the attaking players on the pitch.
How the fook did giroud score the sexond goal beautiful stuff 🙂
it was a thing of beauty,
Not just a pretty face!
The man deserves an award for that peach of a goal.
brilliant 2nd from Giroud. 1 more to close this game out. No surprises. Very strong performance
so much for sit back & counter play, giroud 2-0, keep it up boys,
Giroud, not bad for the half baked striker people thought you were last season…glad you are now showing you have the skill to all the FIFA fanboys.. 😉
Some of us rated you all along, but hey…nice one. 🙂
i think most of girouds critisism on this site was two seasons ago when he scored just 11 and seemed to play slow, last year when he scored 16 in the league he seemed to redeem to the fans, not much anti giroud these days,
Giroud has improved so much since he first came to the club. Lets be honest, he wasnt near good enough originally. Great to see him finally becoming a reliable, confident striker. I’ll be the first to say I gave him a ton of slack and never thought I’d see the day.
better put than my post, but fully agree, seemed the turnaround was when he was busted for before match romps, ever since he seemed to play much better…
Carzola’s pass to Gibbs before Giroud’s first goal made me laugh. Am loving it COYGs
Great job Giroud. You didn’t deserve the crap you received from certain people. You still need to do better against Top teams but you definitely deserve to be with Arsenal. Around 45 goals for us so far.
Middlesborough are playing like us vs Bayern Munich last season. Just can’t keep the ball.
Can someone watching the game give me their thoughts on Paulista. Wife wont let me get BT the bitch
lets just say we’ve had to do 1 minute of defending total. All i can say is that he’s fitting in seamlessly right now, but he hasnt had much to do honestly.
cheers
Lmao “wife won’t let me get BT the bitch” hahahahaha hilarious
www .lshunter . net/
(without space)
66 pound sterling a week? The woman has to buy lingerie and other lady stuff.
Giroud is really brilliant at that flicked finish with his near post runs.
Gabriel; that was just an old fashioned English CB foul. Take that byotch !
This is the point in a match where we are up by 2 goals and then second half let a goal in. We need to not let that happen today. Try score more goals or at least maintain a 2 goal lead. Don’t give them hope. Close it out
Good performance thus far, just not quite sure what Welbeck offers $16M?
I wish this game was on BBC. They are only showing the crap games on BBC today, not the awesome match of the day.
Ozil looking good. Especially with the combinations with Alexis..very promising!
Is Gibbs playing in the MF today? I am confused!!
oh my mesut, you made that look easy, give sanchez a rest, great match to start the day
hmmm, never mentioned flamini, which is a good thing, rosickys pass to theo was sublime, total enjoyment