Official teams and Preview of Sunderland v Arsenal

I must admit that I am very surprised at the Arsenal starting line-up for the Premier League clash with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. It smacks of extreme caution to me, when I expected the Frenchman to try to build on the midweek win and take advantage of the low confidence that the Black Cats must surely have after shipping eight goals at the home of the Saints last week.

But the boss has still not given Lukas Podolski a start and has gone for the under performing Oxlade-Chamberlain instead. He has also kept Mathieu Flamini in the starting XI while playing our club captain Mikel Arteta alongside him. The strangest decision, for me, is that Wenger has stuck with the Spanish left back Nacho Monreal in the centre of defence and kept the better defender that is Calum Chambers at right back.

Witho no Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Mesut Ozil, Joel Campbell or Podolski on the pitch, our line up seems to be a bit negative and I think we will struggle to break down a side that Gus Poyet will have been drilling on their defensive duties all week.

There is some good news in the name of Theo Walcott being on the list of subs, along with Rambo and the rest.

Szczesny
Chambers, Mertesacker, Monreal, Gibbs
Arteta, Flamini, Cazorla
Alexis, Welbeck, Chamberlain

subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Ramsey, Rosicky, Campbell, Podolski, Walcott

Obviously I hope that I am proved wrong and Wenger has got it bang on, but I am a bit worried that our sluggish start to the season will continue.

285 Comments

    1. we couldnt serve them- we scraped a draw.

      sam allardyce showing wenger how its done(sounds bizarre even saying that-)

  1. Y not start campbell or polski smfh told u this #AW iz # brainless #FACK AW win loose or draw #FACK AW

  2. oh no… the flamini-arteta partnership again … I dare to say that we will not have any movement in the midfield today

  3. why monreal in the centre??!! chambers deputized perfectly for koscielny at the begining of the season and this is the time for bellerin, who by the way has not performed badly, to develop with a run of games. a goal for super sub walcott! COYG!

  4. Santi and the ox both poor last Saturday so do not understand why we have not played Rosicky in the number ten role and Campbell on the wing.

      1. Yes make sure they know that poor performances are not accepted and do not entitled you to automatic starting place.

  5. can this please be a 4231 finally? If Flamini or Arteta play as an AM, then I give up and there’s just no hope anymore…

    1. flamini and atreta will play deep as dm’s distributing long balls. carzola will be pulling all the strings.

  6. Two things that really worry me about today’s team,Monreal at CB and arteta and Flamini playing together.going to be a long ninety minutes !

    1. listen if we dont get a rousing win against sunderland –

      theres no hope for us- besides busking for free transfers

    1. Good afternoon mate,hope you are well.
      Are you feeling confident of three point today ? I’m very nervous as do not like the team we are putting out and am very wary of a Sunderland response to last week.early goal for us is very important today and then go for the jugular.
      Heart says 4-1 to us head saying 2-1 to us

  7. Flam & arteta = dumb & dumber & #AW iz# brainless what have # campbell done to this old fart #AW smfh

  8. I guess Oxlade can do what ever he wants on the pitch and his starting place is guaranteed. Campbell on the other hand is NOT in the golden club of Wenger’s favorites.

    1. Absouloutly correct. Chamberlain with huge price tag, being English can show lazy attitude and still get starting lineup under Wenger, where as Joel Campbell, being cheaper will never get a starting spot let alone a few games to get to terms with the league.

      Wenger keeps playing this out of form players. I don’t care if Chamberlain goes and get Motm today, he is overdue a good performance.

    2. Has anyone counted how many times Chamberlain has lost possession? Or how many times he has won it back?

  9. Nice line up. Good to see Santi in the centre. Last game, his set pieces were very poor, save one. Hope he does well.

    I can understand Chambers not being in the centre(too much yellow card accumulation and if those fouls are in the box- it will be a penalty).
    Have a good one boys. COYG.

    P.S.Sanchez do a rabbona cause I the Boss and me ain’t seen the Lamela one. 😉

  10. who were those jokers saying too many new players will disrupt the team?

    song, kouyate, sakho- 3 players we definitely could have had

  11. i just wish the ox has a great game. tired of his inconsistency. and welbeck, please two goals from you. plus the sure goal from alexis. and one from substitute walcott.

  12. I ask all arsenal fans to watch the west ham match winning 2-1 at 90 minute defending properly and not conceding a goal, i am looking for Wenger to look at the match and see what they have done against manchester city.

  13. So much passion, fight , spirit shown from West Ham and playing great attacking football at the same time. Meanwhile Gooners are getting ready to witness a bunch of lethargic , demotivated players playing boring one two in the middle in search of a perfect beautiful goal and trying to walk the ball in the net. Brace yourself . LOOOL. And those who say it takes for new signings to gel, I say two words: west ham.

  14. Half that starting lienup is out of form. Sums up the selection.
    Chambers > Monreal @ CB
    Bellerin > Chambers @ RB
    Chmaberlain playing poor all season, should be playing Joel. What did Wenger actually promise Chamberlains dad when he made the deal to get him to Arsenal? PLayer hasn’t progress whatsoever, just 1 good game in 8 for him. Not good enough, same for some other players.
    Scszesny,Mertesacker and Flamini have been making mistakes in the last three four matches.
    I know you can’t drop Scszesny and Mert at the moment but Flamini you can change, atleast let Coquelin have a go there.

    Sums up wenger.

  15. A bit off our topic. But did anyone watch the westham vs city’s match. I won’t mind a Alexander song return. He bossed that midfield for 90mins and was putting in the tackles in. What a pass from him in the build up to west ham’s first goal. And Our own Jekinson not doing badly at all.

  16. Dear #sanchez plz take over this game thanks, coming from 1 of ur favorite supporters, & then assist #14 wit a goal when he comes on !!!

  17. Predciting Wenger’s post match interview

    If we win: ” The spirit was there. We kept going till the end. We showed good character.”

    If we lose/draw: “We created enough chances. But we could not convert them. Defensively we need to improve. We were unlucky not to get 3 points.”

  18. Guys I am glad Wickham and Gomez aren’t starting. We are definitely gonna steamroller over Sunderland. Poyet has f**ked up his selection.

  19. This is a City-like 442 with Alexis under welbeck.

    Interesting change from Arsene.

    Would like to have seen Campbell start.

  20. Neither Arteta nor Flamini will run with the ball or hold on to it too much. Our game is going to be faster. Then also we are playing with TWO wingers.

    1. That will be a real progress. One place up from last year. Next year may be 2nd place. And then after that the PL. Maybe . LOL

  21. Against Arsenal every game is like a finale. Not sure if the other teams have become good or we have become more shi$ty.

  22. Wenge be like: I am like the master tactician. I will change the team biatch. I will change the formatiom dawg. Watch out brah!

    1. Well, he’s the boss. I don’t think he is required to explain his tactics to anyone @ Arsenal, not to talk of the fans, LoL

  23. #should have bought or loaned them. Kouyate, sakho, valencia, song. Off topic managers most spoken words : wenger -“quality”, van gall-“philosophy” any more?

  24. Right I’m off for now, got some paint drying that needs watching. Can arsenal find they re way round this big bus parked in their way?

  25. Same performance jsut a different opposition. Manager is an idiot, says Walcott won’t be in the team, yet there he is warming up. What chance are they creating, what balance does he keep talking about between attack and defence, because were poor in attack and defence.

  26. 1. When everyobody knew sunderland are going to park the bus just having come from 8-0 thrashing, we should have a team set out for the kill. But Wenger chose to go with two CDMs instead neither of whom would contribute anything in attack and wilk make it harder for us to break them down. Master tactics.
    2. Chambers need to learn to put in a decent cross for a change. I know I know in ucl match he did that but it was 1 in 100 for him. Also he concedes corner like a so easily.
    3. Wenger can put Bellarin against Bvb in a ucl match but cant do that against Sunderland enabling defenders to play in position.
    4. Where the f#ck is Flamini? Yeah I know plotting a yelllow card.

  27. Not just refs pundits and media also! At least we entertain neutrals as they enjoy takingu the pis* out of our team and wenger.

  28. Even when no one is pressing, Sanchez has the heart and power to do it alone. Learn from him all you ballet dancers.

  29. Only player playing a pressing game is Sanchez. He is breathing down the neck of every Sunderland player. Others are too gentleman to do that. Typical Wenger’s boys.

  30. We love you Sanchez
    You are talented, work your socks off, reliable and the most consistent player on the team.

  31. For some reason, our play on when we are fouled isnt bought back when we lose the ball immediately after carrying on from a foul.

  32. Welbeck needs to learn find space in the box. He gets there several times in a match but always ends up passing the ball to our AMF (outside the box)

  33. Welbecks first touch and link up are absolutely terrible.. He needs to improve, he breaks our play off so much..

  34. It’s painful to watch the gulf in class and effort between anchez next our other players, hope we see walcott and Ramsey on it 2nd half.

  35. We should be 3 up atleast, but they keep passing inside the box, especially Welbeck, he is doing good skills but no end product.

  36. Kill the game off.. We are so lethergic.. We need to be going hard at Sunderland, they are so low on confidence and we are playing tiki taka going Nowhere..

  37. We need to kill the game off. Can’t afford to lose more points from a counter attack as awful defending.

  38. Too many passes in the last third, like we already won the match. That is what is so stupid. Most of our players think the match is won at 1-0.

  39. Chamberlain doing what he always does, absolutely nothing. All this faith and giving nothing back. To make it worse, his jogging around is costing Podolski’s and Campbell’s career. Well at least Theo is soon back and can bench The OX for the rest of the season.

  40. Since we cannot attack why don’t we just park the bus. Our up front players look so strange to each other like they never played with before.

  41. Are you Gooners excited for ElClassico today? Both teams are in great form. Gonna be a cracker.

  42. Wenger, thank you for buying such a great player in Sanchez. The way he has been playing he is worth 60m.

  43. Wow we truly ateu now a team bereft of confidence and belief. We’ve forgotten our heritage and the team we once were, it took ywars of careful planning for arsebe to out us here its like a company going into administration and slowly being stripped of its assets:-( shoot, shoot shoot!!!!

  44. Ok. I get why Sanchez came to us. He has simply come to show us that our players are sh*t.
    I mean, WHY IS SANCHEZ THE ONLY FIGHTING AND PRESSING?!!!

    When they finally decide to press, it is haphazard.

    Sanchez is basically doing the jobs of a player and assistant coach right now.

  45. At first I thought Sunderland’s failure to put any pressure on the Gunners would work against them. Rather it has worked against Arsenal by lulling them to sleep. Other than Sanchez I see only period spurts of energy from Arsenal – no sustained attack urgency.

  46. Four questions for our players. Doyu know what pressing is? When can yoy remember last doing it? Do you know what a counter attack is? When can you remember last doing it? Sifhu 🙁

  47. wow, can’t believe I come on here and all I see is negativity.

    THIS IS NOHING LIKE HULL OR ANDERLECHT; we are actually pressing, injecting pace when we can, passing around with our usual high possession but this time we are doing it around their penalty box meaning the second they make a mistake, we get a little space to shoot, or we get a through ball in it’ll be a goal.

    Yes, the goal was lucky, but we are looking like we are actually up for this match for once AND we aren’t using the useless 4-1-4-1 formation.

    1. Agreed. I too must be watching a different game. Every time I look up we are in Sunderlands half and pressing / nearly scoring. Given that they are playing very defensively, I think we are doing very well.

      I don’t know what people want, but if we carry on like this we will win comfortably. That said, it can all turn on a sixpence…defense take note!! 😉

  48. Wenger while you are playing half the team out of position may I suggest putting Sanchez in CDM. The way he presses and wins the ball by hook or by crook,he will be perfect for that. But then who will score the goal then? Golden boy WackWikshere may be. LOL

  49. Even though we are winning, I’m very down at the type of game we are playing.

    We should be more offensive and score more goals. 1-0 is dangerous score. We MUST not be content with that especially with our defensive frailties.

    Sub Ox and put in either Walcott, Podolski or Campbell

    1. yea, yea, after a bunch of you guys babbled about him being to much of an offensive player and not being good enough to play as a dm at Arsenal.

  50. How the hell was that a yellow, what a joke, it wasn’t a foul but he didn’t dive. Typical crap refs.

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