It does appear to be good news about the knee injury picked up by Francis Coquelin in the Arsenal game at Chelsea, with the early rumours suggesting that the midfielder could be out for a month proving to be wrong. But even though Coquelin should be back in action very soon, he will not be available for the Capital One cup game against Tottenham tomorrow.
I doubt he would have played anyway, because Arsene Wenger does tend to rotate for these cup games and Coquelin has been almost an ever present in the first team this season. Arsenal do have options for the central midfield role in the shape of the club captain Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, but which one should start at White Hart Lane?
Normally the automatic choice would be the Spaniard and it even looked as though Flamini might be leaving the club this summer, but after Arteta´s awful game in Zagreb last week, when he made no tackles or won any duels at all, the boss might be reluctant to play him in the north London derby.
At least with Flamini you are going to have a player that wants to get his foot in and make it difficult for an opponent and that could be important for us tomorrow. We certainly do not want another limp performance like the Champions League game, so is Flamini the man to take the place of Coquelin?
With Cazorla suspended, however, the other player in the centre for Arsenal, maybe Ramsey, might offer a bit more help defensively and that might mean we could use Arteta without putting too much pressure on his aging legs. What would you do Gooners?
The thought of either player is depressing
Sterling and De Bruyne scored tonight for City. Good signings. Don’t worry, I’m sure our summer signings will score tomorrow night.
Also Vito Mannone scored for City too
(Remember him lol)
It’s Sunderland they wasn’t exactly doing great before tonight.
Flamini or Arteta?
Ah we are spoilt for choice lol
I would try out Bielik
As much as I would like to see bielik or kamara, I think I would go with flamini in front of the back 4 but play arteta and ramsey in the more advanced roles. Chamberlain and campbell would get my votes alongside giroud. With Gabriel.available for this one, but still possibly missing against Leicester, I would give mertesacker another rest to completely recover. But bring in chambers for koscielny as well as Debuchy and gibbs for bellerin and Monreal. Ospina gets the nod in goal.
Ospina
Debuchy chambers Gabriel gibbs
Flamini arteta
Chamberlain Ramsey campbell
Giroud
Bench from
Macey cech
Bellerin Monreal
Koscielny mertesacker
Bielik kamara
Iwobi
Alexis ozil
Walcott
Vieira, Petit, Gilberto, Edu, Parlour, Ljungberg, Pires, Overmars
Now: Flamini or Arteta HAHAHAHAHA
And Arteta is our captain, surely he’d play.
Well I remember watching all those players and distinctly remember arsenal fans singing we signed the wrong edu cos he was so.poor at the beginning, plus his injury record was as bad as diaby. As for Gilberto in his early days he too was booed, whilst Flamini was superb first time round and his first few matches back for his second stint showed he was well up for it, especially against spurs. Arteta was also awesome in his first 3 seasons. I agree both are losing their legs, which is a real.shame, but I think both will be more than up for tonight and capable of playing against any midfield spurs can offer. Shame that tr7 isn’t available you complete the ageing trio.
But what else do we have? I think it’s too much of a cauldron to throw in bielik or kamara, but I would like to see them on the bench. This would have been ideal for the likes of the lads on loan, hayden, zelalem, toral, wellington, gnabry and akpom would have been really up for it and ready in my opinion. But we need to give match time to campbell, flamini, arteta, giroud and chamberlain as well as gibbs and Debuchy whilst chambers and Gabriel only played half each on Saturday so I would start that combination. For me the only hard choice is who plays no.10 Ramsey is the obvious choice as his engine will help out flamini and arteta.
As I said earlier I think only 4 youngsters are in with a shout. Macey, bielik. Kamara and iwobi, but I wouldnt be surprised if none of them make it, with cech Bellerin Monreal Koscielny mertesacker ozil alexis and walcott all being available.
If we had kondogbia, then we wouldnt be scratching our heads about selections, to play either arteta or flamini!
Exactly. We could have got both Kondogbia and Jackson Martinez
They would probably both be injured as are wilshire, coquelin, rosicky and welbeck. Let’s all be honest here, numbers and quality is not the issue, the issue is once again injuries. Something needs to change. Our squad in itself if fully fit is up there with all the other top clubs, the problem is we are never fully fit. There are not many teams that could name 2 decent sides if fully fit and still leave arteta, rosicky and flamini out of the 2 line ups. We could do that, but something needs to change to prevent our players picking up these problems. We cannot just sign more players as 25 is the limit. But we do need to stop all the injuries. If we cannot stop all the injuries then we need to keep our best u21 players at the club to add depth and quality. Hayden, akpom, zelalem, toral and gnabry would all be welcome depth and quality right now.
My belief is that 3 of those will replace flamini, arteta and rosicky this summer. Whilst wellington and Jenkinson might return better players too. However, I am certain wenger will strengthen in January, if players are available.
Flamini would be the best of the rest, “best bet to start i guess”!
Its not that Wenger is a mastermind or something. Of course he will choose Arteta. You people even serious.
O.T. and just to help cheer up those of us who are feeling a bit down at the moment:
Arsene saw an old lady struggling with her shopping and asked her if she could manage. She replied “You must be joking! You got yourself into this mess – don’t ask me to come and sort it out!”
When Arsene said he thought we could come second this season I didn’t think he meant in every freaking game!
I see the kids from London children’s hospital will be visiting the Emirates before today’s game to cheer up the players.
gabriel can play dm
OFF topic: Why do never have an atmosphere like Dortmund and Munich? These ticket prices have just ruined the atmosphere at our home games. Having a good atmosphere is such a crucial part of football. No wonder our team doesn’t have any spirit.
And Lewandowski just wow! What a player!
arteta ramsey in the middle. ramseys grit and artetas passing
merts and gab in the middle – give kos that rest, reward gab for showing some balls, ease merts back
Wonderful choices. Lol.. I’d say start both of them.
Giroud
campbell ramsey chamberlain
arteta flamini
gibbs chambers mertz debuchy
osipna
Koscielny should play if mertescker is not available. Sanchez and ozil should rest. Ramsey didn’t play the zagreb game so should be alright for this one.
I am well prepared for every outcome tomorrow. With Rosicky on the wings instead of Ramsey, we played much better. I miss even Poldis thunder shoots at Arsenal bec right now, we are useless up front.
This would be my starting 11 for next league game:
Lehmann
Lauren Campbell Adams Winterburn ( fcuk off Cole)
Pires Vieira Gilberto Alexis
Bergkamp Henry
What you reckon chaps?
dont make me cry man ;(
Don’t forget Wiltord and Kanu off the bench
Very True
I’d be tempted to ask Bouldy if he fancied it. Give him something to do!
In other news, Eva leaves Chelsea. WeLl, good move. By her. Maureen has it coming, I’m sure he won’t last this time.
PS: I must confess, I have a crush on Eva, can we get her??? I believe her “touch” can make guys like Jack play five season uninjured.
We should try Glen Kamara or Bielik.
Is Rosicky still an Arsenal player?
Yes but injured on international duty, return around end January, he probebly will be released then because by the time he gets match fit the season will be over unless we have other injuries in that position.
Clearly Wenger failed us during the summer transfer window. But do we keep bringing pain to ourselves by continuosly looking at other club’s players bought in the summer transfer window?
If we cannot compare then how do we compeat with those teams
Even Wengers wife has enough of him, hahaha. To funny.
Neither
Give Flamini a start instead of Arteta,
At least he has aggression and Stamina, something which the latter lacks.
Not only that, Flamini doesn’t shy away from giving his fellow teammate’s a moral boosting bollocking!
Pair him up with Ramsey
and the Ox, Ozil, Sanchez and Walcott upfront.
I trust Isaack Hayden defensively,but loaned out….Arteta and Flamin are useless as DM..
I would go with Flamini after all he is suppose to be the natural DM unlike Arteta which most of his career he was AM, no disrespect but both passed their sell by date couple of seasons ago for Arsenal standard, that is if we are going for wining the EPL but if we are aiming for 3 then they are ok ( I think next season 4th is not an option anymore we will not be able to enter CL)
Our season is over
Arteta AMF and Flamini DMF.
Shame I hear AW is geting divorced which means his still losing his best assets , I’m wondering if he will transfer a younger faster filter model for his late nights at Arsenal treasury counting the clubs money
If it were any other club other than Spurs I`d say Arteta (Mr. Nice Guy) but under the circumstances I`ll plug for Flamini (Mr. Not so nice guy).