Two things that Arsene Wenger has said this week in the build up to Arsenal facing Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday could well give us a little clue about the Frenchman’s plans for the festive period.
The manager has already given our star man Alexis Sanchez a little rest by leaving him in London while the Gunners travelled to Turkey to hammer Galatasaray in the final Champions League group game last week. But the Chile international star had played almost every minute for us before that and his break was much needed and well deserved.
However, Wenger has admitted that he is still worried about his new striker facing the kind of burn out that we often see from players like Mesut Ozil who are new to the Premier League and the fact that there is no winter break in England, as revealed in an ESPN report.
The Frenchman said, “It is a shock to the system, those that are not used to it. They [foreign players] are all used to a break, but in England there is no stop in the winter. Many of them suffer physically.
“As well mentally, the players are used to a break over Christmas, to be with their family. The players from South America are used to going home, but of course in England you cannot do it.
“He needed some rest. He benefited from the fact that I didn’t take him to Galatasaray [in the Champions League earlier this month]. He has played 28 games since the start of the season and he needed a little breather. It will have helped him.”
Arsenal have suffered before from losing our best players after overplaying them, although the boss has often had little choice due to the injury problems. He will certainly start Alexis on Sunday, but the other day he revealed that Theo Walcott could travel as well and I’m sure that Wenger would love to give the England international a good run out to get him ready for action again.
If that happens and Walcott does well, he could be in line for a first start in nearly a year when QPR come to the Emirates on Boxing Day. The Gunners should still have more than enough firepower while Alexis would get that extra break that could prevent us losing him for longer. What do you think?
He will have had more than a weeks rest and fresh on sunday, and the game is too big to not have our star man starting.,
Poor Liverpool fans are trying to be optimistic. They think Raheem ‘tired’ Sterling can net them a hat-trick and that Stevie ‘slippy’ Gerrard can stop Alexis from making forward runs. I’m actually glad they’re happy and giddy after that Bournemouth win, just so that when we go on to tonk them 5-0 in their backyard they’ll know that they were never in with a shout for Alexis. I’m not usually this optimistic, but if Welbeck, Chamberlain & Alexis have a field day we could more than inflict revenge.
He won’t rest him in an important game like this one b/c we need the 3 points but should he? ABSOLUTELY!! He has campbell/walcott that could play there for a full game (between the two of them) but as i said, rest assured Sanchez will be in that lineup.
Getting really tired of hearing/reading about Liverpool 5-1 win over Arsenal last season. It was just ONE game. That is it.
What you don’t ever hear is the fact that Arsenal BEAT Liverpool 2 out the 3 times they played last season!! Yes – Arsenal DOMINATED Liverpool last season.
Arsenal and Liverpool split the EPL points with a win each and Arsenal also beat Liverpool to knock them out of the FA Cup as Arsenal went on to win the trophy. Let’s see…… how many trophies did Liverpool win last season???
But you never hear seem to hear about those FACTS.
Nothing special in the 5:1. Its not like we arent used to such horrofic results.
Yeah, not like we didn’t play them the following weekend in the FA cup and beat em 2-0, in a convincing win after that bad loss.
Wouldnt mind theo starting but alexis should still play a part in this big fixture! Coyg!
It would be shamefull to lose to Liverpool. Arsenals records against big team is schocking. We simple must beat them.
Shocking against big teams, but not against liverpool.
Just watching Henry’s goals on sky sports and it’s not just that he’s the best I’ve ever seen in the PL, but watching the team then
Sol Campbell
Vieira
The spine of the team work rate strength and size as well as quality that allowed the skilful players to do their thing
I’m convinced we are not too far from similar Sanchez and Ozil are quality so Mr Wenger please buy quality CB and DM
I’d be very shocked if by the end of next August we don’t have the CDM we need. Hopefully it will come as early as this winter.
Walcott > Sanchez anyway 😛
toates he is. i mean, let’s just sell sanchez he’s so bad.
This is Liverpool, it does not matter how bad they are this season. These games most if time form is thrown out of the window and all sets of players take on a gladiator attitude. So Sanchez has to play, we can rest him against the smaller lower teams, but not the likes of Liverpool no matter the situation Liverpool are in.