As usual, we bring you the latest Arsenal injury news ahead of our next game and the good news is that we have just one player a doubt outside the long term injured.
The only player that we may be missing is Nacho Monreal, who will be assessed on his calf injury ahead of the Europa League semi-final on Thursday evening.
In terms of the long term injured and I now include Aaron Ramsey in that, all are progressing with their rehabilitation.
Ramsey has played his last game for us following his left hamstring injury picked up in our last Europa League game against Napoli, this sad news has now been confirmed by the club.
The same applies with Denis Suarez due to his ongoing groin strain and for those that may be curious about how long our loan signing will be sidelined, the club reckons it will be four to five weeks.
Hector Bellerin is continuing to recover from his left knee injury and his ongoing rehabilitation in the gym and post surgery strengthening is going well.
Rob Holding, who has been sidelined with a left knee injury has started his on-field rehabilitation.
And finally, Danny Welbeck will continue with his on-field rehabilitation, conditioning and ball work.
I know that some of you were hoping for a miraculous recovery from Ramsey but it was never likely to happen in time and even if it did, he would not have been match fit.
So, in terms of our current roster, it is only Nacho Monreal that remains a doubt for the big game which means that we basically have a full-strength squad outside the long term injured to select from.
Since Emery likes to use wingbacks/ fullback as wingers as what Klopp does, we need a more skilled ones before next season begins
I don’t think Kolasinac, Monreal, Bellerin and Maitland-Niles can reach Marcelo’s and Alves’ levels in attacking
For a change to invigorate Arsenal team for freshness to attack and score as many times as they should in the match to beat Valencia convincingly tomorrow night at the Ems in the Europa League Cup semi-final 1st leg match between Arsenal and Valencia, I will suggest Emery, the Gunners head coach introduce 3 recognised Arsenal PL 2 players in Eddie Nkethia, Joe Willock and Busayo Saka into his starting XI to start the match.
My 3-2-4-1 Arsenal starting XI for Valencia is as below.
Starts:
Cech;
Koscielny Mavropanous Sokratis;
Torreria Xhaka;
AMN Willock Saka Aubameyang;
Nkethia.
Bench:
Leno Jenkinson Mustafi Elneny Ozil Iwobi Lacazette.
Oh dear Samuel! I know you mean well but you are hardly the brightest brain on here! A team filled with wet behind the ears kids has zero hope of beating Valencia. To play young Eddie and Willock is a triumph of blind hope over common sense. It matters not, as neither of them nor Saka will be picked to start, as all proper thinkers well know. Not a hope in hell!
Mavropanos couldn’t handle Benteke, let alone Valencia’s pacey attackers
Aubameyang is not an LWB and he was awful as an LW as well
Ozil and Mkhitaryan often played badly as right AM and left AM, because they are not wingers like Hazard, Willian and Pedro. Let alone newcomers like Willock and Saka
I didn’t think Mavropanos was in our EL squad
Although he showed nothing in his time here, it’s a shame Suarez’s injury came just when Ramsey’s injury has shut him down. In my opinion we were playing our best with an energetic box to box midfielder linking the five at the back and DM to the front three. Would have been nice to find out whether Suarez could have done that. The only other candidate I see is AMN but with Bellerin injured he is needed elsewhere.
Watching his ex-teammates toying with Liverpool tonight reminds me of his playing style in the past. He is very rusty now, but he used to be able to do what other Barcelona players do
It’s amazing to see their nifty first touches, passes, awareness and speed of thought. Since Arsenal would never be able to achieve that football level, they might as well follow Klopp’s preferences in recruiting the players
Even though Liverpool’s midfield is nothing special, they have tricky wingers and dominant CBs. Arsenal should also focus on those two departments in the summer transfer window
We need Monreal
The only three man defense I like is
Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal
I don’t trust Mavrapanos, Lictsteiner and Mustafi
Without Holding, Bellerin and now Monreal we are very susceptible at the back especially with Valencia’s pace especially pacey swingers especially if we play Mustafi or Lichtsteiner
And Ozil or Mkthriyan are best in the centre attacking midfield position BUT they can’t deal with pace either and are even worse on the wings
Really don’t know what to make of this match especially after our consecutive loses
I hope Emery has an answer