Arsene Wenger is preparing for yet another game as the congested Christmas period is on full throttle, with the Gunners remaining winless in December. Surely we have to win a home game against Newcastle no mater which team Wenger plays tomorrow?
The players must be feeling the effects of being overplayed and Wenger has assured us that he will be bringing in some fresh legs to try and galvanise the team a little. “I rotate a little bit at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve played four games in basically nine days so I will have to assess how everybody recovers.”
One player that will definitely not be available again is Aaron Ramsey, who was originally thought to have a mild hamstring strain but now Wenger says that he will be unavailable for the rest of the Xmas and New Year fixtures. “Aaron Ramsey of course will not be available,” Le Prof continued. “It’s maybe three weeks, so … he’s not in contention for the next three weeks.”
This will be good news for Jack Wilshere, who is eager to play as many League games as possible to prove himself to the Arsenal manager.
Another big doubt is Shkrodan Mustafi, who limped off against Man United with a thigh strain. The Boss said: “Basically Mustafi is back in training today, I don’t know if I will include him tomorrow, it’s still a little gamble.
“Apart from that we see how everyone recovers.”
We definitely need some fresh legs in defence. I said before the West Ham game that we should give Holding and Chambers the chance to play together, and they are definitely fresher than our current tired and ageing backline. Come on Wenger you know it makes sense!
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It will be good to see what Holding and Chambers can do together. And no Xhaka, he is probably tired for so many wrong passes.
I would like to see AMN if not coq in place of Ramsey vs newcastle
& Jack in place of the injured Ramsey.
AMN alongside Jack for me
not chambers and holding.
Holding/Chambers Monreal/Kos
Bellerin Kola
Yes, Chambers and Holding. Don’t we trust them? They are too young? Do you want Mertesacker to sign an extension next summer?
Holding is in his second year with us and got quite some game time last season and Chambers has been around for what feels like ever. If we can not play either of these guys now they should not be in the squad. In fact, they should have received more minutes in the PL this season than they have so far. They are our future, or supposed to be our future, Monreal is not our future CD. So I would pair Kos with one of these guys and give them some room to make errors and let them improve.
We won’t have the money to buy several world-class CDs so we have to pray one of these two guys becomes solid. And they are not going to improve on the bench or against Bate. They need some PL minutes. Mert is finished and Kos is near the end of his playing days and frequently injured.
With our small budget and reluctance to buy proper players and our poor track record when we spend money (Gabriel, Perez, Xhaka) it is paramount that we develop our young stars into big contributors. Look at Jesus, Rashford, Alli all young players making important contributions.
Our only hope to make it back to the top 4 in the next 5 years will be a new manager and a big contribution from our young players and scouting network.
Holding & Chambers are just not good enough. If they are our future, it looks bleak.
So you are saying they should be sold in January then?
I have some hope for Holding but he is very raw and at a big club you cannot regularly start a novice and expect good results. Chambers is very limited, immobile and one paced; a sort of Xhaka without the long range passes but equally inept. The only proper solution is to spend money on importing quality but the trouble with that policy remains, Wenger!
Have we really seen enough of them (Holding & Chambers) to say they are not good enough? If you look at the price quoted for VVD who is solid but not great, we will have trouble buying 4 CD of class if we have to sell or say goodbye to Mert, Holding, Chambers, and Kos.
IMO, and listening to Keown and Ferdinand it takes CD pairings some time to build an understanding and I don’t think Holding or Chambers have been given that chance. And early impressions last season of Holding IMO were positive. Doesn’t mean he will turn out to be world class but probably too soon to write him of.
If we have any ambition we will pay whatever it takes to get VVD. He is what we need seeing as we don’t have an in tune back unit. He can hold his own in duels, has the stature and might have a bit of leadership. He’s one of those players that could have stood in the tunnel way back when when we used to intimidate teams. We need to big on our defenders. I believe Chambers could come good, hope he does.
I like to see how VVD and Mustafi play, but even the most expensive central defenders would not be able to solve Arsenal’s miscommunication and misplaced passes in the defense area. Arsenal had various central defenders did similar mistakes, such as Gallas, Silvestre, Squillaci, Djourou, Senderos, Cygan, Koscielny, Mertesacker, etc.
Only Arsenal manager and his staffs can fix the recurring issue that have been happening the last ten years.
But Wenger and his “yes men” staffs have proved long term now that they CAN’T fix the recurring issue. OR HAVE YOU NOT BEEN WATCHING FOR THE LAST DECADE!
Ramsey’s injury is bad news, because he is Arsenal’s best assist creator currently (the second best assist creator in Premier League now). Ramsey’s assists are great, because the assists were created from open play, not from set piece situations.
Arsenal will surely miss Ramsey’s creative flicks. Wilshere has to show that he is also capable of making assists like that, and that is the type of creative attacking midfielder Arsenal really need.
Arsenal have to bench creative players that keep making predictable passes and the ones that are unwilling to take risks in the field.
In contrast, Ramsey’s injury is the only good thing that has happened since 2 wks. now am praying for xhaka to be next as i cant stand watching their stupid soccer every time.
I just hope we win!! Forgotten what it’s like to play well & win a game!!
Ramsey goes every season through an injury layoff. TBH I don’t mind some of the manager’s favorites being forced to rest. Maybe this will give the Maitlan Niles’s of our squad a fair chance.
We are not making progress as a club. No urgency in our attack. Sell Sanchez in January. Buy Nzonzi. Play 442. Giroud and Lacazette. Diamond 4 in the midfield. We need a new manager. Ancelloti as interim Manager till the end of the season is not a bad idea. Wenger can not move us forward any longer. He has seen better days. Time for a change
Ramsey and Wilshere get injured quite often. Both injury prone.
It’s bad because Ramsey is one of our best central midfielders. Xhaka has been very underwhelming. He hasn’t played like a £35 million signing. That’s for sure
Wish we had tried to get Seri or Goretzka in summer. Seri had a £36 million release clause that expired in July/August
Talk about understatement! To call Xhaka merely “underwhelming”, is like saying Trump is not as self effacing as he should be. Xhaka is a total dud. Tell it like it is man and don’t mince words!