Arsenal to focus on Premier League and rest key men for Monaco?

I am not saying that Arsene Wenger should play a load of Arsenal’s academy kids when the Gunners travel to Monaco for the return leg of the Champions League knockout phase next week. I am just saying that Arsenal must put most of the focus on the Premier League games now.

As we have already played five games in the last two weeks and will face West Ham, Monaco and then Newcastle in the space of seven days, I think that Wenger may need to look after a few of his big name players, like Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla.

Let’s be honest Gooners, the chances of us going to France and scoring three goals without reply against a side that has only conceded 22 in 34 European and league games all season are about the same as Di Maria or Falcao winnning Player of the Season. They held PSG to a goalless draw last weekend, so let’s be realistic and accept that we blew our chances bigtime in the home leg.

Wenger has got options for his selection as well, with the likes of Walcott, Rosicky, Flamini, Welbeck, Akpom, Chambers, Gibbs and Wilshere. Do you agree that Wenger should rest a few key players for the Monaco game and focus on securing a place in the Champions League for next year?

Tags Alexis Cazorla

37 Comments

  1. schalke score two at madrid in the first half, play to win or dont play at all, but we do have ramsey, rosicky, theo, plenty of quality on the pine

      1. totally agree….

        Ramsay, Wilshere, Rosicky, Flamini, Arteta, Diaby, Ryo, Sanago, Poldi, Monreal, BFG and Ozil should be released in the summer

        1. I think you should be released by Justarsenal ….withing next hour ….. a Spud….!!

  2. Theres is no such things as rest….

    we need our A team for every game……we do not have quality reserves….

  3. It’s Not impossible to Win 0-3
    Look at Madrid v Shalke. Madrid won 2-0.1st game and tonight Shalke are winning 3-4. So it was close. Also didn’t we almost come back against Bayern Munich a few years ago.

    If we had lost 5-0 or something then fair enough but 1-3 even though a mountain to climb is not insurmountable.

    My point is that even if their is a small hope. We should NOT give up.

  4. We give our best and anything can happen. A lot of fans here thought we were out before the kick-off at Old Tra(uma) yesterday. We will win 3-1 and go on to win in penalties.

      1. Madrid went into that game thinking job was done totally underestimating them and we know they can leak goals. Different proposition for us as monaco will still have some healthy fear and respect, they will be aiming for a clean sheet and knowing one goal loss doesnt trouble them.

        We should play our best players and throw everything at them in trying to get a first half goal, if they get one well its still three goals we need. I will be praying (figure os) we score in that first half as it might set the wobbles among a few of their players. I mil, reading, we have pulled back ties before so no waving of the white flag, unless theres some red to go with it.

  5. Schalke showed tonight played brilliantly playing decisive and clinical attacking football with neat one touch inter passing and good movement.
    Wish AFC played anywhere near their style. Di Mateo has them playing great stuff.

    And Real Madrid fans were booing and waving their white flags for what was a dismal performance by RM and yet they are still through to the quarters! Kind of highlights the gap in expectation between the big clubs and AFC..

    1. champions league trophy and 4 goals at bernabeu with some sublime football

      di matteos pedigree grows

    2. Sort of contradicting yourself there ArseOverTit. Ridiculing Arsenal by contrasting RM’s expectations with ours and then lauding a team that goes out of the comp and wishing we were more like them.

      1. @Jonestown 1

        No contradiction whatsoever.
        Let me spell it out.

        – Real Madrid are a massive club who wins things and have a structure and ethos that allows them to compete at the highest level. EVEN when they qualify for the quarters of the UCL this alone is not enough for their vocal fans if the display is dismal and not what they expect from a RM team.

        – there was no ridiculing of AFC in my comment. How does saying their expectations compared to ours highlights a gap? Do you seriously think we are at the same level!!?

        Overreacting again..

  6. It’s like Wu Tang. Put any 4 on a track and you get a classic. Too many different combinations.

  7. hopefully the game today inspires our team that its possible to overcome a poor first game. Still can’t believe we conceded a 3rd goal after scoring ourselves. Again, for probably the 3rd year in a row, if we conceded one less goal at home then we would actually stand a chance. I say we probably have a 5% chance of going through.

    1. Hafiz I want to thank u for dedicating your whole life to this app instead of living a normal life girlfriend ,job,hobbies etc u choose to sit there writing such wonderful comments day in day out ! U must get so much satisfaction out of the reactions u get I’m pleased for u ! And thank you !!

  8. Monaco is a game that we can actually still win by 3. So we shouldn’t rest anyone on that basis. Also, according to your logic that they’re tight and don’t concede, the flip is true. They also couldn’t score worth a lick, but they got 3 on us. Go figure. We’ll bag the 3 we need and hopefully move on to play Porto. Dream draw, of course.

    1. I haven’t got any high hopes of progressing but I haven’t given up hoping. We have beaten Barca, Milan, Dortmund and Bayern in UCL legs in recent years to go with a loss in the same tie so shouldn’t big-up Monaco too much. I don’t know what the odds of them doing us 3-1 at our ground were but imagine they were a whole lot longer odds than us getting a 3-1 there. Not likely but doable, a 10-15% chance(?) – depends which Arsenal turns up.

  9. I’m Looking forward to Monaco game. We’re as good as out anyway pressures on them this time lets see what we can do.

    Great result last night a win at Old Trafford was WELL OVERDUE !! Let’s f#ck Maureen’s Chelski when they come to town !!

  10. We should never give up on Monaco. Play Rosicky, Walcott, Ramsey, Giroud and rest Sanchez, Carzola on the bench for the West Ham game. Put Ozil in the middle of the park besides Le Coq to pull the strings. Giroud should not play against Monaco as he’s having a mental block of not ever scoring against them when playing in the French league. We play just like how we played against ManUtd and also Bayern at the Allianz Arena before. We’re still in CL, so no point to just play for the sake of playing but play to win and progress further. If we can win in Monaco and of course we must also win this weekend game against West Ham, it will be a HUGE mental advantage for the rest of the season including the CL if we’re able to progress. Just don’t make the same mistakes of underestimating Monaco which is what made us lost at home in the first place. COYG…

  11. I think we have quality players on the bench. I hope rosicky and walcott will start this saturday

  12. Believe it or not ….. we are going to win the match as 3-0….. then you come here and speak about squad depth……… Support the team COYG!!!!

  13. No pressure. We lost in the first leg. We’ve got players who are needing to play for fitness and we might as well just go gung ho against them. Switch in Flamini and Walcott, get Rambo a start, rest Bellerin and Monreal, give Thomas his number 10, Get Welbz on one wing, Theo on the other and let Akpom lead the line. F*ck it, 3 strikers and ridiculous pace. Just run ’em to death.

    I’m only half kidding…With a splattering of quality in there that team wouldn’t be awful – if Jack was fit I’d even say throw caution to the wind and go for a midfield 3 of Jack, Ros and Rambo – f*ck defending and just try to blitz them. It may be the only option we have at this point (though if we do blitz I really think we need Giroud and probably Ozil too).

  14. Team for West Ham (Saturday)

    Ospina
    Bellerin….Koscielny…Mertsacker…Gibbs
    Coquelin…..Ramsay
    Walcott….Rosicky….Welbeck
    Giroud

    Team for Monaco (Tuesday)

    Ospina
    Bellerin….Koscielny…Chambers…Monreal
    Coquelin…..Cazorla
    Walcott……Ozil………Alexis
    Giroud

    Bench: Cazorla, Ozil, Monreal, Alexis on Saturday

    We can’t play all same players for both matches. There is only a 3 day gap between matched. Also, Mertsacker had a shocker against Monaco so play him against West Ham and play Chambers against Monaco. Alexis needs 1 game rest

    Also make good use of Rosicky and Ramsay

  15. Arsenal doesn’t need to win 3-0. They only need to win 2-0 and will be through to the next round. If they score the first goal of the game, who knows?

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