Charles Watts has claimed that Matt Smith should start for Arsenal against Bodo/Glimt in Norway in place of Granit Xhaka tomorrow.
The Swiss midfielder has played almost every minute of our Premier League season thus far, as well as starting both of our two Europa League fixtures thus far this term also, and with Mo Elneny currently out injured, it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see Xhaka start once again.
Watts has urged the manager to give him a rest however, and has called on Arteta to five Matt Smith his first ever start for the club, having been an unused substitute on a number of occasions.
“Honestly, I’ll be tempted to start Matt Smith in this one,” CW told his YouTube followers.
“He’s been in around it for a while now, been on the bench, he’s not got any minutes.
“I just I really fear about starting Granit Xhaka again. You’ve got to find a way of giving Granit a little bit of time to rest.
“He can’t keep starting all of these games.
“I mean, he’s no spring chicken – I know he’s not mid-30s, but still, you’ve got to give him a rest at some point.
“I imagine it could well be tomorrow so we’ll wait and see on that.”
I definitely believe we should look at giving Xhaka a little rest, especially given how important he has been for us in recent months. It would be a major loss to lose him as we look to keep pace with Manchester City in the Premier League table. With the artificial surface in use in Norway, there is already worries about the condition of our players after the fixture, and given our 100% record in the competition thus far, I would definitely be resting as many players as possible regardless.
With that in mind, I’m all for us using the extended squad for tomorrow’s clash, and Xhaka would be very high on my wishlist of players to get a night off.
Which other players would you be most keen to see rested tomorrow?
Patrick
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