After the defeat to Man United last weekend, Arsenal will be hoping to get back to winning ways in the Europa League tomorrow night against BATE, who became the Belarus Champions for the 11th time in a row just last week. BATE could still qualify for the knockout stages if they beat Arsenal (and the other two draw) so this is all they have to play for and will surely try to give us a fright.
But we have already topped the Group, and although we may want to win for a bit of pride, there is no way that we need to play a strong team and could try out a few more of our youngsters, especially as our ageing reserves have hardly covered themselves in glory in our last 3 European matches.
Reiss Nelson, Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock have all featured regularly in this competition and will be on the field again, but should be put another couple of youngsters in the starting line-up? Walcott must play I guess as he seems to have no hope at all of playing in the Premier League, but maybe Eddie Nketiah should be given a chance play from the beginning. He could replace Wilshere, who looks like he’s rejoining the EPL squad. Jordi Osei-Tutu could come in as right-back and perhaps the very promising Ben Sheaf could join his mates in midfield.
So here is who I would like to see tomorrow…
Ospina
Osei-Tutu, Mertesacker, Holding
Nelson, Maitland-Niles, Sheaf, Willock
Walcott, Nketiah, Giroud.
The BFG can stay in centre of defence to marshall the youngsters and Walcott and Giroud should be able to help Nketiah to score. It is about time we saw some real talent amongst our youngsters and this will be a great experience for them in front of a 50,000 plus crowd.
What do you think?
Admin
OT: Arsenal in Europa League only teams like Dortmund and Atletico Madrid will enter round of 32. When United was in Europa last year, teams like Spurs and Rostov will enter. Life is unfair ?considering the fact Dortmund,napoli could still join….europa league could be as thrilling as Champions league
What wonderkids jesus christ!! They are fulling their mouths talking about our philosophy, our principles, rhat we do not buy stars but we make them…the truth is we are not an attacking side anymore..even mou teams, who are accuse by us to be pragmatic teams and “parking the bus” have more goals than us and are use to makes us 3 or more goals per match…the last star we make is fabregas..pls dont talk about iwobi or reiss nelson…maybe bellerin…look st rashford, jesus, kane, ali…they are superstars…pls stop with the nonsense, we dont have wornderkids, we are not buying superstars, exept sanchez who was a unique oportunity, and we are not making stars…pls wenger, save us and leave the club with kroenke..thats what a men would do for something he loves…show us ur love is with the club, not the money it gives u
You are right, it is too early to label our youngsters wonderkids, otherwise they could end up like Wilshere, Ramsey and Walcott, too much hype over the development. I agree with young players like Kane, Rashford and Ali, they were the real wonderkids, now they are superstars.
In my opinion, Mbappe is the best wonderkid currently. He is very brave, very fast, very skillful and very good in one-on-one situation.
Walcott used to dribble past four opponents in one match when he was younger, but he has lost the guts and the pace to do it again. I hope Nelson does not end up like him and always learns from the best.
Have we got any then???
thats a nice team admin.
am sure they can play well.
Play whoever wenger wants against bate,but I hope that he plays a strong enough side once the knockout stages begin coz it will not be easy now especially that now there are atletico madrid and bvb in the mix,plus there are already lazio,a.c.milan and I’m sure they will also want to win it….
Not seen Tutu but Nelson and Niles are not wingbacks. I’d like to see Nelson in a more attacking midfield role and Niles in a defensive midfield role.