So we have Arsenal’s first serious pre-season game shortly against Atletico Madrid, and we are all dying to see how Unai Emery sets his team up.
Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi and Mohamed Elneny are unlikely to feature as they have just joined the squad after their holidays, while Danny Welbeck and Lucas Torreira are yet to come back.
But Emery will have more than enough fit players to choose from as he has had over two weeks training with most of his squad, with a few youngsters like Smith-Rowe joining them, so we will definitely have a strong team out there.
As Emery said when asked if he would continue the attacking format he used against Boreham Wood. He replied: Each match is different, with Atletico Madrid and PSG the level is bigger [than against Boreham Wood] and it is clear these two clubs don’t have at the moment every player who was at the World Cup. But the level is still big and we play with our capacity today, but we are still waiting on some players who played in the World Cup too. But I am very happy with the work every day and with the performance of the players and tomorrow we are going to prepare to play against Atletico. We are three weeks into our work.”
So here is Emery’s chosen side to start the game today….
That is certainly a very interesting line-up, and it looks like 4-4-2 to me, with both Aubameyang and Lacazette partnering up front. It certainly doesn’t make sense to leave one of them on the bench….
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