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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on Brendan Rodgers Leicester City

The teams are finally out for Arsenal’s clash with Leicester City, with the chance to move five points clear of Manchester City at the head of the table.

The Citizens travel to Bournemouth later on this afternoon, but our 3PM kick-off gives us the chance to put the pressure on our rivals.

We knew we would be without both Gabriel Jesus and Mo Elneny, but with Thomas Partey expected to return to the squad after missing our victory over Aston Villa last weekend.

We predicted an unchanged line-up from Arteta’s previous selection, but as you can see below, we were slightly off with the boss looking to replace Nketiah up front.

Do you expect Trossard or Martinelli to play through the middle? Do you think this is a risky decision to play without a natural nine?

Patrick

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Tags Leicester Leicester v Arsenal

88 Comments

  1. Great to see Martinelli as CF
    I wrote here in comments in previous article that Nketiah is out of form lately and he needs rest as well..
    He is playing since restart..
    Just wanted to see Zinchenko as CM instead of Xhaka as his form has also dropped and Tierney as LB
    Or Viera to replace Xhaka

    1. Nketiah is not out of form, he is simply mediocre. He can’t do anything except for poaching goals, at a low rate of conversion. Sometimes he might score, but his overall contribution to the game is always low. Glad he is out.

      1. Yeah… he is mediocre..
        That I agree but he can only simply give some patches of decent performances..
        That has ended now and now he needs to be benched…
        Emery did use Martinelli as CF and he was scoring in cup games just like for fun..
        I think he will be superb today

  2. Martinelli or Trossard lead the front line? Very interesting decision to drop Nketiah

    I bet Trossard will be the CF. Hopefully he won’t be dominated physically by Leicester City’s CBs as Sanchez was

    2. Martinelli will be in the centre forward position gotanidea. It’s a smart move. It’s not a wholesale change, but a bold move. Arteta can afford to make those kinda positional changes. Shame he doesn’t give Xhaka a rest and put Zinchenko there. Tierney could play left back. And they aren’t exactly wholesale changes. Doing changes like that kinda spoils the opposition’s match plan

    3. I think the front 3 will all inter change with Martinelli starting in the 9 position

      Eddie has done his job as best he can but not used to playing as a starter for so many minutes so probably a good idea…he can come on as a super sub with fresher legs if required

      1. Maybe

        Nketiah’s hold-up play needs some improvement, but he would’ve registered an assist if Odegaard’s shot was accurate. I agree he might need some rest after starting in many matches

        1. But Odegaard needs work on his finishing…
          If you compare him with other top playmakers like KDB or Bruno Fernandes or even Ozil then his finishing is nowhere near of those 3

  4. I really like this decision
    predicted this front three line up in the week 😁 and hust off to do the national lottery.
    Can see them with lots of interchangeable movements
    And plenty of energy and options to bring other in to the game.
    Eddie needed to stand down and take a rest. He will come back stronger but looked lacklustred in the last few games.
    Would love a clean sheet but not had one in 6 games so 1-4
    We will run riot today and then over to you city to catch us
    Onwards a d upwards

  5. Good luck to Martinelli, difficult to start in a new role.

    No excuses today, afterall Jorginho has been a revelation.

  6. The gaffer matches Brendon Rogers toe to toe with his mind game , this interesting team selection no doubt will be having Rogers guessing.

    This is straight from Pep Guardiola play book

  7. This is the front three a lot of people have been asking for and Smith Rowe on the bench looks encouraging. I hope he gets on at some point.

  9. Bwahahaha someone a day or two ago claimed this is utter nonsense and labeled those that wanted Nketiah out and Martenelli in as not true gooners.

    Well it seems Arteta agrees, and someone has egg of their face.

    1. There is no egg…everyone has their own opinions so we don’t need to start gloating at each other.

      We are ALL gooners…

      Best of luck to the starting eleven and also to any subs who come on

      COYG

  10. We are lacking final ball at the moment…
    We are playing very good football…
    But that final still not there yet

  15. Its a foul no doubt but so was the aston villa goal with ramsdale foul but one was deemed valid. Unbiased refereeing? You tell me

    1. Cheeky foul by White, goal was fairly disallowed.

      The problem is lack of consistency with VAR; the tech is fine, it’s the continued failure of the human element.

      Whether how a foul is defined or how and if it should be implemented is down to the rules and person in the VAR chair.

      Schooling and education should be a necessity for VAR officials this Summer after numerous failures.

      Accountability should be on par with what managers and players face.

    2. As if Odegaard and Zinchenko haven’t killed off chances themselves. It’s a team game, if you go looking for fault you will always find it.

  20. You can’t score If you don’t cross or shoot. They were tidy but nothing special. Martinelli need to improve his game as he is not doubled like in other matches.

  22. Arsenal played beautifully and Leicester couldn’t keep up with us. Trossard’s goal was great, unfortunately it was disallowed

    Martinelli’s and Saka’s deliveries looked off today. Hopefully they will get plenty of spaces again in the second half

  24. The Trossard experiment seem not to be working. We are clueless in and around the box with no focal no. 9. The false 9 idea might not work without the penetrative and incisive KDB-esque passes into the boxand intelligent runs into the box by our wingers.

    While Martinelli has been profligate, I feel Xhaka is having a stinker playing the half space 8 on the left. He isn’t getting enough into the box and not shooting at goal when presented with the opportunity.

    I feel it’s time to try ESR or Viera in Xhaka’s position.

  25. Martinelli needs to be dropped for at least 2 matches. The boy has become so predictable, he can’t dribble he can’t score he can’t seem to do anything again. I believe we will win this match though.

  26. Stagnant left side of the attack. Either Odegaard and Saka have to combine or nothing happens. I really hope Vieira can help out at some point because Xhaka isn’t quite doing it lately and less said about Martinelli the better. Woefully out of form since the turn of the year. Trossard scored a good goal, White needlessly held the keeper. It was the right call, but can’t help but have flashbacks of the Villa game where Ramsdale was blatantly impeded and these refs did nothing. It’s more poor consistency in officiating from the league.

    1. Also why do our forwards no longer change their positions around? With Jesus in the beginning of the season all our attackers would pop up in different areas of the pitch. Now everyone is rooted in their spots and much easier for defenses to team up on. Thought with Trossard he’d have some interchanging with Martinelli but I’ve seen really only one instance Trossard went to the left.

    2. Why is not that a penalty as Saka brought down in the box is beyond me, you got to understand when some fans call for VAR to be suspended.

  28. I would say Martinelli has held the ball too long but hasn’t been bad overall.

    The problem is we have zero midfield runners going past the front line. Like it or not the reality is with Xhaka and Jorginho on we have no midfield legs and it’s clear as day. When Parteys on he allows Xhaka to go up and fill the space which in turn allows Ode to make overlapping runs. With Jorginho and Xhaka on this simply doesn’t happen.

    No I’m not saying they are bad players, calm down! They just don’t compliment each others weaknesses like Partey and Xhaka do.

    Not a shot on target, we’ve been poor….not going to sugar coat it. We better up the tempo.

  29. First time I’ve seen anything like that from White. He definitely stopped the keeper from getting off the ground. Damn you VAR. Shame as it was such a good finish by Trossard. Most of our good forward play is being ruined by a poor Martinelli performance and I’d expect him to get subbed if he doesn’t improve in the 2nd half.

  30. The problem is Trossard and Martinelli are not on the same frequency yet, which would complicate things in our well-drilled positional style of play. We would suffer on the wings as our wingers won’t track back or be caught out of position if the frontline begins to swap too frequently.

    Nketiah needs to be brought in early in the second half and Viera/ESR brought in at some point. Martinell has been terrible but that does not mean he won’t score if presented with a good goal scoring opportunity.

  32. We need to shoot more, it feels like we are trying to walk the ball into the net. Martinelli needs to take more risk and run at his defender. Come on Arsenal we can win this.

  33. Zinchenko head and shoulders above everyone today ,Martinelli,Odegaard and Xhaka ,awful first halves hopefully we pick up in the second

  36. I was right about Martinelli burying his chance if given a good opportunity. We need to kill off the game at this point with a second goal.

  39. @Logic Martinelli is quite clinical. I agree he tends to hold on too long to the ball if the opposition sits deep and we have too much of the ball but if he’s through on goal one-on-one with the keeper, he will likely score.

  41. Why does Odegaard take free kicks ,how many has he scored for us directly?
    Martinelli should be pushing him out the way ,complete waste .

          1. But you forget, hardly we get free kicks to have a pop at goal, most of them are to put the ball into the mix and Martin is good at that. I agree this was better suited to Martinelli right foot strike.

  47. Game is absolutely wide open now..
    We need to kill this one
    Last weekend we saw what could happen if you don’t score more than 1

  48. Watching jorginho barking orders and adjusting positions while defending makes it clear why arteta wanted him. Really good positional awareness.

    1. We should bring on Partey for Odegaard and provide some extra cover in midfield…
      Leicester forwards are really putting pressure on back 4 with continues press

      1. Saka has been taken out of the game and with Odeggard having a stinker, Leicester are pushing more and more as a result. Its a game for nketiah now, one counter is all it takes.

  49. partey, xhaka and jorginho all have the quality to make a defence splitting pass to set up a 1 v 1. Up to the forwards to make the good runs.

    1. He seriously needs to come off,his legs are completely gone. Have you seen his last few tackle attempts? Not even getting close enough to touch them.

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