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Confirmed Arsenal team to take on Cardiff – Auba and Laca start together

I don’t think it matters that we are playing Cardiff, but all Arsenal fans are sure to be feeling nervous due to our rubbish away form which has seen us win just one of our last ten away fixtures.

But hopefully Unai Emery will now know which is his best starting XI and we can see if he has finally taught the defence how to stop our opponents getting so close to Petr Cech’s goal. I read that Arsenal had 24 on target shots against us in our first three games, more than any other EPL team. No wonder we have conceded 6 goals and luckily Cech stopped the other 18! If we let Cardiff have that much room today they will surely score as well, so we could do with Aubameyang finding his form…

Anyway, over to the confirmed team. This was my earlier predicted line-up….

Cech
Bellerin – Mustafi – Sokratis – Monreal
Ramsey – Torreira – Xhaka
Ozil – Aubameyang – Mkhitaryan

And this will be Emery’s confirmed starting XI….

Still no Torreira! But at least we have Auba and Lacca starting together at last. Let’s see some goals!

Is this team good enough to give us our first away win of the season?

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146 Comments

        1. I’m sorry bro, I think I’m the one who should go on a carrot diet, but then admin posted the wrong lineup

    2. Ramsey off for lacazette, and I’m alright, that shoukd happen in the second half though
      But I’m happy to see torreira, his presence should bring out the best in xhaka

    3. It’s a worrying trait we have seen fail arsenal in the not too distant past … Any team that has xhaka Ramsey and bellerin starting is not going to make the top 4 … Enough to beat Cardiff probably but that’s true of all mid table outfits …

  5. Hope Guendouzi is feeling fit because he probably won’t get much help defensively from Xhaka and glory hunter Ramsey.

  8. yea… what i was xpecting…. its a diamond i guess geundouzi seating…. 4-1 arsenal… we just cant buy a clean sheet

  9. Laca & Auba ? – but still got Xhaka and not Torreira! What exactly does Emery see in Xhaka? He must be a real whizz on the training ground. Let’s hope he proves me wrong and plays like a professional footballer today – would make a nice change.

    1. I know right, I did want Laca & Torreira both to start. But hopefully Laca will link up well & Auba will finally score!
      Xhaka & Ramsey had better have a good game, be about time!!!

  10. All I can say is that if Xhaka is keeping Torreira out of the team then Torreira must be a bloody awful player.
    And Leno?
    And Lichsteiner?
    Why did we bother signing these players?
    50 million on new players that never play….
    We are not Man City – we don’t have money to waste…

    2. Yes Leon we waited years for a proper defensive midfielder, finally got one – then play Xhaka instead!!?? Guendouzi is wasted in that position, should be further forward. Now if only Xhaka gets either a knock or an early yellow card and Torreira is brought on and Guendouzi is moved forward . . .

  12. what is wrong with Emery,
    Xhaka keeping Torriera out of our starting XI how?
    why is he playing this guy from d bench?

    1. Yes Clive it’s just the same as when Wenger was here. He also used a crowbar to prise Xhaka into the team every time he could – but very few could see why. Let’s hope he proves us wrong, along with Ramsey.

      1. But Wenger did not have Torreira. I’m sure that he would have started Torreira a head of Xhaka if we had him in the squad. There were games that Elneny was played a head of Xhaka.

  13. Bellerin in the team again! No Torreira either! Unai Emery is seriously worrying me now ? I like guendouzi but he’s too young to be involved in every game, let Torreira come in he has serie A experience for heaven’s sake.. Guendouzi is a breath of fresh air but he still has too many mistakes in him!

    1. Its like playing with a 3 handicap in first half. Ozil is playing like hot garbage, and Bellerin defends as well as Cech plays out from the back.

      Guess Bellerin paid NOT to defend, Cech Sanogo-esque with his feet, and Ozil making a cameo appearance early.

      Desperately need Torreria, and immediately drop Ozil for Mhki. So far take away the pressing, and it looks like previous years. Defense obvious problem, and Lichtsteiner can’t buy his way onto the pitch.

      2nd half is time for Emery to be absolutely ruthless and show the change he preaches. Actually looks a fair fight with Cardiff so far, bit shocking to be honest.

  15. I dont think Xhaka is the problem, I think its the coach trying to play him as a dmf, he’s a CMF, that’s where he played when Switzerland go to round 16 of the world cup and 1/4 finals of euro 2016, he had the team’s ball winner behind him for him to play so well, if I remember correctly, he had more than two motm award at the latter tournament
    He got into the bundesliga team of the year twice at a young age when he played CMF and had a ball winner behind him
    He played better against west ham when a proper ball winner was brought in to play behind him
    So I don’t want to ignore his strengths and bash him for his mistakes, he may lose the ball at times and be awful at winning it back, but he’s actually our best passer(one of premier league’s best passers) and our most direct midfielder
    Wenger started him throughout last season, emery is doing the same thing and I’m not so sure but looks like guardiola also wanted to sign him before we did

    1. Thanks for the info Sammie but I’m still waiting for Xhaka to show me something – anything – that’s at all special. Maybe today . . .

      I note Papa has been brought into CB so Emery might be expecting a few long balls/throws into our area.

  16. Emery is the manager and he picks the team…

    if any fans want their fav player to play or any formation…

    then become a Arsenal manager

  17. I think its a diamond shape, 4-1-2-1-2 with guendouzi as dm and xhaka Ramsey as cm with ozil just behind lacazette and aubameyang.
    It would mean guendouzi is keeping torreira out of starting 11 which is understandable instead of xhaka ahead of torreira.

    Emery likes to have a long passer in his midfield and since xhaka is the only one we have he starts despite being average.

  22. Good job our defenders can score goals!!!! Excellent header … It was beginning to look like a Sunday pub game

  23. Our defence is an accident away from conceding a hatful … Xhaka loses it AGAIN in middle and panic sets in ..

    1. This didn’t take a minute, Xhaka on the lose then BAM, we concede just like all the other goals we conceded

  24. All I can say is we are a team that appears to have no idea about what kind of football we are trying to play … Ramsey and xhaka have neither the pace or the skill to carry ball forward …ozil and aubemayang are completely lost and we are depending on a 19 year old novice to bring cohesion … And the defence is just all over the place ….t’s weird football and so far short of top 5 teams it’s frightening …

        1. Don’t give a sh@@ about them … Though they are above us in the table … Why are we playing this kind of utterly incoherent unwatchable football … That’s what I want to know … And it’s something to do with players out if position and favouratism … I’ve watched this disaster movie before … Spoiler alert … It ends badly

    1. Don’t know why when he plays bad (this happens in all the matches) then he’ll always be in the team sheet for the next game!?

  28. Xhaka is the culprit again crossing the ball to the opp player resulting in Cardiff’s goal ! !!
    When can Emery see that Xhaka is a negative force for Arsenal ??

  30. Another goal conceded…. I’m so pi**ed off…. apart from Laca & Guendouzi everyone else has been pants.
    Cardiff hadn’t scored until now…. no doubt we’ll make them look like Real Madrid in the 2nd half. FFS

    1. No, this is a win am sure of it. Was an unlucky goal to concede. Xhaka was having an unusually good game but still found a way to mess it up. Cech is the one that concerns me most with his shenanigans at the back.

      2. Xhaka looks good until teams start to put pressure on him. Then he cracks rather easily. He won’t do as a starter if we want a top 4 spot.

  34. This arsenal team is the worse I have ever seem making Cardiff look like Barcelona the keeper and defending is horrendous school boys wouldn’t make these mistakes will not finish in top 6 absolute crap switching it over to watch cricket much more exciting!!

  35. We look so average. Defensively an accident waiting to happen, which it just did. Xhaka poor, Ozil lightweight, Aruba has disappeared & one of best players on the bench. I support Emery but we seemed to have gone badly backwards.

  36. Great start, but average after that, and now it’s 1-1.
    Cech- can’t pass out the back
    Belleirn- okay
    Sokratis- more confident about Mustafi tbh
    Monreal- good going forward, defending okay.
    Mustafi- done alright
    Xhaka- mixed bag
    Guendouzi- handling the pressure and physicality pretty well, had some decent passes
    Ramsey- good game for him, getting behind defense a lot
    Auba- need to see more effort from him
    Laca- also looking good, unlucky not to score
    Ozil- nothing noteworthy to even say about the guy

    with this defense, any team can score a goal against us. Even a team as poor as Cardiff. When is Emery going to address this? Change personnel? It can’t go on like this. We shouldn’t be struggling against Cardiff. Let’s hope for a better 2nd half. I still think we can win this. Gotta start finding some type of consistency at some point if we want to make top 4 tho

  37. we have the best strikers in the premier league on paper, why are they not scoring goals & why are we always struggling to win games all the time. I don’t even know if we would win this one. All the possession, nothing to show for it.

    1. It’s Cardiff for Christ sake!! We’re struggling against this sort of team… imagine if it was against the big teams….

      1. it’s not acceptable. I looked at their squad yesterday and Arter is probably the best player they have. Why are we struggling so much against below average sides? Aubameyang and Ozil need to wake up and fight for these points. They’ve been very disappointing today. Ozil, we expect to do nothing, but Aubameyang has looked out of it too now. One of em need to score or assist today, hopefully give them a confidence boost or something. But why they look so uninterested from the kickoff isn’t acceptable. And Xhaka, done good w/ spreading passes but the guy can’t play the DM role. Players just ghost past him and he tends to just lose the ball cheaply. And we have better on the bench.

  40. Why did Cech throw himself on the floor for the shot? Surely he’s supposed to STOP IT, not get out of the way of it!

      1. If he just stood up and faced the shot no problem – he threw himself to the ground, leaving a big gap above him. Pathetic!

  41. Oh my goodness, this is no rocket science, Xhaka can never be good for Arsenal, NEVER…. this is one of the reasons I will never forgive Wenger for allowing Kante leave for Chelsea while he went and bought this piece of crap calling himself a footballer, now look at what Kante has done for Chelsea since..

  42. Cardiff failed to score in their last 3 matches against lower midtable clubs but did it against Arsenal.

    Good to know how our defense rakes among other teams.

  43. Can we just stop passing to cech i can see from miles that his not that good with his feet …wtf emery is trying to do…i blame emery for cech mistakes

  45. Always wanted max I’ll agree, never wanted unai Emery, but what can I do. But I now support Emery fully, I’m begging, give the him a few more windows to get his players in.

  46. hahahaha petr cech is our version of neur. jokes aside, our midfielders are awful, they hate running or getting dirty,they not even challenging for high balls, they are making our defence look worse than they are.

  50. We will win though, but I’m really looking forward to that match we will look comfortable in. We had the longest preseason ffs, we deserve better

  51. Wenger …wenger for f@@ sake …im tired of this …we will regret this losing wenger will make us mid table team at least…sorry but without money we cannot win this team is week

  52. Unfortunately Emery has a stubborn streak and favorites it seems. So far same shit, different stink. Wonder what Emery and Ozil talked about?

    Guess Emery was right about preferring 4-3 matches; our defense is on pace to deliver their part, offense needs to show up.

  55. Just how many points will Cech cost us this season?
    We have Leno – we paid over 20 million for him so lets play him.
    I just wonder if the players we signed over the summer were players Emery wanted or players Sven Mislintat wanted.
    Either way this is a shambles.
    Arsenal are a shambles.
    Either Emery addresses these issues right away and gets that joke of a defence sorted out or he gets out.
    We expected some improvement straight away – not a complete turn around but some improvement.
    I have seen none.
    In fact, we have regressed.
    And as usual Ozil has done NOTHING.
    Lazy bug eyed mercenary.
    Its no wonder he deservedly gets grief on this performance…
    And Emery should know this by now….

    1. Its not cech fault for this week team …emery is stupid and make him play with his feet and we all see is awfull is so simple to solve this problem just stop play him problem solved

  56. we will win this game

    does everyone thinks that every non big 5 team is just a walkover with Arsenal having 100% possession for 90mins and multiple shots at goal?

  60. much, much better. 2-1. auba and Ozil much more involved in this game now too. Let’s see if we can hold this lead now

  67. I’m beginning to think big Sam is our best option … Why the fcku is that idiot gum chewing moron still or defence coach … This ffing team hadn’t scored before they face us…. Shocking

  69. I hope Arsenal can win this one but what I’d happening to our defense? conceding another goal. I don’t believe this rubbish…

  70. Jesus Christ.
    Can Arsenal do anything right?
    This defense is incompetent, pathetic and useless.
    One step above being physically disabled.
    They have NO business playing premiership football for Arsenal.
    If Emery does not get it sorted out hen he should ****ing well walk now…
    I actually want Cardif to win now…
    I find it very difficult to give my support to this club anymore.
    There simply is no fun in it anymore having to watch this….

    1. If your honestly rooting for Cardiff 2 win than
      may I kindly recommend you visit there
      respected sight and cheer them on to victory.

      AFC doesnt need plastif fans atm

  72. Arsenal has no shape , what exactly is the role of Xhaka ? We don’t need both Xhaka & Ramsey in the same team , they r similar , but Xhaka is worse , I won’t even want him on the bench !

    1. Movement in middle improves as soon as torreira comes on … But I’ve seen better plays than xhaka in lower divisions on 10th his salary

  81. Can someone please strangle the ridicuous fake “footballer” Xhaka and put us Gooners out of our misery at having to watch this unfunny joke of a so called player a moment longer. Why on earth is this man played week after week; does he have some blackmail hold on our manager? There is no more likely reason I can think of why he makes the team.

  82. Ramsey is utterly sh@@@@ … Miki at Least controls the ball … The idea he wants more than is getting is shocking

    1. Ramsey has been good today. Even this website has yet to criticize him today. Think you need to watch closer my friend.

      1. Doing what his control has been hopeless he has not created anything no link up from defence to attack no threat up front …. Tell me what he has done seriously … All you people going on about this guy can’t give up just like with Walcott and wenger

        1. he hasn’t created anything? That’s just false. He made runs behind the defense all game man. When you say stuff like that its hard to believe you watched the game. Dont care how much you hate him, he didn’t play poorly.

          1. That’s right he runs around a lot … The engine room blah blah blah … He did not pose a threat to their defence he’s too slow and can’t dribble …. That’s less than lingard does for man utd let alone what the likes of hazard eriksson and sundry city players are doing … He got in to the corners now an again it’s true and did as he always does from there … Goes back … He wasn’t stand out poor like xhaka it’s true he’s just a mediocre player who should be in for league cup and Europa games .”. has been always will be always …300 grand a week !!!!!!!!

    2. Couldnt agree more and to piggyback your
      comment this is my preferred 1st team going
      forward.

      Laca
      Welbeck…Miki…Auba
      Guendouzi..Torreria
      Nacho…Pappa…Mustafi…SL
      Leno

      1. I’m even thinking of 3 5 2
        Chec
        Mustaf Sokrats Mavro
        Bellerin Torreira Guendozhi Monreal
        Miktarian
        Laca Auba

    1. He should be dropped from space and without a parachute. He is a bad joke posing as a footballer. I can’t stand his joke play a moment longer. I would sell him today were I manager; to the rag and bone man , for fourpence. Worst ever buy at Arsenal.

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