After the international break, Arsenal have a seemingly “easier” run of fixtures, but I am seriously hoping that we have Hector Bellerin and Oxlade-Chamberlain back in the squad as well as we were looking very thin before the break. The game against West Brom is coming up at the weekend, and with Alexis Sanchez certain to be lining up for Chile against Uruguay very late tomorrow night I am pretty sure he will be too exhausted to face West Brom, and truthfully he needs a longer rest than that if we want him to recharge his batteries for the second half of or season.
So let me speculate on how we could line up without him. Assuming that we get no new injuries this week (and Koscielny doesn’t suffer a relapse with France), we should have our strongest defensive line-up in place once Bellerin is restored to the line-up. (Debuchy won’t be happy).
As Wenger experimented with Gibbs on the left wing with such spectacular result against Tottenham, I think Le Prof will stick with him for the moment… we don’t really have much choice to be honest. As for the right slot I’m not sure if Wenger will give Joel Campbell another chance to improve his match sharpness. I would say he hasn’t been too impressive for me, but neither was The Ox before his injury either. Cazorla obviously got over his dizzy spell as he scored for Spain against England, and I expect him to stay in the starting XI.
Here is my selection…
Giroud
Gibbs Ozil Oxlade
Coquelin Cazorla
Monreal Koscielny Mertesacker Bellerin
Cech
Anyone disagree with that?