This will not be the first time or the last time that Arsenal face two big games in quick succession of course, and the fact that our north London derby clash with Tottenham has been scheduled for the early kick-off on Saturday will help, but Arsene Wenger must still consider the fatigue of his players, with a Premier League game against Leicester City coming up on Tuesday night.
At least he Frenchman has been handed a boost on the injury front though, with The Mirror reporting that he expects to have both Alexis Sanchez and Danny Welbeck available this weekend. And according to physioroom.com they should be joined by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain by Tuesday.
So the manager now has to consider whether to just play his strongest Arsenal side in both of these EPL games, or whether to plan for a few changes for the Leicester game. Wenger would obviously want to have Alexis on the pitch right from the start against the spuds and as long as he is fit, I’m sure that will happen.
But with all the injury problems that the Gunners have suffered in recent years, I don’t think we should risk the Chilean in both games in such a short space of time. And the same goes for players like Walcott, Ozil and Ramsey as well.
We should have Rosicky or the Ox to replace Ramsey. And we now have players to cover all over the pitch, so I think the boss could pick these two line-ups:
Spurs: Ospina
Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal
Coquelin, Ramsey, Cazorla
Walcott, Giroud, Alexis
Leicester: Ospina
Chambers, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs
Flamini, Rosicky, Ozil
Ox, Giroud, Welbeck
What do you think Gooners?
That’s awesome news if we have at least Sanchez for Spuds away. We will need King Alexis
Also great news about Welbeck and Oxlade
Welbeck gives us another option if Giroud is off.
Oxlade won’t be available for Spuds but we will need him as well.
I miss Debuchy and Arteta as well. Although, Bellerin and Coquelin and rosicky have done a great job for us.
It’s fantastic that we have most of our players at this part of the season at least after a horribLE beginning of the season
I’m so anxious to watch us beat Spuds
I wish it was today lol.
COYG
How can you miss Arteta?
He is the past when we were over run and vulnerable because of his slowness and poor defensive positioning.
This team works in the current set up, it wasn’t working with Arteta in the holding midfield role.
How can you ‘miss’ him?
Big boost because who our bench could be would be important in this match.
But more importantly, get some match practise for though how have been missing…before the Champion League
Play the strongest team available against spurs, without a doubt!! It is actually quite a luxury having Leicester straight afterwards, because we can THEN rest some players.
I am by no means saying that we can relax against Leicester, but we can make a few changes here and there.
PS: I hope Rosicky starts against spurs, not just because he is playing superbly generally, but because he always seems to have a cracker against our bitter neighbours!
Absolutely. They are just behind us and it’s an away game. We should definitely play our best team (I would include Bellerin, Ospina, Coquelin, Koscielny, Mertsacker, Gibbs/Monreal, Sanchez, Ozil/Cazorla, Walcott and Giroud).
I’m not sure about Ramsey though. On one hand he will really be up for Spurs as it’s a derby and he is Arsenal through and through. However, he was only player who did not play that well against Villa.
He didn’t play poorly but not good enough for Spuds.
Mash the Spuds
0-3 or better please lol
COYG
His shots were not the ones he used us with but overall performance was good, not sure why you say he did not played well enough. Is hard to defend like Coquelin and attack as Ozil when you actually have to do both in that position.
I don’t oppose the idea of playing Rosicky from the start as I believe that’s one of the reasons Wenger gave him some playing time against Villa, keeping him on his toes.
Wenger may take a more defensive approach and actually play Ramsey instead of Walcott, it all depends on what they feel it’s working in the team right now. Honestly, they had it dead on in the last games so I think we should let them sort it out.
@fred, Ramsey is a B2B midfielder, so he is like a player providing balance to defense and attack. his work most probably will go unnoticed as he will provide support to others around. He will not be like last season because lets be fair, others have upped their games massively
Wait what? So because others have upped their game, his now average to below average performances are to be excused? What sense does that make?
Based on what you’ve said, if he plays well and stands out, he’s world class; but should he continue to put out average performances, it’s ok because most of his work goes unnoticed? What in the world does that even mean?
Not being a jerk, just trying to understand.
Ramsey hasn’t played to his standards since his wonder strike in UCL because of injury. The reason we let him be average is because his standards of “average” are actually “above average” (i.e : work rate). The only way he can get into “Rambo mode” is through game time and we can’t afford to take it slowly at this stage of the season so we let him play every game. Hope that explains it.
just need to be careful, 3 pts at WHL is just as important as 3 pts vs. LC, we dont want to fall into the trap we get a hard faught win v Spuds and the draw v LC. Its common when you have this set up, We need 6 pts, great news, so many options for a change, i would play the aston villa line up vs LC, rest Sanchez and Tomas, I would play Tomas & Sanchez vs Spurs. No change on the backline, Ospina for both,
Spuds, I can’t predict us to win, they playing better. I felt we were a bit lucky against Villa and score Could have been other way around.
Need 10 new stars in summer, only keep Schezza
Just kidding, nothing but a thrashing of the Spud faces will do.
@budd and @feedcowardly. I personally agree with budd rsmsey has been asked to be box to box and support coquelin and rush forward to support the attack when needed. In the villa game he was mobile abd did exactly what was asked of him, because of this I made it an excellent performance. On the spuds game, I once went to a derby at whl and walking along outside a spurs fan spat in my girlfriends face, suffice to say I laid one on the bloke and the busies broke it up. This is not juat a football match to me!!
A real man never would of let that happen.
Just saying.
Peace out
Arguably our second XI if everyone is fit.
Szcezney
Bellerin Chambers Gabriel Gibbs
Arteta Wilshire Rociscky
Walcott Welbeck
That’s some depth and the best part is you could make a solid argument for at least six of them being in the starting XI (to my mind, Bellerin, Gibbs, Arteta, Rocisky, Walcott and soon Gabriel)
Ramsey needs to work on his ball distribution and accuracy when shooting!I wouldn’t feel bad if he is on the team sheet on Saturday,neither would i grumble if i saw him on the bench.
I agree, although that will come with game time. We saw how good his form was before his injury. 😛
Only thing I know is, Alexis must play.
He can rest vs Lc.
Just let’s focus on next game only. Not only is it the Spuds, but they’re only 2 pts behind us.
Pick same side as v City, play same way especially early on. MF must track back to protect back 5 and try and stifle Eriksen and Kane. Only one question do you play Tomas as replacement for Ox who played in City game or Ozil?
Walcott, Akpom, Welbeck on bench
COYG – get those 3 points
@craigzwe. A real man? Wtf you on about I was taken by surprise and acted accordingly afterwards like ‘a real man’ anyway was intended to demonstrate my feelings towards the spuds not start a who’s got the most testeosterony debate.
Relax Ronny I’m pulling ya strings, no body would think anyone, not even a Spud could be that vile.
Pace pace pace pace Lineup: Ospina, Bereliin, Kos, Per, Mon, Le co, Rambo, Carzola, Theo, Sanchez, Welbeck.
Totenham will not let anyone to hold up the ball, let us come from behind and hit them on the counter, like what we did at citi. I respect what Giroud offers to the team but he is not suitable to every game, especially when you play away to the big potatoes. If you assessed him correctly when we played against citi he was just a passenger, the only good he did was the goal and it was from set pcs otherwise he had not used to his hold up play as most of the balls came from behind. Since Welbeck is capable of defending and breaking with pace, I prefer him to the big matches than Giroud. Hope if he is 100% fit coming to WHL, Arsene will not even think who to start between the two. We need 3pts Gooners!!!!!!!!
Meh, I like Welbeck as much or more as Giroud. If used right I think he could be a far superior player to Giroud. However, thus far Arsene has shown that he wants Welbeck to play in a similar fashion to Giroud, holding the ball up with strength and winning the aerial battle. It isn’t his game and Welbeck isn’t well suited to play that way, thus he looks largely ineffective doing it. Also, if Walcott plays, it will be Walcott’s job to play off the back line making those runs. You don’t really want more than one player doing that at one time and I am not sure Welbeck offers enough else to warrant his place in the lineup even over Giroud.
If Sanchez plays, I would put Ozil on the other wing across from Walcott, with Sanchez and Walcott fighting over the central position. Rosicky ought to play, but I figure Arsene will prefer Ramsey for his defensive play and probably Cazorla behind the strikers.
I’m guessing Giroud starts in the middle with Walcott and one of Ozil and Sanchez on the wing. Ozil/Cazorla behind and Ramsey and Coquelin behind them.
Lots of options, but typically Arsene likes to use his favored lineup in big games regardless of players’ forms.
My preferred lineup that Arsene wouldn’t use:
Ospina
Bellerin Per Kos Monreal
Le Coq
Cazorla Rosicky Ozil
Walcott Sanchez
Risky. Relies on Ozil working as hard as he did last week both ways and makes Coquelin almost entirely a defender. Any of the three behind the strikers can move out to one wing and Rosicky can play as a B2B. The lineup can change around if needed. Lots of speed there. If Ox was healthy, I might put him in instead of Ozil. Welbeck, Giroud, Ox, Ramsey, and Flamini all on the bench can provide something different.
Doesn’t matter much as I am sure Giroud and Ramsey will be starting, but I can dream can’t I?
Great idea if only The Prof would listen to your advise
We need to put Coquelin on Eriksen, without that guy Spuds have no chance. The threat on the wings with Alexis/Monreal and Walcott/Bellerin should ensure they are pinned down and provide a terrible service to Kane.
Let’s not fall into the trap of underestimating Leicester.