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?