Arsenal took on Aston Villa in a friendly in ahead of the tie with Fulham, using an attacking quartet, and we could well be set to scrap the back five.
Our club ended the previous season in fine form, whilst operating in a 3-4-3 formation, and it was always thought that a back four would be the intention in the long-term.
That change could well be closer than we thought, with Aston Villa getting a first look at our use of Willian, Pepe, Aubameyang and Lacazette all in the same side.
It would now not be a huge shock to see us switch to what could be a 4-2-3-1 formation, utilising those four stars up front, although our attack was hardly the issue last season.
Arteta’s decision to add to his defensive minded players last term was down to a number of reasons, including the loss of Bernd Leno, and the erroneous decisions made by Shkodran Mustafi and David Luiz, while our midfield was also lacking in giving our back line enough cover also.
We are yet to change any personnel in midfield this summer, with Dani Ceballos returning on another loan spell, although Mo Elneny has returned from his loan and could well be given a chance to prove his worth.
The Egyptian could well be of the perfect mould to fill the deeper midfield role which could aid our transition back into a back-four.
Possible 4-2-3-1 line-up to take on Fulham:
Leno
AMN Holding Saliba Tierney
Elneny Xhaka
Pepe Willian Aubameyang
Lacazette
I personally feel we wont jump into the new season with the new formation, but once we add the likes of Thomas Partey to the squad, and have more options fit and available in defence, this sort of line-up could be used more and more often into the new campaign.
Would you like to see us back playing 4-2-3-1 or has our trophy-winning 3-4-3 grown on you enough to deserve to stay?
Patrick
Any formation that will win us the game will always be accepted by me.
We can be flexible and change formation and still play at our best.
I am predicting a 3-4-3 formation for tomorrow.
We might not see the likes of Willian, Pepe, Lacazette start cause they returned to preseason training late and might not be completely match fit.
So my predicted line up will be –
Aubameyang, Nketiah, Saka,
Niles, Xhaka, Ceballos, Bellerin,
Tierney, Holding, Saliba,
Leno.
AMN, Holding ,El Neny, Xhaka? Are we aiming for midtable?
😂😂
Our midfield still worries me. We are basically with the same midfield as last season, except the return of Elneny
With two natural fullbacks at our club this writer wants to see Niles start their.
It will be so painful to me if we let Martinez leave this time. Something tells me that we will regret later. Remember this is how Casillas took shirt from a German goalkeeper at Real Madrid in his early days and went to be one of the best in the world. Martinez is already better than Leno sentiments apart
We go into the season with almost same midfield and it’s a big concern unless Willian can pull the strings and create good goal scoring opportunities for the team.. I keep thinking back to our last away game at villa and we created nothing against a team who was battling relegation, but new season so I will try and be optimistic!
We or in for a hard game 2-1 to us or Fulham no midfield and lacazette up front but ah we or a top 8 team now until we sort out the f…ing midfield out but who cares I don’t gone past it now
I’m just wondering why you think Niles would start mate.
Football tomorrow means Soccer AM, Soccer Saturday and MOTD return 🙂👍 And most importantly – Dan’s predictions!! 🤩
You want to bench one of our most talented and gifted player Saka to play Chelsea reject Willian. We should have front 3 of Pepe Auba and Saka. In middle we should have Xhaka as DM with AMN one side and MG other side as B2B. Defenders Tierney Gabi Saliba Cedric
Willian is not a Chelsea reject. Saka is still learning his trade. Willian has won many trophies and still has a lot to offer.
Oh I am sorry he is poor man’s CR, let’s see how many champions League and PL trophies he wins for us. No wonder why we have become from one of the top teams to mid table team because Arsenal is now a days full of fans like you guys… completely delusional. If u offer Willian to any other top team fans in the world no one would want him but then Arsenal fans are so used to scraps now they think he is world beaters n Chelsea’s loss is our gain..hahaha
Chelsea reject 😂funny guy
@ Mohsan, thank God you are not coach, we would have been in relegation table with your line up and your opinion….
Ya dude we are fighting for title and champions League trophy every season…another delusional fan.
I really do not think MA will change his setup, personnel on the other hand could
Would love to have Willian start CAM
My prediction for line up
Leno
Saliba Holding KT
Bellerin Ceballos Xhaka AMN
Saka Nketia Auba
Xhaka has been one of the first name on every match day squad
What a player he’s been for us
Martinez
Cedric… Saliba…Magalhaes… Tierney
Ceballos…. Xhaka
Pepe…Willian… Aubameyang
Lacazette
Unfortunately, that’s the strongest lineup which is only missing midfield changes Partey/Soumare for Xhaka and Thiago for Ceballos
I prefer to see this formation:
Martinez
Saliba – Gabriel – Tierney
Ceballos Xhaka Saka/AMN
Pepe. Willian. Auba
Laca
buddy thats a narrow formation, wont work in PL
So then Patrick you are taking as a given that we WILL get Thomas Partey. You are far more bullish about that than I am then. WherR are we going to get the money? Selling such as Bellerin ? Yes please and make it today, inTHEORY, but transfers don’t work that way and if they did, we would have about a hundred players, if we believed all yourarticle rumours of who is coming. But we don’t believe!
So where are we going to get the money? TELL ME THAT FIRST AND I MIGHT THEN BE AS BULLISH AS YOU ARE. Only hope you can provide that info then!
Take nothing for granted but as it’s Fulham, I think MA might revert back to a traditional back four!
My prediction:
Leno
AMN Saliba Gab. KT
Caballos. Xhaka
Saka Willian Auba
Nketiah
“as it’s Fulham” worries me. I hope the team don’t think like that or else we’ll end up looking stupid by tea time
Switching to 4-2-3-1 would not work as it would expose our weak midfield whereas 3-4-3 suits us better at the moment since we have multiple players who can play wingbacks and plenty of attacking talents. We were pretty poor on chance creation last season which affected the productivity of our strikers.
Once we fix our midfield and saliba and gabriel play well then we can play 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3. We play with attacking fullbacks and wingers just like liverpool but they have van dijk and fabinho so it enables them to play a back 4. Our core is not strong enough to take that kind of risk.