It is not exactly like Arsene Wenger to give his rival managers any sort of help in working out how Arsenal are planning to play ahead of a match, especially a match as important as the one against the Premier League leaders Leicester City on Sunday is.
But that is exactly what the Frenchman has done, on the surface at least, in today’s pre-match press conference reported by The Mirror. As the boss gave the latest update on the injury situation and the Arsenal team news, he also declared that he would not be making any changes to the starting line up of he could help it.
Wenger said, “A similar squad to last week.
“Still 48 hours to go and two sessions, but hopefully we’ll keep the same team.”
Not only that, the prof also praised his rival manager Claudio Ranieri and revealed that the Gunners would be trying to employ the same sort of possession based football that has been our trademark under Wenger4 for years, even though he was well aware of the threat that the Foxes possess with their pace and ability to hit teams with their counter attacking style.
He said, “The first game we played against them, it was a very open game.
“It’s true they’re very quick in transition. We need to nullify that pace.
“We want to have the ball, dominate and be dangerous.”
Now call me suspicious if you like, but I have to question the motives and also the honesty of our manager here. Is he trying to kid the Leicester boss with these ‘revelations’ about the Arsenal team and tactics for Sunday? And if so, does he really expect the wily old Italian to fall for it? Maybe Wenger is doing the old double bluff and planning to do what he says while expecting Ranieri to plan for the alternative?
What do you think Gooners? Personally I would be happy to see the same starting XI, with the possible change of the extra pace and energy of Coquelin instead of Flamini. How about you?