Arsene Wenger has made it clear that he will be making big changes for tonight’s League Cup game at Sheffield Wednesday, to give our first team a well-deserved rest after their exploits in the last few weeks. Wenger has already told us that Petr Cech will play because of Ospina’s injury, and Per Mertesacker has recovered from his illness, so may help shore up an inexperienced defence.
Two fringe players that will definitely be starting tonight though are Joel Campbell and Calum Chambers. Chambers got off to a good start last season, but seemed to lose his way after our injury problems started to improve. He wasn’t helped by the meteoric rise of Hector Bellerin, but now he is a year older and hopefully a year closer to proving that he is worth the massive fee that Wenger paid for him in the first place.
Joel Campbell also arrived with great promise but never seemed to like waiting patiently for a place in the first team, but Wenger refused to sell him and obviously believes that there are great things to come from the Costa Rican international. “I like Joel Campbell very much for two reasons,” Le prof said yesterday. “One is that he has outstanding individual quality, but he is also a team player. He works very hard for the team.
“I’m convinced he will get a chance here and that he will take it. He has another opportunity against Sheffield Wednesday and I’m hopeful that he will show that he has the quality to play for Arsenal.
“When you get the chance, you have to be ready. To be ready, you have to prepare. I must say that Joel Campbell and Calum Chambers are two players who do absolutely everything right.
“They are prepared, the preparation they have created will give them the confidence against Sheffield Wednesday and I’m confident they will play well.”
So I’m wondering if Wenger has decided to give both Theo Walcott AND Olivier Giroud the night off, and will finally play Campbell in his favoured position of central striker. And Chambers has said before that he prefers central defence to right-back. Maybe he will also get his chance there alongside Per Mertesacker?
Personally I can’t wait to see Iwobi in action again. He was great in the Emirates Cup!
if campbell got as many chances as ox, he would be a first 11 team player
**NO SWEARING** i just hate this behaviour from many guys on this site… two years ago some said “if poldi got as many chances as giroud up top, he would be a first 11 team player” you know something? he didnt get as many chances because every time he started as a striker he failed (but i liked him on the left) then there was a time everyone loved ox and said if he got more chances than walcott he would be brilliant and then many wanted him to start over ramsey and were absolutely sure that the prof is an idiot for starting ramsey and now you think campbell would be a starter if he got as many chances??? campbell never played bad but he didnt contribute anything too each time he played.. look i likw both players but just stop with this stupid comparisons which you can never prove and you guys even think that its an intelligent remark and are so sure that this random guessing is right -.-
@Krish
Ngumbao is right. Joel has barely had a handful of chances in full matches. The rest were 10/15 min sub runs. He’s a very talented player and besides Alexis and Theo our only true winger. We’ve played Aaron on the right and his wandering to the middle always leaves us unbalanced, same with Jack. We could have been using Joel on the right and given him time to gel with the rest of the players, instead of forcing midfielders to adapt out wide…
we didnt force midfielders to adapt out wide we just played with a different tactic and formation than the most simple tactic of one striker and two wingers, if that was the only right formation then there wouldnt be so much different formations, you guys always talk as if the 4-3-3 is a rule and wenger absolutely has to play a winger in the right slot of the 3 up top, tactics arent and shouldnt be that simple, it isnt a rule that one has to play two wingers.. ramsey was a right midfieldee more than a right-winger we played more of a 4-2-2-2 than a real 433 where ramsey exchanged with özil and sometimes with sanchez and helped cazorla.. a system is just a system neither is always better, just the one which works and ours worked with ramsey very well
@Krish
You obviously haven’t been watching the matches dude. Ramsey out wide does not work better than with a bonefide winger out wide. Thats why we were so easy to defend against. Teams would clog the midfield and we would get stuck trying to walk the ball through a locked defense instead of using our wide players to stretch their defenses…
Our players would be jammed in midfield running over each other. Even lower table teams were havin a laugh at us…
Get real…
Well I cannot remember too many bad reults with Ramsey out wide? For example he has played that role more than anyone in 2015. We are the premier league team with the most points in 2015, we have lost just 3 cup matches, won an fa cup final and a community shield.
When midfielders like parlour played there or number 10s like ljungberg again I don’t recall it being an issue. Anyway, for the 5 or so matches we won’t have Ramsey at all, let’s hope whoever fills his shoes helps the team to victory?
I would like to see Jeff Reine Adelaide again. This is 3rd tier cup, don’t need to harm our starting eleven, even for Petr Cech. Give Macey his rare opportunity.
Adelaide is at the U17 World Cup, along with Fortune, and a few English lads like Willock.
So sad. I would have loved to see the duo.
The front trio of Ox, campbell and Iwobi should be able to pull this one off.
This is the chance for these players to show they can make gud contributions when called upon.
Campbel especially need ds game nd i hope he starts cos i personally think he can b the faster more mobile version of G12.
plus its also excite me to c our younger players.
YAEEEEEEE GUNNERS !!!
Hey don’t remeber Wenger being just as patient with Aaron Ramsey? The Ox wil lcome good once he finds out where he left his confidence!
exciting it is to always watch the young guns…. I do Hope joel plays up top. I’d be confident with whatever changes the boss makes in the team for this match, the midfield basically picks itself though due to injuries there so I don’t expect radical changes there. we’ve got a pretty experienced backline even with a total overhaul so basically today’s team would be a fine blend of experience and youth. I Hope they gel well… Coyg
I’M really liking the new, confidence, spirit our team is showing. I remember in the transfer window Anelka said “Wenger knows what he is doing”’. Maby its too early, but if we win the title, all credit has to go to wenger for sticking to his guns and having tremendous faith in the team he has now.
I for one believe, should we still be in the mix by Jan, with the returning of Danny, Aaron, Jack, Thomas, we’ll absolutely win the league. I don’t care if I sound baised, bt I believe sanchez is on par with aguero, ozil is better than silva and mata, Coq is the best Holdn mid and our defense is probably the most solid back 5.
Joel has a chance to prove that he can be involved in the first team, he has the talent, but low on confidence and rusty, + he hasn’t had a chance to gel properly with the 1st team. Id like to see how bielik has developed , same as addelaide and Iwobi.
Gonna be good game.
We’ll get our revenge against Swansea, shock the world with another Bayern win and enter the international top of the leaggueee.
Guys lets have some confidence in the boys, we have a squad more than capable.
Eva is secretly giggling at mourinho’s situation.
#YA GUNNERS YA#
would have really loved to watch Jeff but he’s busy killing it in Chile for france
if wenger decided to keep them through the summer then they all deserve their chances at some point.
These are what the domestic cup games are meant for
To give our reserve players proper run to be sharp mentally.
the ox has all the technical talent to develop but he needs to horn his skills with the proper attitude
He needs to be disciplined focus and patient.He might be able to do it under wenger s tutorledge.
But then we have players like wilshere and ramsey whove always been stubborn.So lets not put our hopes high.Everyone can master their talent if they maintain discipline and have proper instimcts
Listen Baby Please
Campbell is more of a winger than a CF. Campbell is not a natural goal scorer. He last few loans were uneventful. He got a lot of game time. This will probably be his last chance at Arsenal, so for his sake he should try his very best to impress
Ozil or Cazorla should play to give Campbell enough opportunities to score.
I want to win tonight, not at the expense of resting key players, but whoever plays I still want to win
I agree theres a real shortage of creative midfielders. Cazorla or Özil will likely play since adelaide zelalem crowley all away, rosicky ramsey wilshere even arteta all out. Only other option is reiss nelson n he’s 15yrs old though sublime talented. Hmm..I say play him.
Cech ; Debuchy Chambers Mertesacker Gibbs ; Flamini Cazorla ; OX ?? Iwobi ; Campbell
this is pretty much 10/11 a guaranteed starting XI, I wonder who’s Wenger going to play on the central attacking position. With Wilshere still out and Ozil likely being rested, it could be a youngster (shame Crowley’s on loan) or Cazorla will play there and someone else will fill in at CM (will we finally see Bielik?)
Hope most of them take this chance and give the manager serious thinking work regarding rotation!
He might just play Ox as he has either Giroud or Walcott to chose from too.