Mikel Arteta must take off the shackles to stand any chance against Chelsea

We all know Mikel Arteta does not have his best eleven available to him but that does not mean he cannot get a result against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this evening.

But for that to happen the manager must be a little adventurous and remove the shackles he has inflicted on the team.

For starters, he surely has to play Gabriel Martinelli as the central striker, something he has been reluctant to do for a long time.

The idea of Eddie Nketiah or Alexandre Lacazetter going up against Antonio Rudiger is scary, he will swallow them up but not so Martinelli.

We saw what the young Brazilian has done against Chelsea before and playing the 20-year-old against the Blues defender will enable him to use his pace and control to greater effect than our current attacking options.

Arteta simply has to take the game to Thomas Tuchel’s men in the same way he did against Man City earlier on in the season, trying to compact the game and playing on the counter-attack is just too risky an option.

Playing players in their actual positions as opposed to putting square pegs in round holes will not work, not against the European and world champions.

It will not be easy but if the Spaniard makes the right team selections and deploys an attacking strategy then at least we will have a chance.

Far better to go down fighting than to go out with a whimper, we cannot be scared to lose, that time has passed.

Tags Chelsea v Arsenal Gabriel Martinelli

13 Comments

  1. I agree with martineli up top but I would actually match Chelsea’s formation. White, holding Gabriel, Cedric, sambi, xhaka, saka with ode and esr behind marti

    1. Why on Earth do we need to “trust you? You are only giving your opinion on the result though you have no power to make it come true!
      Your personal opinion , though it is a daft one IMO, is your affair and nothing do do with us at all. So “trust me ” does not apply.
      Does it!!

  2. I’m sure Arteta has a play, remember he won the fa cup for us against Chelsea so he knows Chelsea in and out, also remember last season, he defeated them home and away. But paraventure we lose I won’t be angry because remember this is a process and it will take around 7 years before we can start seeing it. Saka is 20, martinelli 20, Smith 20, so in the next 6 year’s they will be in there prime and ready to take on the world.
    IN MIKEL WE TRUST.

    1. So the process will take another SEVEN years because the players are young. At this point, it seems Arteta has more ambition than even you, a fan. He talked of winning the champions league in THREE years and you’re talking of waiting to see results in SEVEN years? Well, this sums up the kind of extremely, desperate and atrocious expectations which people like you have and which have made Arteta look like he’s doing the right thing. Good thing you’re not in charge of the club

    2. What you don’t remember Lenohappy, is that he beat Chelsea with the dross he inherited.
      Since then, that squad has been broken up and MA has brought in his own brand of players – let’s hope they are successful tonight.
      We will surely beat United on Saturday, so six points would help undo the last three results 2-1 to The Arsenal.

  3. I’m not worried at all about this match, Tuchel doesn’t have what it takes to defeat Arteta. Chelsea best result today is a draw

    1. This has got to be trolling, Arteta owns Tuchel, sure guy.
      They are the reigning European Champions.

      They just blew past Crystal Palace in the FA Cup, they are playing at home, they will be up for it!

  4. we’ll see today if the manager and players are ready to step up to the challenge or if the moment and pressure continues to be too much for them.

    Get used to the pressure and competition if they want CL football and fight for top 4 next year.

  5. I hope Mikel Arteta the Gunners gaffer will in tonight’s Arsenal crucial Epl match away to Chelsea make the correct Gunners starting XI and bench to the letter for the march. And have them start/play the match in their preferred positions to start/play.

    By so doing, I think Arteta will give the much needed freedom to the Gunners to express themselves freely on the field of play in the match without any inhibitions as to their expressing themselves freely in the match.

    But is Martinelli an out and out centreforward or a right-winger? But who can play in the two positions very well and track back to offer defensive helping hand? And in which of the two positions does he thrives very well to profit most when starting or playing from there? I think Arteta should assess all these variable things and start/play him in the best of the two.

    What if Arteta takes a gamble to start Pepe in the centreforward position for Arsenal tonight? Will it payoff handsomely? I am not sure if it will. But it just might work fine. So, let Arteta start him there to see. Or he would stick with Nkethia to start the match as duo strikers starting with Peep in a back-three defence playing formation style? And why is Arteta not trusting Holding to start. If Arteta will opt for the back-three against Chelsea? I think Cedric Soares, Rob Holding and Nuno Taveres should all start.

    And the trio of Xhaka, Lokonga and ESR should take charge of our midfield.. While Pepe and Nkethia partner in the CF position. And Martinelli and Saka mann the wings. And I think Arteta should start Leno for Chelsea tonight in place of Ramsdale who has conceded six goals in his last 3 starts for Arsenal. The stats don’t lie. I think Ramsdale is currently out of top goal tendering form for Arsenal. But who will captain Arsenal tonight if Arteta drops Odegaard? But will he drop him to the bench tonight? I doubt if he will.

    If the Gunners endure and persevere punishments at the hands of the Blues for the whole 90 minutes plus duration of this match encounter to contain them and stop them from scoring against us? Arsenal will win the match but if they eschew profigacy in front of the Chelsea goalmouth to convert their chances and bury them. Good luck to us.

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