Arsenal’s opening game of the season is extremely important as we aim to keep our winning momentum going strongly. West Ham have had a disrupted start to the season due to their Europa League commitment’s but the Gunners can not write off any team in this League, no matter how small.
So I am betting that Wenger will be starting with the strongest line-up available to him at the moment, which obviously means starting without Alexis Sanchez who has only just returned to training after his Copa America exploits. In fact Wenger thinks he may not even be ready to play until September. Le Prof said last month: “He will be back on August 3 and it usually takes three weeks to be competitive.
“He will miss certainly the first game of the season but with Alexis, it takes a little bit less.”
Due to visa problems, the Chilean won’t actually arrive back in the UK until today, so he may need even more time to prepare. Maybe he’ll be ready for the Liverpool game? Anyway I digress….
We already know that Jack Wilshere, Matthieu Flamini and Tomas Rosicky will definitely be excluded along with Alexis, so from the players we have left I think it will be easy to pick our strongest team.
So, as far as I am concerned, Cech, Bellerin, Monreal and Koscielny are certain to start. I also have the belief that Wenger has given Gabriel a little bit of an extra holiday after being at the Copa America, so Mertesacker is pretty much in there by default. This may change in September…
Coquelin doesn’t even bear mentioning as he will start, but I reckon Cazorla will be alongside. Many people think Ramsey should start there but I reckon Cazorla will start until he gets injured.
Ozil is nailed on to be Number Ten (so I’ve heard), and Ramsey and Walcott will be on the wings, while Giroud will be centre-forward. No-one knows better than Wenger that Giroud needs to be needed or it will all go wrong…
This seems to be the best team as far as I’m concerned. Who disagrees?