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Official Arsenal team and preview for trip to Bayern Munich

Arsene Wenger has had his Arsenal team selection options reduced even further this week and that means that the Frenchman has not had too many big decisions to make for the team to play Bayern Munich at the Allianz arena tonight. In a way this might help our Champions League hopes, because the pressure is off and not many people expect an injury hit Arsenal to be able to cope with the German giants.

As we thought would happen after his goal scoring Premier League starting debut against Swnasea at the weekend, Joel Campbell gets the chance on the right side of our front three once more, with Olivier Giroud leading the line and Alexis Sanchez on the left.

The only real surprise in the Arsenal XI for me is to see the name of Gabriel starting alongside Per Mertesacker with the France international Laurent Koscielny on the bench along with Calum Chambers, Gibbs and Flamini. There are three very inexperienced young Gunners on it as well, with the keeper Matt Macey, Jeff Reine-Adelaide and Alex Iwobi highlighting just how many first team players are not available to the boss.

But the Gunners have a good recent record away to Bayern Munich and so all we can do is hope for another minor miracle.

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141 Comments

      1. What were you expecting before. A win?
        They came to our Emirates and ran the game from start to finish like they owned the places.
        The only thing lacking was goals

  2. what is wrong with our players always injury prone well even if we lose no hard feelings…the league is our no 1 priority

  3. If you are fit to be on the bench, you should be starting, what if there’s an injury and you need to come on!

    1. Well, the bench is crap and so are some players in the first eleven.
      The carling cup exits perfectly exposed some of our deficiencient players.
      Imagine what impact players like Sissoko, Douglas Costa and ibrahimnovic would have done to improve this team.
      Instead, we were extending the contracts of finished players

    1. They say Kos has a hip problem! This team really tells me we do not have any strength in depth as Wenger dreams to think. I’m dreading a Man U 8-2 score! No God don’t let it happen to us again.

  6. What was that about strength in depth this season ….. Mainly just hoping we don’t pick up any injuries to starting eleven … Need to keep tight for first 20 mins suspect they will be out not just to win but to overwhelm … Still think their defence is vulnerable so big test for Campbell

  8. & SO HELP US GOD AS I FEAR FOR THE LADS AND THE SCORELINE TONIGHT. IF HOWEVER WE GET AWAY SNEAKING A VICTORY, WE THE FANS SHOULD MARCH DOWN TO THE PALACE AND DEMAND WENGER IS CROWNED THE KING OF NORTH LONDON WITH EVERYONE BAR NONE LIVING IN THAT SECTION OF THE CAPITAL OBIDIENT TO HIS BECKON AND CALL! HE SHOULD ALSO BE GIVEN THE FREEDOM OF THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!

  9. I feel your pain bro. To be honest I can’t understand what happened to debuchy. Jack constantly gets injured yet he comes back with a bang. Debuchy is like Chelsea. Its difficult to understand what the actual problem with him is. We have lost almost every game he has played in.

  10. The injury problems highlighted again tonight raise questions about the club’s and the manager’s handling of the players’ fitness. It is interesting to hear what Chris Coleman has to say about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34723830

    He is talking about how Ramsey was managed in the run up to his injury. He makes a number of good points that may give an insight into how/why we seem to incur so many injuries.

  11. Don’t BT have the two worst commentators in Hargreaves and Owen – will watch game with radio on instead

    1. We have not being able to keep the ball in 50% of the matches we have played this season.
      Swansea, liecester, Munich, United, Liverpool and on and on.
      We are still 4 players short to be contenders

  21. Wenger has to figure out how to curb this injury crisis. You can’t go to bayern with 9 injuried players, 3 or 4 that could be first team players and expect to dominate.

    1. What annoys me the most is our injuries have all affected our ENITRE right side, no walcott or chamberlain to pressure the defenders, no ramsey to help with our attack and defence, and no bellerin or koscielny who are part of the back 4 that’s been getting us clean sheets. Why is it ALWAYS our most IMPORTANT players getting injured

    2. What annoys me the most is our injuries have all affected our ENITRE right side, no walcott or chamberlain to pressure the defenders, no ramsey to help with our attack and defence, and no bellerin or koscielny who are part of the back 4 that’s been getting us clean sheets. Why do our injuries ALWAYS happen at the wrong time ??

  25. They are a different level to us … Just need to accept that and recognize that the Frenchman can’t build a team to compete at this level …

        1. Find another team mate …. Stoke need idiot fans who don’t mind supporting team who can’t match best in the world

          1. Aww give us a break. You actually LOVE when Arsenal get beat so you can whinge and give us your ‘wisdom’. You never have anything positive to say ever.
            “You know nothing”

            1. Uhhh brilliant!!!! Keep drinking the kool aid .. Wenger loves that …. Refs injuries weather crowded agenda injuries bad luck refs.. 5 years of wenger imposed failure and u still have your rose tinted glasses on tight and you bag of football cliches to sniff when feeling down… But actually there are plenty of positives bellerin … Coquellin ( but limits exposed here) wilshere ( idiot fans font like him I know but this is the game where we miss him) Alexis ozil cech ( I was wrong there) … Just not enough to put us where we should be in the european elite …save your football wisdom for mark Hughes he needs it

          2. Jeez mate why do you support AFC? Whatever the result, however we play, every match thread you’re on here hoping we get whacked. You just spew negativity…every bloody game. Go away you total idiot. If you were in the stands, no gooner would take it, you’d be told to F off. On here you get away with it week in week out.

            1. I support arsenal fc not Arsene fc … There is a f@@@@@@ difference for fans following this club before 1995 … Sad lot

              1. Complete bs. I’ve followed the club for longer than wenger has been there and I’ve loved the great highs and can live with the lows. This is a single game yet p***** like you just come out and slag the team at the first opportunity. As I say you’ve got no character, fairweather fan.

                1. Single game… Lol….So mr character (your grip on the English language is remarkable have to admit that) perhaps you might have noticed … We haven’t won anything for more than a decade … And we are nowhere near the top clubs in Europe …and I have been slagging wenger for 5 years as unable to get us back to the top and am a proud arsenal fan for doing so … So far for all your brilliant football knowledge I have called it and you are on a permanent 4th place high so keep your high (and lows)… And your fair weathers …and character assessment…and your idiotic loyalty references … Will just call it as I see it and continue to support a club I’ve done for decades …. Pathetic

                  1. I’m struggling to identify where to find the continuation of your support bit….point me to the article…or even comment.

  26. Aaarghh 2-0 !
    Can’t stand another minute of this…
    And Owen Hargreaves is doing my nut in…underachieving, talentless git

  27. Mertesacker & Debuchy are not doing us any favours tonight so far.

    Owen Hargreaves is painful to listen to, I hate BT.

      1. Did I say we were losing because of the ref? Pretty sure I did not.

        Just pointing out that the refs aren’t giving us anything.

  31. I like the way we seem to feel the need to make it easier for Bayern by keep passing them the ball when we finally get it!!!

    #longNight

  34. Hargreaves: “Bayern are the best team in Europe, Bayern this, Bayern that. I love Bayern”

    Get off their nuts mate

  35. The gap between arsenal and the best in Europe is massive am sorry to say and the only person yo blame is our geriatric frog

  37. Well that was god awful to watch but fair play Bayern are on another level, ref doesnt help tbh bt wouldnt change much…. we are not good enough in europe simple as n thats wenger. What did we expect with Bellerin/Boss not playing?

    Concentrate on Spurs this weekend… get young Adelide on to let him experince the big scenes!!

  38. Didnt expect too much more than what we are seeing when I heard bellerin was out along with all the other injurdt plqyets I feared the worst. #gulf in class

  39. I’m happy seeing Arsene Wenger suffering on the touch line. The man is embarrassing our dear club! I said 8-2 earlier and some snotty-nosed amateurs marked me down. Wenger said he didn’t find any better players than ours hence he didn’t buy anyone during the transfer window. Really? Where did Bayern get Costa at that price for? Wenger should leave now after what I believe will be a humiliating defeat. The man is a joke. Yes second in the premiership but now at what cost to the team and we play Spuds next?! I feel like sleeping now and waking up in August! Comatosed by Wenger and his intransigent ways! Stupid man!

    1. I’m amazed how pathetic you haters are. Every opportunity, any situation you come out and trash the club. This is one game, against one of the best in the world, Bayern, away, with several key players missing. Where’s your effing loyalty to the club?????

          1. My god you are bottomless pit of idiotic cliches too .. No response to that kind of brilliance ..i surrender …

    2. Hahaha
      why are you upset for?
      You were being generous with your predicted score line!
      Unless you had Munich down for scoring 2 own goals?

      I just hope that wenger takes Sanchez, Ozil and Coquelin off at half time!
      Safe them for the spuds!

    3. Haha.
      Some of our fans too were repeating the garbage about not finding players to improve the team.
      Imagine having Sissoko and coqueliin to shut up shop.
      With giroud, no counter attack is possible.unless it is served on a plate in front of the goal, he ain’t scoring. No plate, no goal.
      Debushit is something else. Saw him in south Africa 2006 world cup, never rated him ever since.
      Mertesacker is slow, too slow for games like this.
      If we do not address the deficiencies in January, forget about winning the league. We are 4 players short.

  40. Observations of first half:

    Campbell can’t pass or control a ball

    Per is getting slower (I thought that impossible)

    Pep talks to his players every chance he can – Wenger no.

    Bayern are class, and they paid for key parts of their team (not kings ransoms) to make them so. We didn’t.

    Injuries didn’t help our cause, again

    Owen Hargreaves IS the most boring human being and least suited person to be a presenter in the world (after Paul Scholes).

  44. As I said ages ago, if we had our full first team, including Bellerin, Koss, Walcott, Ox, etc we would be fine. Arsenal simply don’t have the strength in depth to compete with powerhouse clubs like Bayern, Barca etc. We have to rely on fragile Debuchy and an unfit Campbell who has barely touched the ball this season. Arsenal need to get to a point where they are willing to pay the type of salaries to have decent backup on the bench in case of injuries. Until then, we will never succeed in the CL sorry to say.

    1. We def don’t have the squad to compete in the league and champions league. Hate to say it but we saw the strength in depth of Man.City last night.
      Lets forget Europe and go all out for the league this year, may have a chance if City get far in CL

      BTW Lineker is loving this.

      1. Fact : We do not have the squad to win the league.
        If Swansea and Leicester can run the first half of a game against us like that, forget it.
        Man city blow teams out of the sky even when they are under performing. We do not.

  45. Where’s Cazorla tonight, has someone locked him in the coach.
    The whole team is having one of those games where they look like they’re playing with the handbrake on.

  46. why are peeps getting upset… the best we could have got was a draw… if you guys seriously thought we could beat Bayern then you lot know jack about football. lol

  47. Losing Bellerin and Koscielny before this game even started left us with a very slim chance to get anything out of this game. Unfortunately injuries are crippling us once again. The last two CL games we have are MUST win games now.
    I can’t wait for the international break, hopefully we will have some players coming back.
    Let’s just concentrate on the spuds this weekend!

    COYG

  48. The most sensible thing wengercan do now is take off our key players!
    Keep them fresh for the spuds!

    The only problem is. … Wenger doesn’t do sensible! ?

  54. agree with big gun, this has been a downfall for years. protecting under achievers players for the last 5 years or so ( jack – arteta – flamini – gibbs – and so on ) in order to compete look what PSG- real – BAYERN do..they spend and there is competition for places.If you have 2 players for each position like they do then we are talking about. Always the excuses of injuries bla bla. this kind of gamemes such us tonight if we have got CARVALHO type of player alongside LeCoq then Ozil behind Giroud will give more solid protection to the team..but anyway, let’s hope we do not lose by 5 or more..but for sure we need to buy a DM world class.

      1. Because Giroud poses no counter attacking threat, they can play a high line and press us in our box

  61. Keep Calm fellas. This is beyond us. Just a consolation for Alexis will be okay for me.

    One thing is sure, the same excuse will still be generated in the spurs game. I fear.

  62. Debuchy is an absolute disaster – might as well stick him on the post and tell him not to move for all the good he does. Wenger has to realise that if we’re going to have this many injuries every season, we need decent backups as well.

  69. The two positives from this are:
    1. Cech being a beast in goal.
    2. The boys are showing a lot of fight

    1. Cech being a beast with 4 goals in?

      C’mon, he’s good that’s noted. Not a beast in goal like we like overrating our players. Same way we overrated Campbell after the WC, Wilshere too, even Diaby.

      Just sleep and enjoy the Giroud’s goal. Was a nice effort.

  70. Hopefully we finish 2nd or 4th, so either Champ league knockout stage or completely out, not 3rd and Thursday night games!

    1. Double damn.

      Could have been 7. But we could have had a few.

      Olympiakos just scored and now will have 9 points. Let’s do the maths shall we..

  83. We can still qualify baby please.
    No need for doom and gloom

    We lost in Munich to Munich without Ramsey, Walcott, OX, Wilshere, Bellerin. Nothing to be ashamed of (like last season losing to Monaco)

    As long as Olympiakos doesn’t score a winner, we should be fine

    Damn 5-1.as I type

  85. Quite frankly I am glad we now know we are pretty much out of Champions league…. Concentrate on winning the league now

    1. I think he was discussing where he would play him when he comes to Arsenal!

      Wake up! Why would him come!!!

  91. hahahahahahahahahahaha,am actually laughing not because we lost but because some people here though we’d actually beat bayern at their own home with a patched up squad. Some of you need a break from football

  92. Look who didn’t start for BM tonight. Robert, Robben, Gotze, Vidal. Different class to us. We are way off the pace.

  93. wonder what gibbs is IN to do? chasing shadows? very poor defensevly we are..BUY DM and ST and compete. if someone do not like the bench then loan them to another club. Chambers and gibbs brought to stiff the defence but it was even worse,
    ozil was the only one who showed some grit

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