Arsene Wenger has made four changes to the Arsenal starting line up that lost at Southampton two days ago and you can hardly blame him after the lacklustre effort we saw from the Gunners at St. Mary’s. The only real surprise for me is that our German centre back Per Mertesacker keeps his place after a shocking show against the Saints, while Nacho Monreal who was one of our best players is dropped.
So in comes Kieran Gibbs for the Spaniard and I have to assume that is to do with fitness levels and injury concerns as the Spaniard is on the bench. The same must be true of Laurent Koscielny as he makes way for Gabriel in the centre of defence.
The other two players to drop out of the side are Mathieu Flamini and Joel Campbell, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain coming in and Calum Chambers taking his place in the middle with Aaron Ramsey. Flamini has not even made the bench so I hope he has not picked up a knock and of course we hope that the versatile youngster is up to the job.
Cech
Bellerin, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Gibbs
Ramsey, Chambers
Chamberlain, Ozil, Walcott
Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Debuchy, Koscielny, Monreal, Campbell, Iwobi, Reine-Adelaide
More important than the line up though is the effort and application which has to be a hell of a lot better than Boxing Day. Will it be Gooners?