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Official confirmed Arsenal team to face PSV tonight – Jesus rested

The games keep coming thick and fast every three or 4 days, and after losing out on our incredible winning run at the weekend, this Arsenal team will be very keen to get back to winning ways again in Holland this evening.

Obviously during this gruelling schedule we can guarantee that Mikel Arteta will be making as many changes as possible to try and keep some fresh legs for the weekend.

The players that started on the bench against Southampton at the weekend are all certain to be starters, which includes Tierney, Nketiah, Vieira, Holding, Nelson, Lokonga, Turner and Cedric, but not Marquinhos who has pulled a sickie and hasn’t travelled to Holland.

The other starters are in Arteta’s hands but this is the Arsenal team I predicted in my earlier preview...

Turner
Cedric…Holding…Gabriel…Tierney
Lokonga…Xhaka
Reiss Nelson…Vieira…Nketiah…Saka
Jesus

Arteta seems to think Martinelli has never ending reserves of energy, so I expect to see him on the pitch at some time as well, but now we just have wait for the confirmed Arsenal team for tonights game.

And here it is….

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94 Comments

      1. YES BUT ACCORDING TO YOUR PIECE “HE PULLED A SICKIE”. which is completely different from feeling unwell.

        Ozil was a player who often DID pull sickies and that is why he was a cheat and a lowlife.

        Marquihos is simply feeling unwell. But to pull a sickie means you are conning your employer and that is a low class phrase to use about MARQUIHOS.

        But hey, why am I not surprised, ONCE AGAIN PAT!

        1. I actually am beginning to think you are a bit sick Jon.
          You never talk about football, just insult me and the other writers and readers because you don’t agree with their syntax.

          Refrain please. Every post you put up from now criticising their English, I will delete.

          Yes you can call it censorship, but I for one am bored to death with it…

          1. Funnily enough Jon, no one at The Arsenal, including MA ever accused Mesut Ozil of “pulling a sickie” and neither did they call him a “cheat and a lowlife” – something that you accuse many of out players of being.

            Xhaka, Mertesaker, Guendouzi, Aubemeyang, to name a few, have been subjected to your tirade of accusations, including our manager, during his playing days.

            Such a shame that you are always looking for the negatives. anyone would think that your pen name is Dan Smith!!!

            1. @Ken1945
              I think Ozil had to undergo surgery recently for a niggling back injury. Same injury that makes people claim he was pulling a sickie.
              Some people just allow their dislike for some players becloud their sense of better reasoning.

    3. I suspect Arsenal will Nelson leave at the end of this season

      I agree with @Thebush that Ødegaard and Martinelli should’ve been rested. Unfortunately, Marquinhos is sick, so Vieira has to play RW and there’s no other left-footed CAM to replace Ødegaard

  5. Good to see Saka and Jesus rested..
    Jesus need to clear his head as need to get his shooting boots soon..
    Saka got much needed rest…
    Viera need to step up his performance…
    He is been below average since Bodo away…
    Niketiah has to prove himself his 100k week worth..
    But good Line to get the job done..

    1. That’s one way to rest players – we’re fielding the 5-a-side team vs Forest I expect 😉

  8. Karl Hein is an Estonian International for the senior side. He’s no rookie so I wouldn’t have minded seeing him in goal.

  9. I wonder how much of a rest it feels like when he still has to travel to Holland and sit on the subs bench.

    And there’s old Xhaka, playing yet again, putting those youngsters to shame :).

  13. First 15 or so minutes has been largely a bore fest. Good reaction from Ramsdale earlier but not incisive up front and then we very nearly got punished

    2. You’ve not that we’ve been playing this way since the bodo away game. A few minutes of fine play but majority as been boring. We’re currently starting to drag and going this way, we’re not far from a series of losses as seen last season.

  15. Some of our players seem to have dropped form. Odegaard, Martinelli and Saliba. This is why having equal quality players on the bench is beneficial and why top teams are always ahead. MA and Edu should have known that consistency might be an issue along the way. Imagine having plays like Milinkovic Savic, Gakpo and Mitrovic on the bench plus our first team players, now that would have been a team capable of going all the way.

    1. sure buddy, pretty sure arteta will leave to you to explain to savic, gakpo why they should join to warm the bench here.

      1. No, buddy. That is not my job! Ever wondered why Arteta hardly make tactical changes at the 60th minute? Why spend 60 million on 2 average players when you could get a top class one.

    2. @Meedo
      This is not some kind of football manager game where you can just buy whoever you want.
      If it was like that every team would have all the players they wish for.

      1. The players I mentioned above were just examples and there are equal quality players on the bench of other top teams. We can’t just fill the bench with “players with potential” with no single proven player and expect them to be able to push it all the way. It doesn’t work like that in reality, only in ‘football manager’.

  18. We’re starting to play the boring football we were used to again. We had a good run of games at the beginning with free flowing football. It’s all backwards and side ways football now. No urgency to our play. Is Arteta not seeing this sudden decline?

  19. That was on the cards
    Dreadful …
    Wait a tick.. so he’s offside but that really needs to be a wake up call.

    1. It’s like we have no midfield!PSV are constantly going through it.there is no protection for our defense.

  21. We need one goal and we can breathe. Draw will be more than good but I don’t want to hold my breath at 0-0 for the next 45 mins

  22. That’s twice offside has saved us.
    It is so flat. Poor passing, heavy touches, slow.
    We lack any type of enthusiasm.
    Come on.
    🤦‍♂️

  23. Can’t believe PSV are currently sitting in the second position in Eredivisie table, because they were so poor at their own turf. No wonder Ten Hag was a serial winner there

    Arsenal were much better and we should’ve scored at least one goal, unfortunately lady luck didn’t smile on us

      1. We were very dominant and made several nice chances, so I’m sure we’ll score at least one goal in the second half

        I think Arteta will bring Saka in if we still can’t score after 70 minutes

      1. SueP, I believe Martinelli should’ve made a shot on target and Odegaard got a good chance to shoot as well

  24. It seems we are running out of ideas going forward…
    We are not creating much from last few matches
    And even if we create, we are unable to finish it off..
    We saw that against Southampton…

  25. I think they’ve been told not to put too much shift in this match cos we have Forest on Sunday. You hardly see Martinelli play with thus slow attitude.

  26. Anyone else notice how strange this Arsenal squad is? Saliba is attributed with excellent long passing ability yet it is rare, if any, to see him do it in an Arsenal shirt. On the other hand, our dear Holding pulled two good long passes just in this game alone.

    Then there’s Martinelli who I feel is greatly lacking in composure. He got talent and ability. Only hurdle for him is mental strength. He should take that advice from Walcott about attackers having more time in the box than they realize. Also that advice from TH14 about using the brain instead of smashing straight at the keeper.

    COYG!

  27. VAR hasn’t “saved us” – both goals were clearly offside.

    That’s why, when it is used properly, it can ensure that the right decision is made – as Kane’s “goal” was correctly ruled out last night.

  28. Can’t complain we’ve been poor. I’m sorry but i can see zero evidence of our fringe players being coached and improving.

    We have a great starting 11/12 players which would do well in most teams but after that?

  29. Let’s face it, it was coming and our luck ran out. Holding has been average at best and Nketiah has not given much either.

  30. How slow can a team play? Absolutely no urgency, no intensity. They must have taken sleeping pills. Arteta must be shocked at the snailball

  33. Stop bringing on 1st team players for FFS! They need a rest. Let the fringe players struggle and learn!

    We are still top of the group regardless.

  34. We could’ve easily lost this match with just our U21’s but now we’ve done it with almost all of our starting XI involved

  36. Mikel panics far too easily. he’s now gonna start a strong team against Zurich. The players are clearly gassed and need a mid-week off.

  37. This result should have been with the second team on the pitch for the whole game and youngsters coming in. Xhaka, Odegaard, Jesus, Partey, Saka, Martinelli, Gabriel, Saliba, Ramsdale should not be in Netherlands at all. I am starting to wonder if Forest will take something on Sunday due to all the fatigue in Arsenal player. There are games where you should play whoever available from youngsters to rest the starting eleven even if you lose.

  38. This game can’t end soon enough. One of the worst performances I’ve seen in a long time. But then, our past three games have been less than convincing.

  39. Poor player mgmt by Arteta, he plays almost same 11 every game when he can change a lot of them in europa league. Then he says players should be able to play 70 matches a season. He forgot its not only about the number of matches but frequency of matches as well in short time period. Looks like we are back to old arsenal again poor finishing and out of ideas. Why on earth did we gave Nketiah a new contract its not like we did not know his calibre.

  40. Man Nketiah is Gervinio 2.0 and someone was saying he is better then Martinelli by some distance and should be regular 😂

  41. Has the bubble burst fellow gooners. Have we been found out. I guess the jury is out on that one until at least Forest game at the weekend.

  44. If MA was not already completely convinced by some of our fringe players,I can’t imagine after tonight.if we can’t rest players now,it doesn’t look good for the rest of the season.it looks like domestic cups competitions won’t be a priority this season.we obviously do not have the squad .

    1. No-one barring City have 2 reslly goid teams so then almost no-one has “the squad” so pretty normal.

      Is his job not to coach all the players in the squad? Not just buy a good 1st team and hope for the best?

        1. So the alternative is to keep spending hundreds of millions until we have a squad of at least 18 top class players?

          1. If only!! I’m guessing you’re right,MA has to work with the players he has at his disposal(his players at that).

  46. Yes we have played many games in October but the mistakes were not about tiredness so let’s not even blame start. This defeat was down to poor individual performances. All over the pitch we looked out of sorts, slow and uninventive. Need to pick it up against Forest or we’re getting booted off the top of the table.

    1. No-one is bothered that we lost, it happens. What fans don’t like is that we looked clueless on the field and had zero tempo.

      Or do you think we played well and can hold our heads high despite the loss?

      1. Read the comments again, yes we had a bad night but the vitriol against Arteta and the team is ridiculous. They tried, they failed, who exactly didn’t try their best? **it happens and some of the “fans” on here need to get over themselves.

  48. A bad night all around.we lost and couldn’t rest players who really needed it.on top of that,we had confirmation when it comes to our depth in quality.

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