The big surprise for me in the Arsenal line up selected by Arsene Wenger today is the absence of Theo Walcott. I was half expecting the manager to start with our regular centre forward Olivier Giroud but even so I thought that our England international speed merchant would get one of the other forward roles.
Instead the manager has selected Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey and Cazorla and two of those will play in the wide areas, although which two is still unclear. I personally would hope to see Ramsey in the box to box role with Cazorla out wide, even though the Spaniard has been great in the middle. The fact is that he is better on the flanks than the Welshman and Rambo´s dfriving runs and scoring ability could be crucial in the middle.
The other slight surprise is the preference of Debuchy to Bellerin at right back, with the youngster not even making the bench. I wonder if there is a problem and I really hope not or that if there is it is only a minor one. We still have Chambers as back up though and he is part of a strong looking bench.
Cech
Debuchy, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal
Coquelin, Ramsey
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ozil, Cazorla
Giroud
Subs: Ospina, Gibbs, Chambers, Gabriel, Arteta, Walcott, Sanchez.
Hopefully we will not need to risk Alexis Sanchez after he only just returned to training and of course we all hope that we carry on the perfect pre-season preparations with a thumping win. COYG