If Arsenal had won, or even not lost, the opening Champions League game away to Dinamo Zagreb, things may have been different. Maybe not, because Arsene Wenger has been speaking today about how vital it is to win your home games in these European league based tournaments.
Having lost in Croatia, though, the game at home to the Greek champions Olympiacos tomorrow is even more important and can honestly be seen as a must win match. And with four full days off before we face Man United at the weekend, the manager can certainly pick his strongest side if wishes to, and with Giroud suspended that is quite an easy team to guess.
And I expect Wenger to go strong, especially as the injury problems picked up by Arteta and Flamini leave him little choice but to bring Coquelin back. The only other change, in my opinion, will be to replace Ramsey with Oxlade-Chamberlain. The Welshman maybe needs to be taken out of the firing line and with the amount of work he gets through he could do with a break.
The Ox, meanwhile, accompanied the boss for the pre-match press conference today and that is normally a sign that they will be in the starting line up. We are at home and need to take the game to the Greek side without being too gung ho, so the dynamic running and wide play of the England international could be a great weapon for Arsenal.
Do you agree with these two changes to the Arsenal XI and are there any more you would make?