Pick your Arsenal team to face West Brom – Rotation, rotation, rotation!

This is tricky one for Arsene Wenger as Arsenal are in yet another must win game after Liverpool and Chelsea both grabbed three points this afternoon. It’s natural that Wenger must rotate as they played a high tempo 3-2 game at Crystal Palace just three days ago, and we have a crucial visit from Chelsea in just three days time and will need as many fresh players as possible.

The good news is that we are away at a West Brom side that has not won any of their last 18 games, so we can probably afford to play a slightly weaker side tonight. If we take a look at the Baggies recent home form we should be reasonably confident…..

As you can see they haven’t won any of their last 9, but as you can also see, the only games they have lost were against the top three, which tells you they are hard to beat at the Hawthorns so it may not be as easy as it looks looking at the League positions.

The good news for the Gunners is that Alan Pardew has lost his main striker Salmon Rondon to a hamstring injury and Nacer Chadli is expected to be out until March. For Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Nacho Monreal are all injured so Wenger will need to be careful but he also has no choice but to rotate.

I think Koscielny needs a rest and Chambers and Holding could be the main centre-backs in a 4-3-3 formation, with Maitland-Niles and Bellerin on the flanks. Xhaka looked fatigued at the end of the Palace game and could be replaced by Coquelin beside Wilshere, with Iwobi making up the three midfielders. And I see no choice but to continue with Ozil, Sanchez and Lacazette up front.

So my team would be….

Cech
Bellerin Holding Chambers Maitland-Niles
Iwobi Wilshere Coquelin
Ozil Lacazette Lacazette

That side looks strong defensively but able to score goals. What do you think?

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22 Comments

  1. Lacazette twice? Well would that be something!

    I think Holding should play with Mustafi and Kosc.

    Wilshere and Coq in the middle. Laca upfront, Özil and Sanchez behind. Even Welbeck could start if we play with 4 at the back.

    If they are tired, they can be subbed after and hour.

    1. Arsenals secret cloning research finally paying off? 😛
      Next week the front 3 will all be Lacazette XD

    1. Nice team but I do feel Monreal could be played at LB and let AMN play DM. Sead can play LB in next game and Kos/Mustafi are being rested in your team so could totally rotate the def with Bellerin at RB next time.

      Coquelin is a solid def DM but his offensive capabilities are severely limited, I do like how you covered that with having two players who are good passers, already done better than Wenger 😛

      Just me personally but I want to see AMN replacing Xhaka in a few games to see how well a Wilshere/AMN partnership could do. AMN has energy(due to youth), pace and muscle. Attributes we want in a CM. I’m a fan of Carvalho and AMN has attributes to be even better… I may be biased though towards a AFC youth product XD AMN not only has what I said, he is also a good passer of the ball and good at going past a player when he needs to.

      Might not be the answer full time due to his youth and inexperience at CM but we all know that if you are good enough then you are good enough. Didn’t stop Cesc breaking through.

  2. Out of topic: Those who this Messi would struggle in premier league just look the way his second copy (Salah) destroyes the league

    1. Salah’s playmaking ability is not as good as Messi, but Salah has blistering pace like Walcott, Mbappe, Ronaldo and Bale. He also has good first touches that we hope would be possessed by Walcott someday.

      Mane also exploded in his first season, but the defenders seem to know how to subdue him now. I think Salah’s movements would be studied by the defenders in his second season.

      1. Salah is made to play in the epl i think, where Messi i am not quit sure would cope. No hating just not convinced that he would go past players like before and not risk himself to pick up injuries doing so.

  3. Cech
    Debuchy/Chambers/Holding/Monreal
    Wilshere/AMN
    Nelson/Ozil/Alexis
    Lacazette

    If we are winning after 60-65 mins then bring Nelson off for Willock and go more of a 433 formation, if we have a couple/few goal lead then I would sub Lacazette ready for the Chelsea game and give young Eddie a chance to grab a goal against a team which isn’t performing, would do the kid good for confidence.

    Time to start giving Nelson game time and see if he can save us £90 million in the summer…

  4. Cech
    Bellerin
    Maitland Niles
    Chambers
    Koscielny
    Xhaka
    Wilshere
    Iwobi
    Ozil
    Sanchez
    Lacazette
    That is my starting X1 that plays a formation of 4-5-1…..this formation makes Lacazette as a lonely striker

  5. I dunno who to pick as there arent many options to choose from. This is going to be tough as the time where Arsenal could run other teams over are long past. Every game to us is a struggle now.

    Makes no sense to save player for later and risk losing points, and then face chelsea again and again maybe lose some more points. We know how inept Wenger can be with such scenes.

    A prayer for the lost. Lord muhamed budaaa and friends, give us some strengh, as we have sinned and allowed our selfs to be trapped by this banana club managed by a french dinosaur who excaped extinction. Have mercy and cure our everlasting torment. Amen.

  6. I would go with….

    Cech
    Debuchy Chambers Kos Mustafi Kolasinac
    Coquelin Wilshere
    Welbeck Laca Sanchez

    Reasoning is that Bellerin has been low on confidence and needs a rest and Ozil is one of those that needs a rest especially now since we need him on fire for Chelski. For me the defense needs to play and get game time to gel while Xhaka is one yellow away from missing Chelski game?

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