QPR vs Arsenal Preview, Predicted line up and score by KJ
Arsenal are looking to keep up their impressive league form away to relegation battlers, Queens Park Rangers. It is always a difficult game at Loftus road and with Arsenal still fragile from the embarrassing defeat to Monaco, this game will be anything but easy.
The game against Everton was largely a poor offensive performance with a lot of the players struggling to retain possession and to effectively move the ball forwards. Only Mesut Özil seemed to do that for the majority of the game which was a worry.
With the win under their belt since that loss in the Champions League, you’d expect some more confidence from the players and with the possible return of Ramsey, we can potentially play a far more solid midfield against QPR which would make us far more functional in both attacking and defensive phases.
We won’t control the game possession wise but we need to ensure that QPR can’t frustrate us and that we play crisp, counter attacking football rather than turning over possession constantly as we have done in the last two games.
Predicted Line up:
Ospina
Chambers – Gabriel – Koscielny – Monreal
Coquelin – Ramsey
Welbeck – Rosicky – Özil
Giroud
A bit of rotation will be required considering some of our players haven’t had enough rest and their performances have started to drop as a result.
I assume Ospina will keep his place with Szczesny coming in for the all-important FA cup tie against Man Utd.
Chambers over Bellerin as he’s too inexperienced to play 3 games within a week.
Monreal over Gibbs simply because I assume Wenger will go with the Englishman against Man Utd and wants to ensure he’ll be extremely fresh for that game.
Coquelin will probably start with a mask on for his broken nose. I doubt he needs much of a rest.
Ramsey to come in finally, he’ll probably be slightly rusty but will need this game time as I’m sure Wenger is thinking of drafting him in against the Manchester club.
Welbeck and Rosicky to start in place of Alexis and Cazorla. They latter two seem sluggish and have lost a bit of sharpness due to being overplayed. I think we can afford to bring in Welbeck and Rosicky to give them a slight rest.
It will be a tough game with us still struggling to find that ruthless consistency we desperately need. However, we will edge the game 2 – 1.
Kash