I have to say that I was not terribly impressed with our Swedish opponents in Arsenal’s Europa League tie at Ostersund this evening, and in my opinion we could have played all our reserve players and probably won just as well. But, on the other hand, this competition is likely to be our best chance of reaching the Champions League next season and some may say that we should put out our best available team whoever we are playing.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, our new signing that won the Europa League with Man United last season, agrees with that sentiment. He was asked if Wenger should rest his stars ahead of the League Cup Final just after the second leg and Mhki replied: “No, I don’t think so. Because we have to focus in every game. It doesn’t matter if we have got a good result or not.
“We have to win in every game to get more confidence and to have better success. It doesn’t matter who we are going to play after the second leg, yes, we have a game in the cup final but we have to play with the same team, I think, and to win at home.”
It is an interesting thought, but back in England and hopefully not on such a freezing day, surely we should be able to play our reserves and get through to the next round. Man City are going to be formidible opponents in the League Cup Final, so should we give our best players some practise against Ostersund in the second leg? Or rest them so they are completely recovered before the Final?
Admin
Three goals should be enough
Our reserve players should do the job
Play Ospina, monreal, chambers, holding, debuchy, Xhaka, Adelaide, Nketiah, Nelson, Iwobi, Welbeck or something like that
For League Cup play Cech, Bellerin, Kolsanic, Koscielny, Mustafi, Eleny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang
Debuchy no longer in the squad..LOL
And ‘Adelaide’ is on loan in France!!!!
Just interchange Monreal and Kolsanic in your line-ups and it makes maximum sense innit.
adelaide and debuchy are gone
you are not updated by the media
Agree, but don’t play Monreal, because he is in his excellent form. Arsenal would need him for the Manchester City game
Ramsey may not be fit in time
Another important point to note is that Mkhitaryan is cup tied.
Don’t get too cocky.
Yes so that we can have another thing to complain about when we loss. Oh!!, why not justarsenal first eleven since ostersund is so sh..t
probably a mixture….the juniors need a few seniors to guide and lead….
Ospina appears to be good at saving penalties
Wow, Napoli are all but out.
And Dortmund are not sure either. Can’t wait for the return legs next week!
Yep give the reserves and youngsters a chance. I really want to see chambers and holding get more time together. Bellerin probs needs a rest snd ee csn see who our reserve right back is and rwb is stupid. Reis nelson deserves a full game up front not in rwb. The only thing I would say is bring a sttong bench.
Off topic. We need a world class CDM/CM if we look at the past the teams with quality central players win things. The like of essien kante makelele viera gilbirto scholes. We really do need thst comamding player in the middle and I think things will fall into place. Kange won leister the league a few years back. We all talk about mahrez and vardy but kante done the not so pretty stuff
Even Europa League seems to be very difficult as we have Milan, Athletico Madrid, Lyon and Dortmund…
Are we strong enough to beat any of these?? May be Lyon but other 3 are pretty strong..
Athletico Madrid is the only “ impassable rock” at the moment.If we manage not to play them til the final ,we have a chance,being a single ( winner takes all) game.But in a 2 games confruntation they are better equipped than us,having more experience(2 CL finals in the last 4 years).
Don’t mid the deluded dolls on this site who downplay Arsenal while making the others seem behemoths. Look at Milan that has been in Shambles for many seasons is now better and more fearsome than Arsenal. Dortmund has been erratic this season and lost their major striker. Lyon? Never heard about them in ages. Was Athletico not eliminated from the group stages of the UCL? If they are that insurmountable, how come they couldn’t make it to the knockout stages? The truth is that we are formidable and can beat any of those teams in so far as we show focus and commitment to win.
“In so far as we show focus and commitment to win. ” Commitment and focus are two rare commodities in our team for so many years. remember 10-2, 8-2, 6-2, etc
Arsenal players haven been overly played this season because of the Europa league where we have been playing mainly our B team and Ozil and MK haven’t had too many games before Christmas so i think our first 16 players are not heavily over worked and will have less to do in the coming weeks, we should be more worried about match fitness then fatigue,
we only have two games left for the whole February Zzzzz
Where are the ?????????????
Go for broke we have nothing to lose, it`s our only hope of getting into the champions league. The EPL top four is not for us this season, the FA Cup is gone, the EPL Cup , from memory is gone but is of little value so Europa is a must. Next EPL match is Man City, something to look forward to. We can field a grade A side without risking all the top players.